If it's okay with everyone today, I'm going to be a bit vulnerable. We haven't posted a blog in a couple of weeks, to be precise, we haven't posted since my second day as the Student Pastor at Real Hope Community Church. It has been an insane couple of weeks since then, lining up meetings with staff members, church members, and potential partners who will be funding our personal Ministry in West Houston. In the midst of that, we took some time this past week to unplug for a bit and lay out a bit of vision for our family. The thing that came up for Marin and I as we set goals for ourselves, for Knox, and for our family as a whole, is that we need to trust fully in the Lord. I remember thinking a couple of months ago, when I handed in my letter of intent to Faith West Academy with a "no," without having another job lined up and barely having a first interview under my belt: Man, I have never had this much faith. This feels great, thanks for stretching me God!" A few weeks after that, when I did not get the job I was interviewing for, I thought: Wow, God. I trust You. I trust that You've designed this, and I am genuinely excited and terrified to see where it goes. Then, after approaching Ryan and Jenny at Real Hope and beginning to have the conversation about what it would look like to raise support for our salary, I remember thinking; Okay God, this is scary, and it doesn't make sense, but You have a plan here. Here I am. I was petrified... some days, I still am. I told you I would be vulnerable. Thankfully Marin and I both have friends who love us dearly in the Self family and the Coker family, both of which currently live on support as well, and both of which pointed myself and Marin respectively to a book called "The God Ask." Admittedly Marin has read more of the book than I have and has given me the "Spark Notes" version, but the point is this: We aren't asking people to provide for our needs, we are asking God to provide for our needs through his people. Specifically, the people that we know and love who believe in God's plan for us and want to see this world changed. So what do we plan to do? Why should people pray about supporting us in Ministry? We are just Student Pastors, right? Our primary job is to keep kids out of trouble and hope that they learn about Jesus in the process while not making their parents too mad about how messy they are. Right? WE BELIEVE THAT OUR COMMISSION AND OUR CALLING IS SO MUCH MORE THAN THAT We believe that it is the opportunity of the church to partner alongside parents, to work together with them to bring up a Spiritually aware, Missionally minded generation that values family, marriage, purity, kindness, social justice, life, and the list goes on. We want to not only create a generation that values God's Word; We want to EMPOWER a generation to teach the NEXT generation about the value of God's Word! In other words, we believe in partnering with families to build up and empower daughters and sons to be able to build up and empower THEIR daughters and sons for the sake of the Gospel! The vision of Real Hope is that we would "be continually transformed by the Gospel and share the real hope of Jesus with the world around us." This is not a hastily thrown together vision statement just because the church needed one. Our desire is that all of our people would be CONTINUALLY transformed by the Gospel. From the newest baby, to the oldest couple, from the questioning individual to the trained pastor, our goal is to create an environment where it is okay to ask questions, "take chances, make mistakes, and get messy," in the words of Ms. Frizzle. We want this to result in real life change in the people of this community, that people would not only learn about Jesus and be transformed initially, but that individuals would walk alongside each other and be transformed together in discipleship. The second part comes out of a recognition that the Gospel is not the end, but the means. The Gospel compels people who have been transformed to share the source of that transformation, Jesus Christ, with the world around them. One thing that I hear over and over in our fancy office (Starbucks) is that we want to be a church planting church plant. We don't expect, nor do we want, the Gospel to stop with us. We want to build up students and adults so well that when they feel compelled to GO, they are equipped and GO without a second thought. We want to train students and their parents to share the Gospel, whether it is next door to their home, in their workplace, in their school, in their city, in this country, or overseas. How will we do that? Trust me, I ask myself that question and wrestle with that concept daily. Pastor Craig Groeschel at LifeChurch.tv says:
That brings me to my Scripture above. Finally, right?
"You haven't done this before. Ask, using my name, and you will receive, and you will have abundant joy" John 16:24 NLT. You haven't done this before. That is the understatement of my life, so far. At 18, if you had looked me in the eye and told me that I would be raising support to feed my family so that I could solely focus on a brand new Student Ministry, and really a Next Gen Ministry, that is being built from the ground up, I would have laughed. Probably uproarously, and you might have been offended. But I am now 26 and the thing I thought I would never be a part of is unfolding in front of me, and the wind and the waves are rising on all sides. But don't be discouraged by that. Read our posts, look at the way we talk and the words we say. Yes, recognize that we are in a storm and need prayer, but also recognize that our focus is entirely on Jesus Christ. You won't see us grim or sad, but full of faith and joy; Certain that God will provide 100%. So we are asking God directly, in Jesus name, Just like He directs us to in John's Gospel, for a few things this week, and we would ask that anyone that sees this blog post would join us. 1) I (Percy) will be on a support raising trip to the Belton/Temple/Killeen area from 6/22-6/26 (Wednesday-Sunday) coming up this week. Pray for several things regarding that trip: A) Pray that the Lord will fill my time with meetings -both people who will donate and people who will commit to praying for us B) Ask God to provide for our finances, at least partially, through this trip. We are already 1/3 funded (Praise God!) so we are praying for an easy remaining 2/3 C) Pray for my safety on the trip. 2) We have several letters out and emails to churches and individuals. Pray that they would respond, even if they are not interested, so that we can continue to pray for those who haven't yet made decisions. 3) Pray for our hearts and minds as Satan continues to oppress and attack us. This is probably the highest affirmation that we are exactly where we need to be, but it is our greatest need that the Lord would help and protect us when Satan attacks. 4) Pray for the Next Gen team at Real Hope Community Church. In July, we will finally have our curriculum for the first few months in hand, pray that the Lord will guide us in our planning and that He will direct us to mesh even better than we can imagine as a team (Seriously, we have an all-star cast already, we just need to get rolling!). 5) Pray that, when people who have never given like this begin to pray, that they would ask In Jesus' name what they should do, and that they would then receive from God the direction that their giving should take. Whether that means finances, prayer, or some other resource that we haven't imagined yet. Now, we also want everyone to celebrate with us, so here are a few really cool updates: 1) We are 1/3 of the way funded. I don't know if you caught that earlier, but we have 1/3 of our $3750 per month already promised! Praise the Lord with us, because He is incredibly generous to have showed up in such a mighty way so early in our support raising process! 2) Knox is now officially a 1 year old! This child is super cool, overflowing with personality, and makes me the proudest dad in history with how quick and smart he is at just about everything! 3) I have started the job! It is now no longer just a dream, but an extremely vivid reality. I am hard at work, contacting other churches to gain whatever wisdom I can so that we can start off big and start off right. Thank so much for all your prayers up until this point, God Bless and have a great week! Percy Hudson
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Marin HudsonMarin likes to stay up late and write. But sometimes Percy will write as well. :) Archives
October 2017
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