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Back in the spring, I wasn’t quite sure to do with this growing sense of calling to leave my comfortable job and go plant a church.

Honestly, Kate and I were in a season of life during which we just wanted to enjoy ministry, get paid a solid salary, have babies on great insurance, and then maybe in a decade or so think about change. If God was really calling me to make this big change, I prayed that he would make it very obvious. One of the ways he help make this calling obvious was through giving me new relationships with a handful of like-minded pastors in our area who happen to be a part of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network.

During those early months, I didn’t dare to talk to many people about what was stirring in my heart. But I have a dear friend in Dallas (Christopher Myers) who was distant enough from our situation that I felt free to share my convictions. During that time, he happened to attend an event in Dallas hosted by the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, and at this conference he heard a few A29 pastors mention the glaring need for a new type of church in the city of Amarillo.

Acts 29 is a pastoral network of churches committed to the values of gospel-centered ministry, church planting, and church leadership consisting of a plurality of biblically qualified elders. Acts 29 is not a denomination, but it is an international network of pastors committed to the gospel and committed to mission. For years, I have closely followed the resources that this network has provided for free online. As a young minister, I had been dropped into the deep end of the pool of ministry, and for my first few years as a pastor I learned to preach, lead, and cast vision largely through training this network provided. It is a tribe of Christians that are unique in that they are committed to engaging culture effectively while remaining rooted in biblical doctrine. And in the last decade Acts 29 has become the fastest growing church planting network in the nation.

My friend in Dallas told me that he happened to hear of an event that Acts 29 was holding in Lubbock. It was a small gathering that was to focus on church planting, gospel ministry, and networking with like-minded pastors in the West Texas and New Mexico region. He procured the email of the pastor who was hosting the event, and told me I needed to contact him. So, without having met the guy, I emailed Pastor Dusty Thompson of Redeemer Lubbock.

As it turned out, Dusty and I had a remarkably similar story. For several years, he had served at one of the larger churches in Lubbock as a College Pastor (Lord knows Tech needs Jesus). As he grew in ministry, he began to discern a call to plant a church. Initially, he was looking to move away from the Bible belt to do this, but then sensed a burden to plant in Lubbock. Miraculously, he was favorably sent and supported by his former church. And in 2008, Redeemer Lubbock was planted. Today it is a healthy, growing, Christ-exalting church that is swarming with servant-hearted leaders and newly converted Christians.

Kate and ended up going down to Lubbock to attend this event and see if it would help give us clarity in discerning our call. From the moment we arrived, it felt like we had reconnected with family. I instantly felt connected to the vision and values of this group of people. In addition to Dusty, I began to connect to guys like Jeremy Buck (Pampa), Josh Reeves (Round Rock), Caleb Southerland (Irving), Los Griego (Rio Rancho), and Josh Green (Odessa). These were pastors with healthy marriages and healthy churches. And I have honestly never seen such camaraderie, mutual support, and selflessness and between churches.

That night when we were driving back to Amarillo, I knew that my hometown needed a church like this. In North, I had seen the values of gospel, community, and mission connect with people that had been previously considered unreachable in my city. Moreover, I began to sense a burden for building a church that not only grew, but also reproduced through church planting. I knew that the Lord had prepared me for this work, and that the inescapable tug on my heart was him calling me. Eventually, the call became so strong that I felt like I would be committing a sin of omission if I were to not act.

As we prepared to initiate conversations with the elders of my former church, Dusty was like a big brother and coach. He helped me, prayed for me, gave me counsel, and was partially responsible for me staying sane through the unsure waters of this last summer.

In the fall, as my journey was about to begin, I asked Dusty if his church would consider being our sending and supporting church. He graciously agreed, and on Sunday, November 6 (the exact Sunday West Amarillo Christian Church confirmed me as their Pastor), I was commissioned by Redeemer Lubbock. I couldn’t be more proud of our sending church, and I hope to one-day do for many pastors what Dusty and Redeemer has done for me.

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To learn more about the values of the Acts 29 Church Planting Network, read Church Planter: The Man, The Message, The Mission by Darrin Patrick (Pastor of The Journey, an Acts 29 church in St. Louis). It is perhaps the most distilled form of what the movement represents.

At the time of writing this blog, I am currently not an Acts 29 member. However, I am an Acts 29 applicant, and will likely be assessed for candidacy in early spring of 2012, after Kate and I have our baby and we get a few months into our current revitalization effort.

In the blogs to come, I will address how the Lord gave us team of people with which to lead this new vision, and how we were connected with the wonderful people of West Amarillo Christian Church

(Pastor Dusty Thompson commissioning me on 11/6/2011.)