very medium thoughts

We have prayed that God will give us clear direction on the timing of our move to Massachusetts. And we believe that it is best for us to move forward quickly. God has provided, through someone’s generosity, a way for us to move to the South Shore community and rent a house even before I have secured a local job. That will give me the opportunity to interview for jobs in the area and begin building relationships immediately.

After talking with Mark, we have set the date of our move to New England to be November 20. That will give us several days to get there and get kind of settled before Thanksgiving, and let me actively look for jobs over the course of the following weeks.

We will still be out of town this weekend, so that means that November 6/7 and November 13/14 will be our last two weekends at NewSpring. It’s a bittersweet time, because we are so excited about what God is working out in our lives, but we are also already feeling the pain of leaving wonderful friends and co-workers.

One thing we need right now is for people to continue to pray for us. Jenny and I were talking yesterday that at every point, as soon as we get an answer or a solution, we immediately see that there is another huge thing that God has to come through about…and He has continued to do that.

We are currently in Massachusetts looking for a rental house, and it looks like God has pointed us right to where we need to be, but I’m going to save that exciting news for the next mailing of the Cummins Family Newsletter. (If you don’t want to miss out on the inside scoop, sign up at the top of the page… ) I know, kind of “market-y” of me…

I’ve been thinking through this quite a bit lately, with my impending re-entrance into the marketplace.

For the last 10 years, I have been in “full-time” Christian ministry. What that means for those of you unfamiliar with that term is that I have worked at a church and received my complete salary from that job. For most Christians, “full-time” ministry is the dream. I mean, what could be better than getting to work around other Christians who are pouring their lives out to make a difference for eternity? As a kid, it was always a big deal when someone was “called into full-time ministry.” While it is so true that many in “full-time” ministry have made great sacrifices financially to serve in that capacity, somehow, I feel like we’ve diminished the value of working a “real” job, and “just” volunteering, or “just” hosting a small group. It’s part of my dream to help correct that perspective in some small way.

I believe with all my being that God has placed each of us in our jobs, families, and communities, to serve as agents of mercy for God Himself. Your job is not separate from your identity as a follower of Jesus Christ. It’s not as if you are one person on Monday morning, and a different, more spiritual person during the weekend service. Well, we all know people that this certainly seems to be the case, but that’s not supposed to be the rule. Did you know that God created work and he designed us to do it well? He even says that we are to work with our whole hearts not like it’s for our boss, but that it’s for God Himself! That’s pretty awesome! Why is that, though? What difference does it make how we perform our work?

This is where you can develop an entirely new, eternal and spiritual perspective of your J-O-B. God has intentionally placed you with people that need to see what it’s like to have a life changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Those people at work know you better than anyone besides your family, most likely. They see how you deal with frustration, disappointment, being wronged, and being celebrated. And in all of these situations, God is preparing you to be a bridge that people can walk across to faith in Jesus Christ. Sometime, I’ll talk about what that means in eternity, but it’s enough for now, to say that it’s an awesome opportunity! As we live this way, work transitions from being a necessity, to being worship!

Sure, “full-time” ministry is great, but honestly, it’s really easy to become isolated “Christian Islands” and forget that there are people all around us who are watching us and desperately want to know that there is SOMEONE out there who has hope. Sometimes, a whole week can go by and I haven’t had the chance to have even a simple conversation with ONE person who isn’t a Christian. That’s not cool. How am I going to be a help to those who don’t yet know Christ if I don’t even reach out to them?

So, now as I look for a job, the pay is not my primary focus, it’s simply about where God wants to drop me so I can represent Him well. And, I’m pretty eager to see where that is.

It’s hard to believe we’ve lived in Wichita for almost 6 years! It’s been by far the best 6 years of our lives (except for Anna, for whom it’s been only the best 3 years of her brief life). We’ve seen God work time and time again here and we are so blown away to be able to have been a part of it.
When we moved here in November 2004, little did we know how much we would fall in love with Wichita and with the people who call it home. We had decided that we would live out our lives here. We liked the idea. Our kids love it here. We were so comfortable and simply loving life. We were so convinced that we were lifetime Kansans that we decided to do a major house-upgrade project, a brand new, super cool concrete deck! But deep down, we began to hear God challenging us that He was going to ask something of us…and now we see a small piece of it. And, man, are we excited!

I was able to share this at the end of each of our services this weekend, but I have had enough questions that I decided to go ahead and post our story on my blog. I’ll be updating this blog with the latest in our story.

Since January, Jenny and I knew that this year was going to bring some kind of major change, we just didn’t know what it was going to be. Well, as God often does in our lives, He really began revealing one small step at a time. At each juncture, I would spend much time in prayer and would talk with Pastor Mark about what God seemed to be directing us to do. Mark has been incredibly encouraging and very kind to us. We’re very grateful for that and we’re excited to possibly partner with NewSpring as we move forward.

Through multiple conversations, and much prayer and fasting, we are convinced that God is calling me and my family to take the Gospel to a very unreached area here in the U.S. In the six states of New England, less than 2% of the population attend any kind of gospel-preaching church. That’s an astoundingly low percentage! We believe that the way that we can be a part of a movement of God’s spirit in New England is by planting a church that plants churches throughout New England. And we’re not alone in this philosophy. For about the last 10 years, men of God have begun doing what we are wanting to do now: planting churches that plant churches. So, we’re simply going to join in the movement of loving New Englanders to Jesus.

So, what does this mean specifically for us?

Well, we have put our house on the market (in fact, we’d love to have help spreading the word if you live in the Wichita area. Here’s a link to the property. Please forward to any friends who are looking.), and we’re actively looking for a way to have the finances we’ll need to live in the South Shore area of Boston (between Plymouth & Boston, maybe a little west of there).

It looks like right now, we will simply establish residency, I’ll get a job, and we’ll meet as many people as we can. We’ll also potentially partner with a church plant that is already doing great things in Stoughton, MA called Grace Church, so we’ll learn the culture and be a help to that church at the same time. In 18 months or so, we’ll have begun Bible studies, and have a firm strategy for our young church. Then, we’ll choose a specific launch date, and begin promoting a weekend gathering that will reach to those outside the church walls as well as those who already love Jesus.

You may be wondering what will happen here at NewSpring. Mark and I have been in conversations for several months now, and we’re both committed to making the transition to a new Worship Pastor as seamless as possible. As far as I understand, an official job opening will be declared, and candidates will be screened and that sort of thing. I have offered to continue serving at NewSpring while the new Worship Pastor gets his feet under him. That should help everything feel a little more consistent.

One thing I am certain of is that God will provide just the right person to fill this position, because God is always faithful.

I have been so blessed to serve alongside each of you for the last 6 years! I have learned so much and we have experienced God’s blessing in an unbelievable way! It is hard to even imagine ministry without you laboring side by side with me and family each weekend. We love each of you, and we’re excited to continue co-laboring with you, just with a few miles between us.

I will be back in Boston again this weekend, to meet with the pastor of Grace Church and to spend more time learning about where we will be living and ministering. Also, I hope to have a couple of job interviews.

We will be telling our story on First Wednesday, October 6, at NewSpring, and we should be able to do a Q&A at that time as well.

Over the last couple of months, several of my friends here at NewSpring have shown me some hilarious videos on YouTube where people are talking, and someone else (who has way too much time on their hands) puts their words to music. Well, I thought to myself, “I have too much time on MY hands. Why don’t I take that idea and try something useful?” (BTW, I actually DO talk to myself.)

So, I decided I would do a little experiment just to see if I could do something fun with Mark’s messages. I hit upon this idea: I could take key points from the message, and somehow make a Mash-Up of those things and make it even more memorable. And WHAM! I’ve combined music with Mark’s message. This isn’t a full length anything, because, well, I don’t have THAT much time. Just wanted to see if it could be done and be worthwhile. I think the answer may be “yes” to both.

This is a segment taken from last weekend’s message “We Fight Too Much” in our series, “Shhh…” at NewSpring.

We Fight Too Much

Life at our house is never calm. It’s pretty loud and crazy. That’s what 3 kids’ll do. One of our favorite things is to turn on “Boomin’” by Toby Mac and dance our hearts out…and that’s so we can calm down for bed. Just kidding.

But, really, all in all, our lives are pretty calm and not-too-excitingish.

Isn’t it funny how God loves to shake us up a little so we’ll depend on Him completely? Well, we’ve been getting hints that God is up to something, and we’re excited but a little scared at the same time.

I can’t go into any details at this point, but I’d sure ask each of you to pray for us as we seek God and His kingdom above everything.

I have been trying to figure out my old password and user id and all of that at Flickr. It’s been over a year since I touched it. Anyway. I’ve changed emails and stuff since then, so I’ve given up hope completely. Well, I’ll put some old photos on there, so it feels authentic and all.

Tomorrow, you’re never going to guess this, I’m going to work on the deck. I’m hoping to actually get it practically finished! That’s actually probably a stretch, but I’m going to give it a shot.

I’ll try to get some completed photos of the thing so I can take some solace in my own idiocy.

I am in the process of converting this site to an exciting, daring, unbelievable (maybe not, but it’s at least different) direction. That’s really all I’m going to say for today. Now, all of you faithful readers (both of you) can check back in the next few days to see the makeover.