A Walk on the Beach- How This All Started

There is a stretch of beach on the coast of North Carolina that always leads me to the cross. And like so many other times in my life, this morning I find it playing a huge role, and serving as a source of comfort in the midst of these crazy days. That stretch of beach is the last little outcropping of Caswell Beach, NC, otherwise known as Caswell. It’s truly holy ground and I have been to the Holy Land and stood in the most important places of the Bible. But for me and my relationship with God there is nowhere I feel closer to God than when I step on the ground of Caswell. This particular morning was no different.
As I walked from the beach entrance all the way to the conference center it was as if I were home again. With Bald Head Island in the distance, seagulls flying in the clear blue slightly cloudy sky and sand between my toes, you could not wipe the smile off my face. To end the walk, I went up to Vespers. Now for those of you who don’t know about Vespers, you are missing out. It has to be the single most perfect place on earth. Those who know about it, know what I am talking about, and those who don’t, well I am truly sorry. As I sat down on top of Vespers underneath a huge cross I found myself asking a question I never would have imagined asking, “What city do I feel God is leading Lindsey and me to plant in?” What a crazy question!!! I mean really, put yourself in my shoes and think about it for a minute. I am trying to listen to God for clarity about what city He would like me to go to and start a family of believers. I couldn’t help pondering how I came to this point, and I thought you all might be interested in knowing as well.
A couple of months ago I was working at a church in Lancaster, SC – something was just not right. I love the people there so much so I won’t go into details, but just know that there were three senior pastors in three years. They just came and went. As I sat in my office wrestling with some things and trying to figure out the church, I stumbled upon an article online titled, “We don’t do weekends” by Bob Roberts. It was like a magical door was opening for me. I found myself feeling a small sense of restored energy with a future that did not look so bleak. It was only a few clicks of the mouse before the link took me to a church in Texas called Northwood.
After listening to their sermons for a couple of weeks, I found myself on Bob Roberts’ blog where I ordered a book he wrote titled Transformation. Once again I found myself saying, “This is what I have always been thinking. Who is this guy and why is he doing what I have only dreamt of?” I found on his website a link for church planters. Under that link there is a free assessment tool to see if you would be a good church planter, so jokingly I took it. I had never thought about planting a church because I have a huge learning disability (which I am sure I will blog about later), but for some odd reason I took the free assessment and I got a green light to take a $79 assessment. This one was much more in-depth and required some work. So Lindsey and I talked about it and decided why not. After taking it, we learned that we scored an 83%, which to be honest I thought wasn’t good enough to pursue it. It was around this time I got in contact with a true friend by the name of Brian Hook. Brian Hook is connected to the website through North Wood and Vision 360. As I talked to Brian, I began to really feel like I fit with these guys. It wasn’t fake, there where no masks to wear—I could really be myself. After a couple of conversations and trying to figure out if this was God’s will or just something I stumbled upon, Brian suggested that Lindsey and I undergo a true assessment from a real church planting assessment agency called CPAC. By assessment, we’re talking $1,700 plus about 40 pages of questions and a three day in-person assessment where they don’t leave a single stone uncovered. Lindsey and I just didn’t know- that’s a lot of money. So I asked Brian if he knew of anybody in the Southeast that does what they are doing. He put me in touch with a wonderful man of God by the name of Jeff Shipman. Brian told me he lives in Columbia, SC, and I should contact him. So I sent Jeff an email and, before I knew it, I was driving to Columbia to meet a real church planter. I was so nervous but once again when we met I felt reenergized and renewed. Jeff was the real deal, not the fake “church” crap I had seen for so long.
It was around that time Lindsey and I decided to take the assessment. We paid the money and completed the work. And off we went to be grilled in person. It was funny because Lindsey and I totally didn’t think we would be good at this so we did everything in our power to be as honest as possible and open about everything. I mean, what did we have to lose? Plus we just really liked being around young people again. Four years without friends your age is too long. Well at the end of the assessment they gave us the green light go-ahead to be lead church planters. Apparently this is not very common and for the first time I felt like just maybe this church planting thing was for me. Unfortunately, all I’ve ever known was typical “Baptist” ministry and this church planting is everything but that.
When we got back home I met with Jeff again, this time with Lindsey by my side and Jeff with his wife too. We met at a restaurant in Columbia called Californian Dreaming. The meeting went great and we began to really pray about the possibility that God was leading us in this direction. It didn’t take very long for us to realize that if you want to be a church planter you have to be willing to give up just about everything. It’s funny looking back on the timing of it all because Lindsey and I were loving a book by her former pastor David Platt called Radical at that exact time. We knew if we really wanted to do this we were going to have to raise our own support. Now this scared the crap out of both of us!!! Think about it, we have a child on the way and thousands of dollars in school loans—what if the money doesn’t come in? But God gave us a sense of peace and before we knew it, I had resigned from First Baptist Church to raise support and be an intern at Columbia Crossroads, the church where Jeff shipman is the lead pastor. God did an amazing thing and within 4 weeks we had raised $46,000.00.
I will forever remember one of the first days in that four week period. No money was coming in and Lindsey and I started to get worried because we have our first child on the way. I had just quit my job and the thought that maybe we just did something really stupid filled our minds. Literally when we were about to break down and start crying, a very large red truck pulled into our drive way and a good friend stepped out. He came inside and handed us a check for $20,000.00 that he and another amazing friend were giving us. We both were so overwhelmed with emotion. Sometimes the Holy Spirit fills your cup up so much that it just bursts out through your eyeballs. And with that, off to Columbia we went.
Right before we moved, I went to the first of two training sessions at North Wood in Texas. The whole time, I just wanted to meet Bob Roberts and tell him thank you—thank you for writing the article and thank you for writing that book. It wasn’t long before Brian Hook told me to follow him and I found myself sitting at a table at lunch with Bob Roberts himself. This guy is scary- I call him Big Texas because that is what he is. He is huge and loves TEXAS!! We had a two second conversation and he said that he didn’t think I should be a church planter. LOL – my heart sunk. For a split second I thought, “well I knew it would end sooner or later.” Then all of a sudden, I was more convinced than ever that this is what I am supposed to do. Bob just made that question of whether or not I’m cut out for this church planting thing come to the surface sooner.
Once I returned home, we moved to Columbia and I started working at Crossroads. Crossroads is an amazing church with amazing people. I have to pinch myself often just to make sure it isn’t a dream. I have so many people investing in my life thanks to Jeff. I am working with and meeting some of the coolest people who are very successful church planters. After four weeks of working at Crossroads, one thing is clear: we are blessed and God is about to give us a city, which brings me back to why I was at Caswell this morning. I was on my way home after driving to Wilmington, NC, to see if maybe God would speak to me while I was there. Well, He didn’t speak or write a letter in the clouds, but man I sure would love to plant in Wilmington. What a great city. So we’ll see. I can’t wait to see what God is going to do next!!! Pray it’s Wilmington.
On another note we have been amazed at how many people are coming to this blog that we don’t know. People from all over the country are reading it. WHO ARE YOU?? Please send us an email or look us up on facebook. We would love to know who you are and your thoughts about our journey. We are doing this because one day this will be in the history archives of the church. We hope our journey inspires you and encourages you.

Thanks to Lindsey's sister Olivia for editing this post. She is the best, and single!!!

David