Prayer Requests

This past week has brought about some HUGE and unexpected changes for the Pace family. Through a series of questioning, reflecting and discussions, David and I have had to articulate what we have been fearful of all along... we ARE church planters. You are probably thinking, "well, I thought you already decided that or isn't that what you told us you were going to Columbia to do in the first place?" Our answer to that is, "well, yes and no." We knew we were coming to Columbia to work with a group of people who start new churches, but we hadn't yet settled into the idea that we ourselves ARE church planters and we ARE going to start a new church.

I think we were both sort of hoping (or at least I was) that we were going to be able to come down here and become new members of an already established church planting team and work alongside them on what they have already started- and we certainly have been presented with that as an option, but through months of prayer and reflection we feel that God has ultimately been revealing to us that he has gifted us with skills and experiences that require us to go out on a limb and try something else.

What exactly that something else is, we aren't yet able to articulate, but we are working right now on establishing it. Are we scared? YES! I don't think either of us realized we were signing up for something like this when we committed ourselves to Christ years ago. Do we have doubts? YES! We have no idea how start a church from scratch.

Whenever I first heard about church planting or starting new churches, I thought to myself, "That is the dumbest idea ever! Why on earth do we need more churches!?! There is one on every corner and they all pretty much do the same thing." Slowly I began to realize that sure there are church buildings on every corner, but there isn't necessarily a Christ presence coming from the people that inhabit those church buildings on every corner. Well, why not just go to a church that is already established and work to rebuild it? Someone recently said to me and I fully agree, "Sometimes we are supposed to create new life rather than raise something from the dead." And this is the place that God has brought us. It is not comfortable. It is overwhelming and daunting. But, we believe it is what God has been preparing us for before we ever knew Him.

SO... we have some serious prayer requests that we beg you to join us in praying!

1- Clarity of values, purpose, vision, and strategy.

2- A TEAM- we cannot do this alone and need people who share our ideas and passions and are willing and able to join us on this journey

3- A Place- most people starting new churches have a specific city in mind. We don't, at least not yet anyways. We think that we should remain within the southeast and we really like Columbia, but we aren't sure if this is the place where God would have us to start.

4- Pray against spiritual warfare or that we would recognize when spiritual warfare is taking place.

Your prayers are coveted,

Lindsey and David