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We currently have less than a week before our big launch! It's been crazy around here. We've been at the church almost every day of the past month scraping, sanding, painting, more painting, more scraping, and more painting. I've dealt with printing companies, illness, and projects that took way longer to complete than anticipated.
Amazingly, I'm much more calm this week than I was last week. Last week I was freaking out. I was nervous we put in all of this work and then I'd get up on Sunday morning and only the launch team would be there. I was nervous we wouldn't get things done. Lots of anxiety I placed upon myself.
Mostly I was thinking "what if I'm not good at this church planting thing after all? This is the first big test it feels like, and what if it's evident that I'm not good at it."
I think we all feel that way about something at one time or another. This week though, I feel great. Is everything done? Absolutely not, but as I was working on my thoughts about resurrection, I realized that Christ's resurrection took 3 days. For anyone that has ever lost a loved one to death, 3 days feels like forever. It feels never ending, and overwhelming.
Resurrecting a church, it isn't going to happen over night. It's going to take significant time. Significant energy. Significant stretching. Some failure, and lots of growth. I am far from perfect as a church planter. I hide in my house way more than I should. I avoid conflict, and neglect my own needs some times, and I'm HORRIBLE at not allowing myself to spiral into self destructive thoughts when I'm stressed out (no seriously, it's one of the things I've been working on for years and still haven't conquered.). But, for whatever reason, God still chooses to use me. To speak life, and breathe resurrection into the people and community around me. The small ways I'm seeing life spring forth is amazing, and those moments where death tries to consume me, I'm learning bit by bit, to speak resurrection into that too.
Probably one of the most concrete ways to see resurrection, is in the physical building. While that is not the church in the kingdom of God sense, it is important for us to have a space that feels safe, that feels sacred, that feels welcoming. Where people can come and pray, listen, speak, and be listened too. A place where worship takes many forms, but is seeking out the heart of God.
So, while we still aren't perfect, and there are a few tweaks that need to be made, and some new furniture pieces that are being brought in, I want to show you our new sanctuary space. It took lots of hours, and lots of help to transform this space, but I think it truly does speak to resurrection, and I am so excited to worship with friends, family, and neighbors celebrating the resurrection on Sunday.
In order to get the full effect, here's the before. This is what it looked like when we moved in last May.
