Hey all! It’s been quite a while since an “official” blog entry, so I thought I’d fill you in on all (OK, not ALL, but a BIG DEAL) that God’s been up to in the life of the Parker Family!
For starters, early this year (2011), at the conclusion of a 40-Day Prayer Vigil and during a retreat that Michelle and I were on, God made it clear to us that at some point He would be working through us to plant a church. When and where were unknowns. Regardless, when we returned from our retreat, I shared with Tim Bycroft (our Lead Pastor) and Matt McClane (our Family Life Director) what God had revealed. Timing and location were completely unknown. A year? Five years?? We’ll trust God.
At the beginning of October I enrolled in a Church Planting Course that’s offered through Emerging Leadership Initiative called Cultivate.
I suppose that’s enough “Pre-Story” to let you experience, as our family did, what we now refer to as “The Blog-cident.” For the sake of posterity, I journaled our experience and invite you to point and click your way along with us!
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October 27, 2011
Yesterday morning was a CRAZY morning. Here’s the whole story, as best I can recall it.
TUESDAY EVENING, the 25th… Michelle was at school and the kids and I were enjoying yet another installment of “The Biggest Loser”. While watching, I was working my way through one of my Cultivate: Emerging Leadership Initiative class assignments. This particular assignment required a demographic study on the area that you were anticipating planting in. My choice…Nashville…had been in the forefront of my mind for some time. Michelle got home, the kids were being put to bed, and I was wrapping up downstairs. Michelle and I spent the rest of the evening chatting, laughing, and listening to country music together. At one point, I put my cowboy hat on and danced, saying, “Let’s get out of here. Let’s move back to the country.” Michelle laughed and said, “You know, they dress like that in Sedona!” I laughed and we carried on a bit longer…Michelle eventually drifted off to sleep.
So I lay in bed and talked with God. I said something like, “God, show us where you want us to go. We want to be where you want us to be, so reveal that. May there be NO question. Make it clear. It would be really weird if you uprooted the entire Holverson household, moving them out to Sedona, just to turn our attention there. Would you REALLY do that?!? That would be crazy.” I continued talking with God and eventually fell asleep.
WEDNESDAY MORNING, the 26th…As the household came alive, I still had Sedona, the Holverson’s, and my conversation with God on my mind. As I was opening the curtains I said again, “God, would you REALLY do that?” Then John the Baptist came to mind. Once again, I thought, “Man, it would be CRAZY if you worked through the Holverson’s that way, sending them out to ‘prepare the way’.”
I sat down with my Bible (iPad version) and did some reading. Once I was finished, I opened up my e-mail to start my day of work. One of the first e-mails in my inbox was from Scott Holverson, with a heading that read, “What does THIS mean?” I was really curious as I opened the e-mail. It read:
We are all FREAKING OUT here at my house tonight!
Here’s the story…I recently joined up with our church worship team. The Worship leader is David Lockard…great young guy. Anyway, he has the worship team reading a book called Worship Matters (by Bob Kauflin). Each week, David writes a blog on a chapter.
So, tonight I read Chapter 14 and then checked out David’s blog.
I invite you to do the same and then you will immediately see why all of us Holverson’s were gathered around my computer with our jaws open!:
http://vvccworshipteam.blogspot.com/2011/10/chapter-14-thereby-motivating-gathered.html
What are the odds? I mean, Really??
I sent him a note and asked where he got the pic and mentioned “that I kind of know that guy”. What, did he just google “Happy worship dude” and your photo came up?
My jaw was on the floor! Literally! I read the e-mail right up to the link, then clicked on it. A blog page opened up, and within moments I gasped and my jaw hit the floor. There, in the middle of the page, staring at me, was…ME!!! A picture of ME on Scott’s worship Pastor’s blog! What?!?! WHAT?!?! What does this mean??? Honestly, I was anticipating a post stating that the worship pastor was going to be leaving and that they were beginning the search for a replacement, which would have been yet another roadblock, temptation, WHATEVER to distract from what we KNEW God was calling us to prepare for. Instead, there I was…a picture of me leading worship at Crosspoint-Dickson. WEIRD! Michelle was sitting across from me drinking her coffee and reading, and upon hearing my gasp and seeing my facial expression, reacted with, “WHAT?!? What is it? TELL ME!”
I said, “You’ve got to see this.” Again, she said, “Just tell me!” She was a bit anxious, thinking, based upon my initial response, that it must be something pretty shocking. I brought my iPad to her and instructed her to read the e-mail up to the link, then to click on the link. She sat there dumbfounded. “Is that YOU? That’s YOU!! Wha…??? OK, tht’s WEIRD!”
I proceeded to fill her in on my discussions with God…I can’t recall, had I already informed her and talked with her about my thoughts? I think I had. And she had filled me in with little tidbits about her thoughts in the matter, but also let me know that she was withholding some information, believing that God would confirm it in me in time. But THIS? THIS was WEIRD! No, THIS was GOD. Coincidence? NO WAY. TOO crazy. A worship leader that I don’t know and have never met… One of my best friends, a new member of this worship leader’s team, 1700 miles away… A picture of ME used as a visible illustration of what the worship leader was talking about on his blog… A picture that I can’t even locate online… God. WOW!!!
We called our kids in and showed it to them, explaining in detail the events of the past 12 or so hours. My son, Matthew’s immediate response? “We’re moving to Sedona!” I was a bit more cautious with my statements…though now I feel ashamed of the hesitancy. In my mind, I didn’t want to make more of it than it was. But that IS what is was, isn’t it?!? I forwarded the e-mail to Tim (our Lead Pastor at North Point) and Matt (our Director of Family Life).
Bizzare!!! It was time to go to the office. In the meantime, Tim had responded with, “You’re a rock star! Your photo on a strange worship leader’s blog!” I responded with something like, “There’s more to the story. I’ll fill you in when I come in.”
I got to North Point and as I was passing by his office he made some sort of comment about there being more to the story. I came in, sat down, and shared with Tim, in entirety, the CRAZINESS of the previous 15 hours or so. Then I asked him, “Is it coincidence???” His response? “No way. I don’t think so. I hate to say it, because I don’t want to see you go, but I have to believe that if God has something for you, He’s got something in mind for us (North Point) as well.” And then, “I’m actually a bit jealous. To have God speak so clearly. You can’t let this go…you have to follow up.”
“Follow up?” I asked, “What does that even mean?!? How do I follow up?”
“Do you know where Scott and Darcy are at? They felt that God called them to Sedona. What’s going on with them? You need to call Scott and find out what’s up…what’s God up to in there lives? That’s a starting point.”
After he had finished speaking, my phone rang. Guess who? Holverson. Earlier in the morning, after initially reading his e-mail, I had sent him a response sharing with him my conversations with God and Michelle and what had been going on. HE was following up.
“Hey, Scotty!”
“OK, first of all, ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! Are you being serious with me, David?!? Because I’ve been thinking about this and I told Darcy that this would be like the ULTIMATE punk, but that YOU were capable of pulling it off. So, tell me the truth, ARE YOU BEING SERIOUS?!?!”
From there, our conversation launched into moments of awe at how God works and at how CRAZY this whole thing was. I mean, what are the odds? Scott said he loaded and reloaded the page, wondering if he had possibly clicked on a link from an e-mail that I had sent, then he called Darcy and the girls in to confirm that he wasn’t losing his marbles. Finally, he and his family tried to Google my picture with keywords like “happy worship leader”. This all was just TOO WEIRD. Darcy responded with, “This means something. THIS means SOMETHING!”
Yes, it does. It means that God answers prayer. It means that God still speaks CLEARLY. Given a bit of time, I’m certain we can muddle it up…come up with questions and possibilities and “what abouts”…actually, we already have. This is why we need to stick to the moments of clarity. When God speaks, he speaks clearly…He is not about confusion…He gives clarity in the moment. Once the moment is past, our own minds clearly have the ability to muddy things up. This is why I’m writing this. Not only for my family’s sake, and mine, but also for YOUR sake. God still speaks! Ask Him. Listen. Believe. Marvel in amazement. WOW! WEIRD!! GOD!!!
A Holverson Follow-Up E-Mail: Did u see the link where he got the pic?? Its from the FIRST day of the new church plant. That’s the pic God wanted u to see! Guess He plans on you planting a church, my friend! I’m praying if AZ is the place.
Michelle’s Journal Entry from back in March 2011…during a 40-Days of Prayer commitment. She was specifically praying about Sedona, which was on her heart. She wrote this phrase in her journal on Day 24: “Sedona seems like Nineveh…”.
WHAT?!?! We JUST kicked off our Jonah series this weekend (10.23.11)! NINEVEH?!?! AND this weekend Tim taught: Get Up / Go / Do / Share As he was teaching, I leaned over to Michelle and jokingly said, “He better be careful!” because of the call that God has given us to plant…we’d just been waiting on the where and when.
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So, needless to say, God has revealed the where of the puzzle…the only thing hanging out there is the when??? I’ve got to say, I wouldn’t trade experiences like these in this journey with God for ANYTHING!
We (the Parker’s) had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time with the Holverson’s when they visited over Thanksgiving. Sedona sounds like a beautiful, artsy, spiritually hungry community. Join with us as we pray for this community and for whatever it is that God specifically has in mind.
I love you all and am VERY EXCITED to share this story…this TESTIMONY THAT GOD STILL SPEAKS…with you! Not to mention, I’d LOVE to hear YOUR God-Stories, along with your thoughts, responses, questions…whatever!?!?
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