Standing near the Shoreline

Allow me to start this post by simply saying that while I do not know exactly what the future holds for the "Family Velasco" I know where I feel The Lord is currently leading us and I feel increasingly excited about it with each coming day.

Let me start with a little bit of background:

When I was a junior in high school I made the decision to be a follower of Christ.  I became a member of a terrific youth group at a local church that was "sold out for Jesus" and saw growth never before seen at that particular church.  I was in a place that it was "cool" to be a Christian.  We had a large student lead prayer circle each morning in a public school with regular attendance of over 100 students.  It was not hard to follow Christ at that point in my life. Which ended up being a great thing as it allowed to learn what it meant to be a Christian in a relatively "safe" environment.

Shortly after graduating high school, the following summer in fact, our youth group went on our annual youth camp week.  During that week that was incredibly blessed by God, I began to feel God tugging at my soul, but could not really put my finger on what was being asked of me.  As teenage decisions were being announced left and right; this friend coming to know the Lord for the first time, this other guy that I vaguely know from another school "rededicating his life" to Christ, and many of my dearest friends feeling God's call into a full time Christian ministry role, I could only assume that God was calling me into full time Christian ministry as well.  This conclusion came from a very logical place from a teenagers point of view.  Specifically, since I had already given my life to Christ and was doing the best I could to live that way, the only other thing God could have possibly put on my heart was for me to become a pastor.  I walked down the aisle, told the camp pastor of my decision, and was met with the usual hugs, cheers, and tears.

Now let's fast forward to college.  It became clear to me about two years into college that the Ministry (proper noun to reflect any and all Christian vocation) was not going to be where I spent the hours between 8am and 5pm once I had my degree in hand.  I wrestled with this as I was still sure that God had put something very real on my heart and was still convinced that it had something to do with ministry (notice the lack of a capital letter, more on that in a moment).  I sought the council of friends and mentors, both that knew of the youth camp decision and those that did not, and during the conversations (and in all likelihood some maturity on my part) it became clear that what God had put on my heart was a desire to minister, not necessarily get paid by a church.

Fast forward again.  Over the last half decade or so the Lord has continued to put on my heart and Meggie's as well, some form of church planting.  We have had conversations with staff members who have left our church to plant new ones, friends planting churches, others who give strategically to their church in an effort to promote church planting, etc.  At no point have we ever stepped out, been a part of a plant, or even helped to organize one.  The reasons have varied from, "well, it really isn't going to be near the house at all" to , "we just don't have the time to devote to it right now".

So here we are in the present and as of today, right now, God is making his desire for us pretty clear and that is to be a part of the Core Group at Shoreline Church.  Shoreline is a new church being planted by an old friend with the backing of a terrific church, but with the freedom to be whatever God calls it to be.  As I wrote that sentence it occurred to me.... isn't that how it should be with everyone who follows Christ?  We should all have the backing of a great church, but feel free to be whatever God calls us to be.  The most amazing thing about this experience so far has been this:  We were never asked by anyone to be a part of Shoreline.  We didn't ask anyone if it would be "o.k." if we were a part of Shoreline.  It has simply been a leading of the Lord to Shoreline that I personally can trace back to a call I couldn't exactly place almost 16 years ago.

For anyone interested check out www.shorelineknox.com or on twitter @shorelineknox.

As always thanks for reading.

Well it has been about a year...

Earlier today I was on my Twitter page and realized that I started a blog right at one year ago.  I have a grand total of three posts in my blog.  I am apparently a very prolific writer.  Today's post is simply a promise to post more.  It will likely only ever be seen by me, because I won't even link this entry to Facebook or Twitter.  Anyway, that is all for now.