Brian Taylor, Church Planting in Kuna, ID
Brian Taylor shares his story of leaving an established church as Executive Pastor to plant E3 church in Kuna, ID
[00:00:00] : you're listening to the City network podcast, our mission is to grow and multiply healthy churches in the Treasure Valley and beyond. Head to the city network dot org for more info on our initiatives to catalyze church transformation and church planting. Here's today's podcast. All right, welcome to the City Network podcast. I'm your host, robert Frazier, I'm pastor at Redemption Hill and today I have the distinct pleasure of having a good friend that I've gotten to know the last few years brian taylor with us with E three Church. Welcome to the podcast, brian Clapper here, thank you. Good to be here, man. Yeah, we got together, I think it was a little over two years ago we sat down and uh you were the um executive Pastor Grace bible church out in Nampa Idaho and uh you know, I I've invited you here today to talk a little bit about your journey and what's happened, so just just start out by giving us a little sample of like who are you, what have you been doing and then your story over the last year. Yeah, absolutely, I well I was, I was born and raised in Idaho and there's not many of us know there's not, no, there's not, but I love what God is doing in our community and um just About 11 years ago um came on as the executive pastor at Grace and keith Wagner's lead pastor there and it was just three of us, it was matt Ritchie or youth pastor keith and myself and um just kind of started a new journey, kind of, we created our mission and our vision, Derek Grace and um honestly it's a role that I never dreamed, I would, I would actually do, I was a youth pastor in Tennessee for 3.5 years before that and keith called me uh um guy before keith I should say, called me out here and said hey come home, we need your help and um God just opened up multiple doors and through that process and then in 2011 keith came on And um it's just been a fun fun journey um to see what God's done, so came into the role, Keith came on in 2011 and um came on to the role of executive pastor that following year Okay, well tell me a little bit about the journey and grace bible and kind of what God's been doing over the last nine years since keith showed up Yeah, yeah, absolutely, um so we were, we were running about 150 people um at the time and in that um timeframe just felt like God was call us to kind of start develop our mission and vision and our core values and all that and we sat down for about seven months just working through, okay who are we going to be, what does this look like, whose grace bible church if Grace bible, church didn't exist, how would we be missed all of those kinds of questions and just started whiteboard dreams and things that God was calling us to and um it was in those, that first year really was a catalyst for um a lot of who grace bible church is now, um we wanted one of the questions that was asked of keith that first year was what do you, what do you deem a healthy church, and keith had never been a pastor before, it was his first time too, he was kind of in a new rule and and keith, one of the things he said at the very beginning that we were all passionate about is he said I want I want to be known to be ascending church and one of the things that will mark us as a healthy churches if we're sending church, and so we set out on a mission to make sure that was a reality and went through a lot of things um early in those first few years, you know, I remember when people, when I was hired people were like well what's his role, what's he gonna do, why does this person exist? I mean, he's, he does a little on Sundays, what does he do the rest of the other six days? Um yeah, and so there was a lot of unknowns, you know, the church had never really had that role before, and so we just started kind of building into that and keith, one of the things he did early on that I think was key um as a church and all of us wanted to be not only a sending church but an empowering church and early on keith just was like listen I'm putting brian in this role, this is gonna be his responsibilities and I'm fully giving him permission to lead it and I think the trust um early on was was huge um for him to really give me the keys to lead at the level that I was going to have to um but what I looking back on it now, that was so key to that is I didn't know I've never been in that role before and I grew so much through that because of his trust and his ability to to release me, that sounds like a pretty clear marker of keith is high level of trust and like he he hands things away pretty easily, yeah he does, and there was there was um you know a lot of people in the history of the church, you know trust had been kind of destroyed a little bit just to be honest and um there was there was a struggle with well you know we don't want to relinquish this from the pastor, you know that's his job and and so when keith started empowering, he had to really kind of create that safety and and help people understand that this is okay and I think through that the reason I mentioned that is it was a key part of handing the baton off to other leaders because it was in that year where we saw so much um exponential growth in our leadership because you know from volunteers to staff keith all the way down through our, I feel like in our leadership we started trusting people who were better fits than ourselves even um to lead and we watched God just um do some cool things, so having said that um that started the journey uh and that was key to know where we were headed, what we were going to be focused on and then when we start empowering that leadership we watched the church, The the church and really do what it needed to do and now um this last year we were running about 1200 people, you know we've got three different locations and we're watching God um Grace just do amazing things through that and if keith would have held on to all of that um he would have squelched that leadership and so it's been cool to see that. Yeah, so tell me a year ago your life was pretty simple, you had a great job doing ministry, you loved with friends and yeah and then God just kind of ruined all that for sure I robert honestly I saw myself in that role for the rest of my life, I loved being in that support role um my role was to just execute the vision and and make sure that um I was hearing the voice of keith and the lead pastor and the vision God was laying on our hearts, making sure we were in unity but then going and implementing that and executing that on down through the church and I loved it, I loved my team, the team, I got to work with campus pastors, um everything that I was doing, um my focus was staff development and working with him and then overseeing the administration side of things and then strategic planning, you know long term planning and I just, I was thriving, I was, I was loving all of it and about a year and a half ago I found myself just all of a sudden becoming discontent, I don't know how else to say it um and I'm like why am I why am I struggling, why am I discontent, why why am I unsettled and knowing what I know now obviously um God was preparing me for something and it was in that time of season of discontent, I just started leaning into keith and saying all right you need to know this how I'm feeling and we had some real heart to heart conversations and just again keith was very good friend of mine were still very close and and I just started opening up and saying man this is what I'm feeling, he could sense something new was coming, he could sense God was leading me into some, some church consultant work was opening up, I was doing some coaching there um with some other churches, which I love and I thought maybe God was calling me into like para church stuff and as God just continued to lead, I, I ended up getting this random free trip to Israel um and that doesn't happen. Yeah, yeah, exactly. A buddy of mine, their church was taking a trip to Israel um and they said, hey, we've got two tickets, you guys want to go and I'm like, well I'd love to, but that's a lot of money and they, they said, no, we're, we're giving them to you for half price, yours is free and then whoever else wants to go with you. Well, long story short, my wife ends up getting to go with me um uh some people raise money and said, hey, your wife's, I'm gonna go, we've raised the money for it. And then it was just, it blew us away and I get to Israel and I'm standing in the community where jesus did 75% of his ministry and I was standing on Mount Arbel where many scholars believe jesus taught the sermon on the mouth and I just prayed, asking God help us know how to change communities, the way that, and and reach communities the way that you reached communities, what does that look like, Help us to know what that looks like in the Treasure Valley, I have a heart for this for the treasure valley and I wanted to see life change happen at a greater level and you know I was praying that prayer for grace bible church and for you know having no idea what God was going to be leading me to, you gotta be more careful about what you yes, exactly, that's on you. So a month later, um I was actually at the exponential conference and it was there where um a guy, I can't remember his name, but the guy made the statement said God called us to build rivers, not manage lakes and God used that phrase for me to just literally, I I don't remember anything else that was taught in that breakout session where God said I'm calling you down to the river, I'm calling you to the river and I had this vision of the lake for me was Grace bible church and I'm like yeah, but God I love grace bible church, you know um this sounds horrible, but I was like you know that was my thing, you know, that that's what I did and it was comfortable and and it was it was good and and I found myself becoming discontent and God said there's something new coming well the next day exponential second day of the conference um I think it was Joey martin um got up and spoke on fear as a liar and yeah and honestly man, it was like he was looking into my life and one of the main things that I feared that I even pushed back on keith sometimes was getting up front and teaching and that was very insecure um long story short um had to go through some some things to experience, okay this is I'm having an insecurity issue here, this is something I've gotta, I've gotta surrender to God, but when Jobe was talking about that God took me to a place of saying I'm asking you to preach I'm calling you out and um I didn't know what that meant, what that looked like yet, but um God said stop fearing right now, I want you to let go of your job and that's all I remember here and I'm like wait a second, that doesn't make sense, there's I'm a strategic thinker, right, I've got to have a plan and and I'm and God's like I'm asking you for a job, well it was so strong and so clear um that before we even left the auditorium I pulled keith up, keith was there and I said dude you gotta I gotta talk to you and I said I this sounds crazy, doesn't make any sense but keith and I sat in the auditorium and start talking, I said I feel like God just asked me to let go of my role at Grace and I don't know if it was crazy keith, literally, he stopped looked at me and he goes yeah God told me who's going to tell you that and I'm like thanks, what's going on here? And and we just started praying, he goes keith told me he goes brian I've watched you for the last six months and I knew God was going to do something new in your life and I didn't know what it is and we still didn't know at that time, so I he said let's just let's commit together man, we're gonna pray about this where whatever it is god wants for you, I want for you um and and he just committed to praying with me um a week later I was on my back porch man and I was praying reading through the Book of Acts, I was studying through the Book of Acts with a couple of my campus pastor. Yes, exactly and uh and God just laid it open and made it so clear that brian I'm calling, you had planned a church and um I haven't questioned it since and the following week got opened up this vision of and gave me a vision for kuna Idaho to engage equip empower people of God's design for their life and we believe that if we do that every day and live that out, that we'll see change lives change communities and God brought me back to that prayer, I prayed in Israel um and so that's the vision of what we're trying to do and it's just been awesome, It's been a crazy journey? I don't have it figured out, we've I've never done this before, um I'm leaning into a lot of people who are ahead of me, people like yourself that um have done this before, but um I'm excited about it. Cool man, well we've talked a little about that story, but it's nice to hear the hear the contours of it. Um so he said last summer, probably like last May june, you kind of made the decision to plan. Um that was, that was in May and then um it was in june where we, we sold our house and um we're actually living with my parents right now, God bless them for the Gospel man and just trying to prepare and you know, be ready for when that season comes, we're launching in september and um so we're just, we're just in a season right now, just preparing and getting ready for the launch. Yeah, so let's let's dive into the nuts and bolts, you know, you've told the story, but I think there's a lot of guys who are in the process as you're thinking about planting, so this was seven months ago, you've felt the call, um we're in january, middle of january right now, what have you done? What has been the things that you're glad you've done, what are the things that um that you still need to do and then what's the next, you know season look like as you prepare for the launch in september first of all, let me say this, I want to come back to this because I think this is huge. One of the things that I have done that I am going to highly recommend in our church plant when we launch, we want to be a church that's planting churches um that's one of our passion um as well, but one of the things that I have seen and been able to experience is what a sending church should look like. Um and some things they've done really well and that is just really one financially get behind me and truly say we're either all in or we're not and um those are from there, those are actual words from them and keith is um fully put his weight behind being ascending church and and grace bible church has just said, okay we're going to do this, it doesn't have to have our name, it's not about the name, it's about the kingdom of God and um they have put total support. So the things that have been really good is seeing things having a sending church was was huge for us. I cannot tell you the support that that has helped with um another thing is I just started rallying around other other church planners in the community and just reaching out to him, sitting down with them and saying, okay man, tell me what, you know, I want to whatever I can learn and glean from you and watching the big C church churches in the valley just surround rally around me. I cannot let me say this when you when you plant a church for me this has been my experience when you go out and follow the call of God. Like this one of the things that I have experienced is a sense of loneliness. Like satan loves to isolate you in every way that he can and I say that to to give credit to God and how close God has been through his church. Um one of the things that has been so cool is my identity to be to be honest in a lot of ways was at Grace bible church and what I learned and God has been teaching me. That's good is how much my identity has become a part of just the big C church and the kingdom of God. So what does that mean to you? Yeah, I when I when I it was uncomfortable for for myself, my family and for even I think people at the church at Grace, like, okay why is brian and going and launching another church, you know, and there was a sense of loyalty that I had at Grace bible church, just to speak to a personal level of it of like man, I I want to I want to help Grace and it's like these are my people Yeah, these are my people. I love them. I want to, I want to see them win. And unfortunately the reality that jumped out immediately was all of a sudden satan started attacking me from within and one of the ways he did that was, and again, this is no fault anybody at Grace. It just was he was using people to go, why don't you create another Grace bible church and the questions and the, and hey why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you doing that? And all of a sudden I felt like I was on an island and um even though I wasn't and keith was right there, we were meeting weekly and we, he was fully behind me and the team was um there was a sense of like all of a sudden my identity, I was lost. I was kind of like, okay, what, who are my people now, right? Yeah, yeah. Like you've been, you've, you've, you've removed yourself from where you've seen your identity as a part of a tribe and all of a sudden you're like, I'm on my own disconnected, even even if you're in process and you're still at grace bible on Sundays and you're around all of a sudden you've got this new thing. You're pursuing, this is one of the hardest things for me and for a lot of church planters is you have to leave home, you've got to walk out of her and and go on this journey into the desert not knowing what's going to happen on the other side and knowing you've got to create it, which feels really that's your, your sense of identity. And you're also a sense of just community all of a sudden disintegrates. Yeah. And yeah, and a new way of living. Um one my calling, I come back to that. It was really important. Something that was really good was I had to know my wife and my kids were as called to this as I was. Um, and I, I was one of my specific prayers early on And watching God call my kids, my 13 year old, I'll never forget the day she walked up to me and said, God, God clarified with me in a specific prayer that I prayed. He answered it within 24 hours. Dad. I know God is calling us to plan a church because of this. And to hear my 13 year old and her faith grow through this and hear her say that was a faith builder for me. I needed to know that um my wife just watching God independently lead my wife to this calling as much as I am. And it was my wife that came in. I I had, I had received a call on a saturday on my back porch and I said, God, you've got to call my wife and my family just as much as I am. I hadn't said a word to my wife. And two days later my wife texts me and says, I don't know if this is of God or what, but I feel like God just told us to plant a church. And so seeing God independently talking to my family, um he confirmed so many things through that. Um whenever I shared it with the church board or church board at Grace, watching several board members say, I knew God was going to do this a long time ago and them again affirming and um that calling, but again, one of the good things was watching and then outside of Grace, whenever I kind of felt at a loss and I'm on island here watching other churches, other pastors reaching out to me and saying, I hear about your calling, I want to sit down and talk to you, them texting me out of the blue. Um they have no idea when they text me how lonely, I don't know, I'll say it robert, but um them text me and just say, hey, I'm praying for you man, keep it up. Um that God has used that in so many ways in a sense to give what I love that word, what she said tribe, to build my new tribe innocence and and watching God just surround me with other believers because I knew we...
[00:00:00] : you're listening to the City network podcast, our mission is to grow and multiply healthy churches in the Treasure Valley and beyond. Head to the city network dot org for more info on our initiatives to catalyze church transformation and church planting. Here's today's podcast. All right, welcome to the City Network podcast. I'm your host, robert Frazier, I'm pastor at Redemption Hill and today I have the distinct pleasure of having a good friend that I've gotten to know the last few years brian taylor with us with E three Church. Welcome to the podcast, brian Clapper here, thank you. Good to be here, man. Yeah, we got together, I think it was a little over two years ago we sat down and uh you were the um executive Pastor Grace bible church out in Nampa Idaho and uh you know, I I've invited you here today to talk a little bit about your journey and what's happened, so just just start out by giving us a little sample of like who are you, what have you been doing and then your story over the last year. Yeah, absolutely, I well I was, I was born and raised in Idaho and there's not many of us know there's not, no, there's not, but I love what God is doing in our community and um just About 11 years ago um came on as the executive pastor at Grace and keith Wagner's lead pastor there and it was just three of us, it was matt Ritchie or youth pastor keith and myself and um just kind of started a new journey, kind of, we created our mission and our vision, Derek Grace and um honestly it's a role that I never dreamed, I would, I would actually do, I was a youth pastor in Tennessee for 3.5 years before that and keith called me uh um guy before keith I should say, called me out here and said hey come home, we need your help and um God just opened up multiple doors and through that process and then in 2011 keith came on And um it's just been a fun fun journey um to see what God's done, so came into the role, Keith came on in 2011 and um came on to the role of executive pastor that following year Okay, well tell me a little bit about the journey and grace bible and kind of what God's been doing over the last nine years since keith showed up Yeah, yeah, absolutely, um so we were, we were running about 150 people um at the time and in that um timeframe just felt like God was call us to kind of start develop our mission and vision and our core values and all that and we sat down for about seven months just working through, okay who are we going to be, what does this look like, whose grace bible church if Grace bible, church didn't exist, how would we be missed all of those kinds of questions and just started whiteboard dreams and things that God was calling us to and um it was in those, that first year really was a catalyst for um a lot of who grace bible church is now, um we wanted one of the questions that was asked of keith that first year was what do you, what do you deem a healthy church, and keith had never been a pastor before, it was his first time too, he was kind of in a new rule and and keith, one of the things he said at the very beginning that we were all passionate about is he said I want I want to be known to be ascending church and one of the things that will mark us as a healthy churches if we're sending church, and so we set out on a mission to make sure that was a reality and went through a lot of things um early in those first few years, you know, I remember when people, when I was hired people were like well what's his role, what's he gonna do, why does this person exist? I mean, he's, he does a little on Sundays, what does he do the rest of the other six days? Um yeah, and so there was a lot of unknowns, you know, the church had never really had that role before, and so we just started kind of building into that and keith, one of the things he did early on that I think was key um as a church and all of us wanted to be not only a sending church but an empowering church and early on keith just was like listen I'm putting brian in this role, this is gonna be his responsibilities and I'm fully giving him permission to lead it and I think the trust um early on was was huge um for him to really give me the keys to lead at the level that I was going to have to um but what I looking back on it now, that was so key to that is I didn't know I've never been in that role before and I grew so much through that because of his trust and his ability to to release me, that sounds like a pretty clear marker of keith is high level of trust and like he he hands things away pretty easily, yeah he does, and there was there was um you know a lot of people in the history of the church, you know trust had been kind of destroyed a little bit just to be honest and um there was there was a struggle with well you know we don't want to relinquish this from the pastor, you know that's his job and and so when keith started empowering, he had to really kind of create that safety and and help people understand that this is okay and I think through that the reason I mentioned that is it was a key part of handing the baton off to other leaders because it was in that year where we saw so much um exponential growth in our leadership because you know from volunteers to staff keith all the way down through our, I feel like in our leadership we started trusting people who were better fits than ourselves even um to lead and we watched God just um do some cool things, so having said that um that started the journey uh and that was key to know where we were headed, what we were going to be focused on and then when we start empowering that leadership we watched the church, The the church and really do what it needed to do and now um this last year we were running about 1200 people, you know we've got three different locations and we're watching God um Grace just do amazing things through that and if keith would have held on to all of that um he would have squelched that leadership and so it's been cool to see that. Yeah, so tell me a year ago your life was pretty simple, you had a great job doing ministry, you loved with friends and yeah and then God just kind of ruined all that for sure I robert honestly I saw myself in that role for the rest of my life, I loved being in that support role um my role was to just execute the vision and and make sure that um I was hearing the voice of keith and the lead pastor and the vision God was laying on our hearts, making sure we were in unity but then going and implementing that and executing that on down through the church and I loved it, I loved my team, the team, I got to work with campus pastors, um everything that I was doing, um my focus was staff development and working with him and then overseeing the administration side of things and then strategic planning, you know long term planning and I just, I was thriving, I was, I was loving all of it and about a year and a half ago I found myself just all of a sudden becoming discontent, I don't know how else to say it um and I'm like why am I why am I struggling, why am I discontent, why why am I unsettled and knowing what I know now obviously um God was preparing me for something and it was in that time of season of discontent, I just started leaning into keith and saying all right you need to know this how I'm feeling and we had some real heart to heart conversations and just again keith was very good friend of mine were still very close and and I just started opening up and saying man this is what I'm feeling, he could sense something new was coming, he could sense God was leading me into some, some church consultant work was opening up, I was doing some coaching there um with some other churches, which I love and I thought maybe God was calling me into like para church stuff and as God just continued to lead, I, I ended up getting this random free trip to Israel um and that doesn't happen. Yeah, yeah, exactly. A buddy of mine, their church was taking a trip to Israel um and they said, hey, we've got two tickets, you guys want to go and I'm like, well I'd love to, but that's a lot of money and they, they said, no, we're, we're giving them to you for half price, yours is free and then whoever else wants to go with you. Well, long story short, my wife ends up getting to go with me um uh some people raise money and said, hey, your wife's, I'm gonna go, we've raised the money for it. And then it was just, it blew us away and I get to Israel and I'm standing in the community where jesus did 75% of his ministry and I was standing on Mount Arbel where many scholars believe jesus taught the sermon on the mouth and I just prayed, asking God help us know how to change communities, the way that, and and reach communities the way that you reached communities, what does that look like, Help us to know what that looks like in the Treasure Valley, I have a heart for this for the treasure valley and I wanted to see life change happen at a greater level and you know I was praying that prayer for grace bible church and for you know having no idea what God was going to be leading me to, you gotta be more careful about what you yes, exactly, that's on you. So a month later, um I was actually at the exponential conference and it was there where um a guy, I can't remember his name, but the guy made the statement said God called us to build rivers, not manage lakes and God used that phrase for me to just literally, I I don't remember anything else that was taught in that breakout session where God said I'm calling you down to the river, I'm calling you to the river and I had this vision of the lake for me was Grace bible church and I'm like yeah, but God I love grace bible church, you know um this sounds horrible, but I was like you know that was my thing, you know, that that's what I did and it was comfortable and and it was it was good and and I found myself becoming discontent and God said there's something new coming well the next day exponential second day of the conference um I think it was Joey martin um got up and spoke on fear as a liar and yeah and honestly man, it was like he was looking into my life and one of the main things that I feared that I even pushed back on keith sometimes was getting up front and teaching and that was very insecure um long story short um had to go through some some things to experience, okay this is I'm having an insecurity issue here, this is something I've gotta, I've gotta surrender to God, but when Jobe was talking about that God took me to a place of saying I'm asking you to preach I'm calling you out and um I didn't know what that meant, what that looked like yet, but um God said stop fearing right now, I want you to let go of your job and that's all I remember here and I'm like wait a second, that doesn't make sense, there's I'm a strategic thinker, right, I've got to have a plan and and I'm and God's like I'm asking you for a job, well it was so strong and so clear um that before we even left the auditorium I pulled keith up, keith was there and I said dude you gotta I gotta talk to you and I said I this sounds crazy, doesn't make any sense but keith and I sat in the auditorium and start talking, I said I feel like God just asked me to let go of my role at Grace and I don't know if it was crazy keith, literally, he stopped looked at me and he goes yeah God told me who's going to tell you that and I'm like thanks, what's going on here? And and we just started praying, he goes keith told me he goes brian I've watched you for the last six months and I knew God was going to do something new in your life and I didn't know what it is and we still didn't know at that time, so I he said let's just let's commit together man, we're gonna pray about this where whatever it is god wants for you, I want for you um and and he just committed to praying with me um a week later I was on my back porch man and I was praying reading through the Book of Acts, I was studying through the Book of Acts with a couple of my campus pastor. Yes, exactly and uh and God just laid it open and made it so clear that brian I'm calling, you had planned a church and um I haven't questioned it since and the following week got opened up this vision of and gave me a vision for kuna Idaho to engage equip empower people of God's design for their life and we believe that if we do that every day and live that out, that we'll see change lives change communities and God brought me back to that prayer, I prayed in Israel um and so that's the vision of what we're trying to do and it's just been awesome, It's been a crazy journey? I don't have it figured out, we've I've never done this before, um I'm leaning into a lot of people who are ahead of me, people like yourself that um have done this before, but um I'm excited about it. Cool man, well we've talked a little about that story, but it's nice to hear the hear the contours of it. Um so he said last summer, probably like last May june, you kind of made the decision to plan. Um that was, that was in May and then um it was in june where we, we sold our house and um we're actually living with my parents right now, God bless them for the Gospel man and just trying to prepare and you know, be ready for when that season comes, we're launching in september and um so we're just, we're just in a season right now, just preparing and getting ready for the launch. Yeah, so let's let's dive into the nuts and bolts, you know, you've told the story, but I think there's a lot of guys who are in the process as you're thinking about planting, so this was seven months ago, you've felt the call, um we're in january, middle of january right now, what have you done? What has been the things that you're glad you've done, what are the things that um that you still need to do and then what's the next, you know season look like as you prepare for the launch in september first of all, let me say this, I want to come back to this because I think this is huge. One of the things that I have done that I am going to highly recommend in our church plant when we launch, we want to be a church that's planting churches um that's one of our passion um as well, but one of the things that I have seen and been able to experience is what a sending church should look like. Um and some things they've done really well and that is just really one financially get behind me and truly say we're either all in or we're not and um those are from there, those are actual words from them and keith is um fully put his weight behind being ascending church and and grace bible church has just said, okay we're going to do this, it doesn't have to have our name, it's not about the name, it's about the kingdom of God and um they have put total support. So the things that have been really good is seeing things having a sending church was was huge for us. I cannot tell you the support that that has helped with um another thing is I just started rallying around other other church planners in the community and just reaching out to him, sitting down with them and saying, okay man, tell me what, you know, I want to whatever I can learn and glean from you and watching the big C church churches in the valley just surround rally around me. I cannot let me say this when you when you plant a church for me this has been my experience when you go out and follow the call of God. Like this one of the things that I have experienced is a sense of loneliness. Like satan loves to isolate you in every way that he can and I say that to to give credit to God and how close God has been through his church. Um one of the things that has been so cool is my identity to be to be honest in a lot of ways was at Grace bible church and what I learned and God has been teaching me. That's good is how much my identity has become a part of just the big C church and the kingdom of God. So what does that mean to you? Yeah, I when I when I it was uncomfortable for for myself, my family and for even I think people at the church at Grace, like, okay why is brian and going and launching another church, you know, and there was a sense of loyalty that I had at Grace bible church, just to speak to a personal level of it of like man, I I want to I want to help Grace and it's like these are my people Yeah, these are my people. I love them. I want to, I want to see them win. And unfortunately the reality that jumped out immediately was all of a sudden satan started attacking me from within and one of the ways he did that was, and again, this is no fault anybody at Grace. It just was he was using people to go, why don't you create another Grace bible church and the questions and the, and hey why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you doing that? And all of a sudden I felt like I was on an island and um even though I wasn't and keith was right there, we were meeting weekly and we, he was fully behind me and the team was um there was a sense of like all of a sudden my identity, I was lost. I was kind of like, okay, what, who are my people now, right? Yeah, yeah. Like you've been, you've, you've, you've removed yourself from where you've seen your identity as a part of a tribe and all of a sudden you're like, I'm on my own disconnected, even even if you're in process and you're still at grace bible on Sundays and you're around all of a sudden you've got this new thing. You're pursuing, this is one of the hardest things for me and for a lot of church planters is you have to leave home, you've got to walk out of her and and go on this journey into the desert not knowing what's going to happen on the other side and knowing you've got to create it, which feels really that's your, your sense of identity. And you're also a sense of just community all of a sudden disintegrates. Yeah. And yeah, and a new way of living. Um one my calling, I come back to that. It was really important. Something that was really good was I had to know my wife and my kids were as called to this as I was. Um, and I, I was one of my specific prayers early on And watching God call my kids, my 13 year old, I'll never forget the day she walked up to me and said, God, God clarified with me in a specific prayer that I prayed. He answered it within 24 hours. Dad. I know God is calling us to plan a church because of this. And to hear my 13 year old and her faith grow through this and hear her say that was a faith builder for me. I needed to know that um my wife just watching God independently lead my wife to this calling as much as I am. And it was my wife that came in. I I had, I had received a call on a saturday on my back porch and I said, God, you've got to call my wife and my family just as much as I am. I hadn't said a word to my wife. And two days later my wife texts me and says, I don't know if this is of God or what, but I feel like God just told us to plant a church. And so seeing God independently talking to my family, um he confirmed so many things through that. Um whenever I shared it with the church board or church board at Grace, watching several board members say, I knew God was going to do this a long time ago and them again affirming and um that calling, but again, one of the good things was watching and then outside of Grace, whenever I kind of felt at a loss and I'm on island here watching other churches, other pastors reaching out to me and saying, I hear about your calling, I want to sit down and talk to you, them texting me out of the blue. Um they have no idea when they text me how lonely, I don't know, I'll say it robert, but um them text me and just say, hey, I'm praying for you man, keep it up. Um that God has used that in so many ways in a sense to give what I love that word, what she said tribe, to build my new tribe innocence and and watching God just surround me with other believers because I knew we...
