New Smoke: A “Little” Update

As most of you know, my family moved to the Durham/Chapel Hill area to start a new church.  The economy was declining, and as an executive recruiter I sensed it was time to explore what we felt was the call to move to the RTP area of NC to start a new church or be connected to a church that was missional in focus.  It was an adventure and continues to be.  We ended up loosing funding for the plant (After Angie had already resigned and taken a position at a hospital in Durham), moving (after getting out of a lease on a place in downtown Durham), having Angie has the worst experience of her life at her new job.  (She was always the liked one, and found herself in a situation with a group that called themselves the “mean nurses” and an organization that didn’t train or manage properly)  I spent the first six months networking…starting over really…to find that it was more difficult to connect with a sponsoring church or group for a plant than placing an EVP in a company.  Since then, Angie has transfered to UNC and it has been a world of difference.  At the same time Angie has started showing symptoms of something.  She lost 15 pounds in around 3 weeks, her hands are tremoring, she has some blurred vision and is extremely tired.  She had a ton of blood work done (still waiting on the rest) and they did detect an irregular heartbeat.  Her pulse rate was around 120.

I have always been the eternal optimist.  Yet I see myself being paralysed all of these “roadblocks” that keep popping up.  It has never been an issue before.  My left and right brain (that argue constantly) question, “Is this opposition becuase we are heading in the right direction, or did we just hear God wrong.  God is showing me how selfing I can be in not seeing what was happening to my wife.

My passion is still being missional – helping others find and follow Christ and seeing people empowered to see God’s kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.  The question is this?  A friend once said to me that the calling of God is without revoke – so do I move forward in this despite the roadblocks and not knowing what is going on with Angie?  Do I just find a job to bring in income and postpone the church plant?  Or do I do a bit of both?  Life has a way of being so different in differnt seasons.  When I started Midtown Church in Atlanta, things just fell into place.

I’m learning just to be honest.  God used the weak to demonstrate his power in the Bible.  I find comfort in that.  However, when you feel weak, you may “be” strong, you just don’t feel strong.

Please pray for God’s clarity.  I’ll keep every one updated.  My blog is “redemptivetobacco”.  Since I feel like one of those worms that eats on a tobacco leaf, I have faith that he can redeem me and this situation too.

May we all see God’s redemption around us every day.  You can follow me on twitter or facebook…

Facebook – www.profile.to/mikelittle

Twitter – http://twitter.com/mike_little