The Mission Church of the Nazarene

    I could say that The Mission Church is born, but it isn't that far along yet. Currently it is just an old building full of stuff that needs to be sorted and walls that need to be painted. Mac and I are the only members right now, and we aren't even there yet. Today, it is just a church in dreams and hopes.
   Much like parents awaiting the birth of a child, we have prayed, we have cried, and we have longed to see what it will be like. What will it look like? Sound like? Feel like? We can only dream at this point, and maybe much like parents our hope right now, is just that it will be healthy. A healthy congregation who loves God and the people of the neighborhood.
   In some ways like first time parents, we are also grieving the life we have known thus far. The freedoms that come with a salaried position, the comfort of knowing the people around us, the warmth of people we know and love, and knowing that everything will be ok. It really feels like we are leaving a world of safety, and stepping out to a world where we have no idea what we are doing whatsoever. I guess that is exactly what we are doing.
    So, why give up everything we know, our comfort, our security, to step into the unknown? Because we know that living a life obedient to the call of God is the best life, even if it's scary, even if it's new, even if it's sad. That God is a God of love, and he loves us and the people of Hammond, and for whatever reason, He thinks we are the people to share His love there.
    I know lots of people are wondering about the details of how all of this came to be. It's truly a long story that spans years, that truly shows the faithfulness of God.
     It starts with my call into ministry. I was called to be a youth pastor, and there is no doubt in my mind that that was truly the call of God. If you had asked me, I would've said I'd do that forever, and I truly meant that. My call was partially to tolerate all the people who asked me when I'd become a "real" pastor, because in my heart of hearts I knew I was one.
   One day, a friend of mine said to me, that someday I would lead a church plant. I laughed at him, and promptly called a couple friends. "Do you think that I will lead a church plant some day?" They both agreed, and my world was uprooted. My call was so sure, but all at once it seemed as though others were seeing something in me, that I didn't see myself.
    Years later, and many youth ministry positions later, I received an email from that same friend about a need in Hammond, IN. A position for a compassionate ministries center executive director had opened. I looked into it, and loved the old church the ministry was in. The location was perfect, but something was missing. This was not the Church, this was just a ministry trying to keep it's doors open, and I was called to be a pastor.
   Despite getting a job offer, I turned the position down. I felt renewed in my call to our current ministry, I felt that God was still leading me to plant a church, but that evidently, it wasn't there.
   That's when I received an email from the DS in northwest Indiana. He had decided to close the ministry, because the heart of compassion should be the church and not a non-profit.
   This threw our world into a tailspin. Our dream is to plant a church, and someone wants to just give us a building and a parsonage in order to do so. A church to be a center of compassion and hope for the community, and he wants us to lead it.
    We prayed A LOT! We cried, and wrestled with God, because of our great love for where we are, but ultimately we knew, that this is where we should go. That there is a community in need, and that we are the ones being called to go and love.
    The Mission Church of the Nazarene in Hammond, Indiana will be starting in June with our first missions trip team coming to us from Nebraska. We have no idea what this church will look like, what it will sound like, what it will feel like, but we do know this, that following Jesus is never a mistake. That sometimes it is filled with heartache, sometimes it is hard, sometimes it means stepping out into the unknown, but that it is never a mistake.
    Just like a new child coming into the world, the situation may be messy, the timing askew, the process of birth painful, that new life isn't a mistake, and it is new life that we seek to bring to the people of Hammond, IN.