A Venture of Faith...in Charleston, South Carolina

Phew....now I can breathe.

You don't know how hard it has been to keep this announcement under wraps. But Sunday we were finally able to tell people what the Lord had been doing in our hearts and have people get excited with us.

So who is we and what are we doing?

Let me give you a back story first...

Josh and Jessica Claborn have been praying about planting a church for a while now. God has been really working in their hearts personally and really gave them a burden to be sent out and plant a church. Back in early January, Pastor Tony met with Josh and basically kicked him out of the church. Tony knew that Josh and Jess both had so many talents and gifts but they weren't being used to their ful potential by still just serving in the church. So, Tony told Josh to start praying specifically about a place to go and he wanted him gone by January of 2014. At the same time that this was going on I was praying about a couple different opportunities that had been presented to me. Right before I was going to go and check one of these opportunities out Tony wanted to meet with me. He told me what he told Josh and asked if I would pray about being apart of this church plant as well. I then went down to this opportunity and realized that it wasn't for me. I really just didn't have a peace about it. I felt like that if it was from the Lord then I would have this overwhelming sense of peace. That peace came when I began praying about this church plant. God just really placed in my heart a burden and an excitement to be apart of this.

Fast forward about a month. Josh, Jessica and myself had been meeting every week and praying specifically for what God would have us do. We knew that we wanted to plant in the south. God just put that desire on our hearts. South Carolina had come up a few times so Josh and Jessica started looking into cities that were in South Carolina. That's where Charleston comes in. Both Josh and Jess were immediately drawn to this place. A big part of it was because it has so many college students and universities in the city. They have been leading the college ministry at Calvary Creekside for about a year and half now and just really had a burden for that. So in February the two of them took a trip down there to check it out and immediately God started confirming a lot of stuff. The Calvary pastor that was already there said there is an overwhelming need for Bible teaching churches there. People who have a major love for God's Word and want to proclaim his name. They both came back very encouraged and we all knew this was where we were supposed to go.

Therefore, coming in January 2014 we will be moving to Charleston, SC to plant a church from the ground up.

So what will be my role?

I will be mainly serving in the worship leader role but also mainly to just come alongside Josh and Jessica.  Planting a church is very hard work, and even harder for two people. I want to serve them and just help in anyway I can. God has put that excitement in my heart to do that.

So how has the Lord prepared me for this?

I have been leading worship and serving in ministry since I was 15 or 16. My heart has always been to serve in some capacity in ministry. I have been leading worship at Calvary Creekside for the past 4 years and been involved in the every day happenings at church. From serving in youth ministry to mowing the lawn. The heart for church planting really began when we attempted to plant a church in Bellingham, WA a couple of years ago. Just the excitement about building a church from the ground up and seeing what God can do was overwhelming. And I have had a desire to do that ever since.

But the biggest way God has prepared me has been over this last year. This year has brought a lot of change in my life. God has shut some doors and really just said, "Hey, you need to focus solely on me and my call on your life." God is so faithful to each and every one of us and I am thankful for that. I have known for a while that a big change in my life was going to happen I just didn't know in what capacity yet. When this opportunity came up I was reading 1 Kings. And in chapter 19 it talks about the call of Elisha. Elijah put his cloak on Elisha signifying that he was called to do the work of God and take over for Elijah. What Elisha did next was incredible. He burned his plows and all his livestock. He left everything behind to follow the calling God had on his life. And I feel that this is what this move requires. Myself dropping everything to follow God's call on my life. His ways are far greater than I could ever imagine or hope for. And I am thankful for that or else I don't know where I would be.

So what can you do?

The biggest thing you can do is pray for us. Pray for God to give us clear vision as we continue to plan for this and see where He takes it. That He would be in every aspect of this church plant. That it wouldn't be done by anything by our power but His alone. Pray that the calling would continue to be confirmed and that the peace of God would rule all of our hearts. Pray that the provisions and all the logistics would be worked out. And finally, pray that God would raise up people to come along with us. Like I said earlier, planting a church is hard work and we need workers. God is going to do an amazing work and we are beyond excited for what lies ahead.

It's bittersweet leaving a church I have been apart of for so many years and leaving my family. It's very scary in fact. I have known really not much else besides Washington State. But I know that God has it all in His hands. 9 months from now some big change is going to come.

I am very excited for all that's ahead and I am excited to have you guys journey with us.

"For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from Him.  He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out Your heart before Him, God is a refuge for us. Once God has spoken twice have I heard this: that power belongs to God, and that to you, O Lord, belongs steadfast love. For you will render to a man according to His work."

Psalm 62:5-9, 11-12

"Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints."

Ephesians 1:18

That passage in Ephesians is our prayer for the church plant. That our hearts and the people of Charleston would be enlightened and know how great God is!

Blessings,

Ben

Here is a video of Charleston that we made that shows what the city is like

The East Coast

It's been about a month since I got back from the east coast and I still am trying to process everything that happened. There was so much that went on in so little time that it's very hard to put into words. Let me just start and say that God was in every aspect of this journey. From beginning to end we saw God's hand in it all. And I think that is the most very important thing to recognize because that is the reason that we went there. We went there to show the people Jesus and I think if He wasn't in it then we would not have been able to do that...at least under our own power anyway.

So to start off the trip we had a group of 5 men leave Lynden at 6am on a Wednesday morning with a truck and a 5th wheel behind it; as well as a motorhome with a contractor 15 foot trailer behind it. We had quite the caravan going on. The drive ended up being very long for them. They arrived in Howell, NJ at about 8am on Saturday. Right off the bat things started to go wrong. They arrived at the camp and the camp was simply not ready for our awesomeness. They didn't have room for the truck and the motorhome. So what they ended up having to do was sending us to a different camp closer to the coast in Point Pleasant Beach. This was totally God ordained. Even when we were frustrated we see that God was working out His perfect plan in all of this. The group arrived to the camp in the afternoon and this camp was part of a church called Jersey Shore Calvary Chapel. We were essentially camped out in the backyard of the Pastor's house. His name was John Durante and we had no idea who this guy was. But this guy was an amazing man of God who just wanted to serve the people in his town as much as possible. Not only was he doing all this work but was still pastoring at the same time. It was very humbling to encounter him and just to hear from him all that The Lord was already doing.

The second group of 5 men flew into NJ on Sunday night and the work would begin on Monday. When we went out to begin working we really didn't know what to expect in terms of whose houses we would be working on or how badly damaged the houses actually were. When you look at these houses from the outside they look like normal houses. But as soon as you walk inside the houses you see just how bad this hurricane was. Each house that we encountered had at least 10 inches of water in them at one point; some as high as 2 feet!

But the real reason we came was for the people of the city. People who had just lost everything and who needed help. Every person we encountered along this trip was somehow affected by the hurricane and they just needed help. But what really baffled them was why a group of ten men would come from Washington to help them out. This opened up so many doors to just show them who Jesus is. One guy in particular was married to a lady who attended the church that we were serving alongside but he did not. This was the last day before we would leave and for some reason he thought we were going to be showing up at his house at 9am. This we didn't know and we were going to be later then 9am. We showed up around 10 and apparently between 9 and 10 he was just ticked. He said to his wife that "this was why he doesn't associate with Christians" and so on and so forth. He was not happy. But when we did show up and he saw how many of us had come he just broke into tears. He was just overwhelmed by the fact that 10 guys would show up to help him and pray for him and just talk with him. He was so overwhelmed that he couldn't hang around for very long or he would cry like crazy. Hopefully we opened some doors for Him to meet Jesus and for his wife to bring him t church. That was why we were there. For the people to see Jesus. To love on people and say we love you and want to help you because Jesus loves you.

There is so much more that I could go into but it's hard to put it all into words. I hope that we can continue to do trips like this and help people who are in need. This country needs Jesus. America isn't Christian, we are just practicing the ritual. That's why we should be missional. The United States is dying. We claim we aren't ashamed but we still haven't hit our own block up. WE need to get out of our Christian bubbles.

I love these lyrics from Lecrae's song "Send Me"

"Life is more than church, work and football
What if you were dead and Christians overlooked y'all
This is why we leave the couch and leave the comforts of our house
To show a dying world a God they'll probably never read about

The great commission says 'Make disciples of all nations'
Have we even made them in our own nation?
Come on christians
Missions exist because worship doesn't
People don't worship the God that made them
We are ambassadors"

We need to get out of our comfort zones and go out and preach the Gospel. As American's we thrive off comfort. But God never promised lives of comfort...he said we will suffer like He suffered as a Christian. We will face persecution and we will be mocked. We shouldn't fear suffering...we should welcome it because it is a gift from God (Philippians 1:29). God suffered for us and even though we may not understand the suffering at the time it is ultimately for God's glory.

A little less than a week ago the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT happened. It is hard t believe how somebody could do something so horrific but this world is wicked and fallen. Just this morning 2 men from our church dropped everything they were doing to fly to Connecticut to serve alongside the Calvary there and bring the Love of Christ to that city. God is giving so many opportunities to our small fellowship that are bigger than any of us. Who thought that within a months time of each other 2 groups of men would go to the east coast to minister and love on people who are hurting?! God works in amazing ways. Continue to pray that God would do that in our own lives and in our fellowship. And pray for Josh Claborn and Tim Rinker as they are over there in CT right now. Pray that The Lord would give them opportunities, wisdom and discernment. And for their families back home as well. Being so close to Christmas it is very hard I'm sure. Lord willing they will be back on Christmas Eve.

"Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies---in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever Amen."

1 Peter 4:8-11

I hope that we can all get a sense of urgency and get out and reach the people not only around the world but even in our own backyard.

Dear Tim

Dear Tim,

You have been such an influence in my life. Your unending love and joy for the Lord has been such a model for who I want to be.  You truly were a man after God's own heart. I can't thank you enough for the impact that you have had on my life.  Every time I was around you I was convicted of my own walk with Jesus. You invoked a want to be fully surrendered to God's will.  Even in the trials that you faced, you trusted that God's plan was perfect.

I thank God every day for the chance that I had to know you. You were such a good friend to me and that is something that I will hold onto forever.  You were a person that was very easy to talk to because all you wanted to talk about was Jesus.  Your testimony about how you got saved will be told over and over again.  I look forward to the day when I will see you again.

Since I found out that you were no longer with us a song has been continually going through my head. The verse and the chorus go like this.

"I hear Your voice and I catch my breath.
'Well done my child. Enter in and rest.'
Tears of joy run down my cheeks
It's beautiful beyond my wildest dreams.

I want to run on greener pastures
I want to dance on higher hills
I want to drink from sweeter waters
In the misty morning chill
And my soul is getting restless
For the place where I belong
I can't wait to join the angels and sing
My Heaven Song"

 ~ Phil Wickham - Heaven Song

You are now singing and dancing with Jesus Tim. You have been waiting and longing to sing your heaven song. I am so glad that you are in the presence of God and I am very envious as well. I long for that day but you no longer have to. Your soul is no longer restless. You are home.

Love you so much Tim and I will miss you dearly; as will everyone else who had the privilege of knowing you.

"I tell you this brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nr does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on the immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written:

"Death is swallowed up in victory."
"O death, where is your victory?"
"O death, where is your sting?"

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

1 Corinthians 15:50-57 (ESV)

Thanks be to God that death has been beaten and the grave has been conquered.

The Sustainer

"I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that was given you in Christ Jesus, that in every way you were enriched in Him in all speech and all knowledge even as the testimony about Christ was confirmed among you so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift, as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will SUSTAIN you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:4-9

This passage hit me in a way that it never has before. I have read over this passage so many times and I amazed at how many different and new things you can get out of a passage each time you read it.  Obviously you can see by the title of this post is that the fact that God is the Sustainer stood out to me this time.  There comes a point in everyone's lives, including myself, where you feel like you have nothing. You feel as if everything is falling apart and your life is in shambles.  There are two different paths you can take in these moments: 1 you can either let your life continue to crumble and lose all sense of worth in your life, or 2 you can look to the only thing in this life that does matter and that is Jesus.  Because so many times we think that we are self sufficient. Things are going great for us and we feel we can do everything on our own and that we don't need God. But that is the farthest thing from the truth.  We need to look to him as all sufficient and everything that our lives are about.  Without Him are lives are nothing.  That's why it says in this passage that HE will sustain us until the end.  Not you will sustain yourself, or your money will sustain you. NO! It is Jesus who sustains us and we should be grateful for that.

There is that saying that I have heard and used myself many times that has kind of become a Christian cliche and that is that "God will never give you anything that you can't handle".  That statement doesn't put the whole picture together.  God gives us things all the time that on our own we would never be able to handle.  The weight of these situations and circumstances would just crush a person.  The only way that we can handle these is in and through the person of Jesus Christ.  Without his sustaining power we would not be able to handle them. When a storm or trial comes and we try to handle it on our own then we will fall to pieces and be crushed by it all, but if we look to Jesus as our anchor and ask for His help then He will give us the strength and power we need to get through whatever comes our way.  And after we get through that trial we give Him all the glory and not ourselves. Later in the same chapter of 1 Corinthians Paul says that God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise and what is weak in the world to shame the strong. Why? Not so we can boast in our power but so that we can boast in His power and His glory. May each of us do that today.

"Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord." 1 Corinthians 1:31b

What are we doing?

Lately, I have been pounded with question in my head..."What are you doing with this life?"  I'm sure each and everyone of you has had this question go through your mind.  Am I doing what I am supposed to be doing?  Am I doing what God wants me to do? Am I doing enough?  These are all tough questions that are tough to answer.  I just recently finished reading the book of Ecclesiastes.  This book of the Bible just ruined me.  It basically told me that everything I do in this life is all vanity.  Well, not entirely. It said everything I do in this life that is APART FROM JESUS is vanity.  This is a concept that I have always known but have I really taken it seriously?

If you know me at all you know that I can obsess over a lot of things.  One area of the world that I obsess with is sports.  Growing up, sports is all I knew.  I lived and breathed Seattle Mariners baseball when I was a kid.  And to an extent I still do.  If you walk into my room you would understand what I mean.  But this obsession with sports came to a point where it was too much of me.  It consumed my being.  All my Facebook and Twitter posts were about sports.  I realized that I have spent so much money on sports! All my money gone, poof! On jerseys, tickets, banners, sweatshirts.  And for what?  Do I get to take all that with me when I go to heaven? No! And people have been telling me for years that I had a problem with this but I didn't want to believe it.  In Ecclesiastes 6:5 it says that "It is better for a man to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools." For a long time I was listening to the song of fools.  Sports was an idol in my life.  An idol that I could not shake.  I found my self more concerned with whether my sports teams won rather than the things of God.  That is just wrong.

In Matt Chandler's book The Explicit Gospel, he touches on this subject beautifully.  And if you haven't read this book I highly suggest that you pick it up.  I haven't even read through the whole thing and it is rocking me to the core. I'm going to give you a little excerpt from chapter 6 of his book.

"We can place our self-worth in anything, including otherwise good things. When we take a good thing and make it an ultimate thing, we ensure that that thing will drive us into the ground. 


I'll give you one example.  You can make money the ultimate goal of your life. There's nothing inherently wrong with money or possessions; otherwise God wouldn't tell us not to steal each other's stuff.  But you can spend all your time on money, putting all your energy into accumulating it.  You can buy a house that you rarely get to go into because you're working fifteen-hour days so that you can amass a fortune.  But in the end, you're going to be painted up like a clown, put in a box, and buried.  I'm not being crass; I'm just being honest. Vanity, vanity, it's all vanity!


Or how about something more spiritual?  Take religion, for another instance. Religion practiced apart from faith in Christ is called self-righteousness in the Bible, and not even the perfecters of self-righteousness themselves, the Pharisees, qualified for God's kingdom.  Faithless religion is vanity. No matter how many people it practically helps, no matter how good it makes you feel, religious effort not rooted in the Gospel is rooted in self-justifying self-worth.  This is meaningless."

Wow! That whole passage, even just typing it, ran me through the mill again.  When we make something ultimate in our lives to the point where it takes us over is vanity.  And I love how he even takes it to the religion side of it.  And I think he hits the points here dead on.  A faithless religion where you get the glory and not God is all vanity.  You are trying to justify yourself when God has already justified you.  He justified you when he died on the cross for you.  We can't earn our way to heaven.  He bought that right from us.  He bought us so we could be with Him.  Everything we do needs to be for Him and Him alone.  If it isn't then what are we even doing?  Where are we going?  What's our purpose?  Our purpose is found in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.  Everything else is just dust.  Check yourself.  God is working on my idols and vanity daily because He knows how many I have (too many to count).  Let Him be the ultimate thing in your life.

Where is your identity?

Hey there family!  It has been a while since I have posted and I figured I should get back on and share something that has been on my heart and God has been convicting me of.  Yesterday I had the privilege of going to Cornwall church in Bellingham to hear Jake Locker speak on his faith.  Before going I was pretty stoked because I thought the whole event was going to be about what Jesus has done in Jake's life and how strong God is in His life.  The event started and everything was going great but by the end of the event I was very disappointed.  There was really nothing at all about Jesus the whole night.  They had worship at the beginning, which was awesome, and then Jake and the assistant pastor came up to do an interview together.  The interview was about 30 minutes long and it broke up into sections like this. Football, more football, even more football, and then Jesus.  20 minutes of the interview was about Jake's football life and the last 10 were about Jesus.  Shouldn't it have been the other way around?!  Jesus should be the reason that we gather in these places.  We come to hear the name of Jesus preached and instead we get a very surfacey interview that has hardly anything to do with Jesus.  This doesn't just take place at specifically Cornwall but all over the world.  People and churches would rather talk about the fun stuff like football, rather than talk about Jesus.  God has really been changing my heart on this issues because I used to be the same way.  I could talk about sports a lot more than I could about Jesus.  I lived and breathed sports...but I realized that sports hold no weight, no value in my life.  Jesus is the only thing that matters and that should be what I want to talk about at all times.  It's a very dangerous path to go down.  Jesus needs to be our sufficiency.  I feel that there is a growing epidemic in churches that is very alarming...if you want your church to grow then you should talk about football, drugs and sex, add a little Jesus at the end and then your church will grow.  Where has the depth gone?! People should want to come to church for Jesus, not to hear about football.  We need to be growing in our relationship with God, not be stagnant in it.  I came across this video clip of David Platt talking about this issue and I think he touches on it beautifully.  This is guy who wants depth in his church.  He is anything but surfacey.  And I praise God for that.  Take a minute to watch this and I hope it convicts you like it did me. 

Worship

Over the past few months the Lord has just been showing me how much I need to rely on Him.  He has been stripping me of all the things that have no place in my life and making Him the number one focus in my life.  I have been reading Ecclesiastes and if you have read it before it says basically everything in life besides Jesus is vanity.  That really convicted me and just showed where my heart has been.  My heart hasn't been totally devoted to the Lord but now is the time to change that.  It has changed everything about my walk.  The way I interact with people, my conversations, my devotions, and even the way I worship.  The Lord is worthy of all praise...worship isn't supposed to be reserved just for Sunday mornings...it's every day of the week.  Don't be ashamed of raising your hands to the Lord and just worshipping Him with all your heart. Even if it's in public...if people catch you in the act don't be ashamed...invite them to worship with you.  It becomes that much more sweet.  Hebrews 12:28-29 says "Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for out God is a consuming fire." (ESV)  The Lord wants us to worship Him and he deserves it.  Are you able to do that?  Is your heart in a place of reverence and awe?  I hope that it is and if it isn't pray that the Lord will give you a heart of worship.  When you worship God it is like nothing else.  With that I wanted to share a song with you that has really spoken to me lately.  It was written by Chris Tomlin and sung by Christ Nockles.  It's called Waiting Here for You. Just sit back and worship.