Our final stop on our trip to south Florida was to have dinner with Pastor Dan and his wife Cheryl.  Word’s cannot express our thankfulness to them in truly modeling what a healthy family and ministry life look like.

Kelli and I made our way over to Calvary Jupiter back in 2002.  We immediately fell in love with the chapter by chapter, verse by verse teaching that we encountered.  We were meeting at Jupiter High School.  This church was my first portable church experience.  I quickly got connected and started serving (stacking chairs).  It was during my time at Calvary Jupiter that I grew in my understanding of how to study God’s word.  I saw that modeled through Pastor Dan, Pastor Chris, Pastor Bryon and Pastor Mike.  All of these guys were instrumental in growing my walk with the Lord.

Our time with Pastor Dan and Cheryl was great.  We got to catch up on all things family and got to enjoy a great meal.  I was challenged by Pastor Dan in a great way.  In talking through the work that God has called us to do in St. Augustine, Pastor Dan asked me what was holding me back (specifically why were we waiting to launch in February).  My initial reaction was funding and lack of a complete launch team.  Pastor Dan challenged me with this statement.  He said, you have a Bible, just find a place and teach the word; there are people in St. Augustine who need to hear God’s word preached.  This statement jolted me a bit.  To be honest isn’t that what the Acts church was like?  People going out and sharing… they didn’t wait on an optimum moment to ‘launch’ or wait to have the direct mail pieces sent out.  I have done quite a bit of pondering on the challenge that Pastor Dan gave.  Although we will have our hard launch date in February, we are actively praying for a place to open up so that we can begin meeting as a launch team in September.  I believe He is right, there are people here right now that God is preparing.

Our trip to south Florida provided wisdom, challenges and encouragement.  Jesus didn’t call us to plant a church but more specifically a disciple making movement expressed through the local church.