A word about what God is doing in The Bridge right now

Posted by Josh Howerton on Jul 26, 2010 | 2 comments

The following is an email I sent to our staff and elders this morning after the growth we’ve seen recently.  In the last two weeks, worship gathering attendance has grown by more than 100 people with our second worship gathering already full after just launching three weeks ago.  While this is very exciting, mere growth isn’t success.  Here’s what I believe God is doing with us…

Staff and Elders,

All night and morning I’ve been burdened after worship gatherings finished yesterday.  As you could probably tell, we were stuffed yesterday.  Attendance was 316, up more than 100 in the last two weeks.  Now that may have been an abnormality, a “spike”, and then we’re going to level off somewhere for awhile… but that’s not what I sense happening right now.  I think we may be reaching the tipping point before a spill.

Obviously, I’m very excited about that.  A handful of churches EVER will see something like that happen in so short a time.  But Scott and I were texting back and forth last night and what’s more “deep” in my heart right now is the utter weight of the task that God is entrusting us with.  We don’t know how many of them will stick but yesterday 100 more souls were under our leadership, possibly entrusted to us to mobilize for mission.  Think about that.  100 eternal souls with the potential to impact untold thousands for Christ over the course of their lives might have been entrusted to us in the last two weeks.

This morning I woke up and talked to a Bridger that God has used to speak prophetically into my life multiple times.  Her words after hearing about the numbers yesterday were: “I feel like God has us in Spring Hill to awaken a sleeping giant.” She didn’t know it (I was hiding on the other side of the phone) but the Spirit confirmed those words to me in a way that had me in tears.  I’ve asked a hundred times – this week even – “God, surely you want me somewhere besides Churchville, TN” and wondered WHY he has us in Spring Hill.  I believe this is exactly why he’s placed us right here, right now: to awaken the sleeping giant of cultural, Bible-belt Christianity.  He may or may not call us to go to the nations, but he may use us to send thousands.

I can’t tell you all how humbling it is to serve with you all.  I’m literally living my dream.  There’s a lot of hard work ahead, but let’s awaken the sleeping giant together.