Storehouse - a blog for my church family, specifically

Let me tell you a story:  Once upon a time, Isaac and I came to Celebration Church drawn by the idea of a Storehouse.  We punched our fists in the air and screamed out, "YES that's what church should look like. Shut down a whole service to BE the church." We've only been a handful of times. The end.

Let me tell you another story:  A couple of months ago, I felt the most intense feeling of...purpose SUDDENLY that I've ever felt in my life.  I texted a friend and said, "I think sometime soon I'm going to really know something about my purpose from God.  Not my big purpose (we all know that, just read the bible and do what He says to do, don't get too caught up in the details) but something specific to me." I figured that sometime in the next few months, something would happen.  I kid you not, less than an hour later, I started writing something out on my phone and when I was finished something whispered in my spirit that's it, Courtney.  It was NOT what I expected.

I wrote about Storehouse.  How I yearned for more people to be "into" it.  How I didn't understand why the majority of the church wasn't coming on Storehouse nights. WHY *I* WASN'T COMING!

I want this to be the year we all help with Storehouse. 

There, I said it. 

Listen, I'm speaking to ME!  We have kids and it's HARRRRRRD with their ages.  I use the "there's no one to watch the kids" excuse but I can do better. I can help, I can figure it out.  The number of families being ministered to and loved on is growing. GROWTH!  

Please, consider helping. Tell yourself "just this one time" if it gets you in the door. We need you.  Your love, your heart, your hugs, your muscles, your presence that says, "hey Storehouse worker, you aren't alone in this.  Let's lock arms, get dirty if need be and BE the body."  

Let's feed people 

Let's clothe people 

Let's show those warm, full people that God is FOR them and has loved them unconditionally from day one. They may have never really *heard* that.  Let's show them what it looks like to see a big group of people who all look different come together as one to LOVE THEM.   We do it every Sunday to newcomers and in kids church, right?  WE GOT THIS!  Hey Celebration Church...we're GOOD at this!  We literally just have to be obedient and show up! 

Don't leave this blog feeling guilty if you haven't helped or mad at me for asking.  If you are sick, or work on Wednesdays or something obviously you can't, but maybe you can help in other ways.  Or maybe you can offer to do childcare just one Wednesday a month, during Storehouse.  Or you can come on Tuesdays and help my mom (Kim Michael) and crew hang up clothes so that people can easily find what they need.  Or you can come to the bible study that Janet and Amber are starting on Monday mornings. And we can all pray.  All of us!  

I am metaphorically, vulnerably,  standing in front of you and saying, "I messed up.  I've been selfish.  I've been scared.  I don't want to see hard things and then be accountable.  I like the idea of things more than I like actually getting involved. I am an introverted homebody.  I am more comfortable around paper than people.  HOLD ME ACCOUNTABLE!  ENCOURAGE ME!"  As I write this, I look over at Willow who is sick and I know I can't go tonight for the SECOND time this year. This year that was supposed to be the year I go every time.  What?  So, I get it.  I get you.

Listen to this song and know it's for you!

The Church - Elevation Worship

I love you Celebration Church.  All of you helpful, loving, funny, accepting people!  I hope you see my heart in this.

-C

***

The following is an excerpt from a blog I read by Ann VosKamp a month or so ago and it's a great encouragement.  I hope you have time to read it.

He raises his one free hand only slightly when he says it to us lowly, quietly, his life never about anything loud or noticeable: “All that matters is that we were Davids — David “who had served God’s purpose in his own generation” Acts 13:36.

And I can hardly nod, God so loud in my ears.

All that matters is that we are Davids who served God’s purposes in our own generation.

That we are Mrs. Stoope over stoves and grandmothers over God’s goodnesses and people over ourselves and we just take whatever is in our hands and just thank God for it and He just uses this to change the world, multiplying our thanks into the abundant Enough to give and this is what the passionate do with their hands.

We are the Davids who served not our own agendas but God’s purposes in this generation and we are the Esther Generation right here and now and it is us who want hard and holy things because we want more than hollow lives.

We are the Davids who served not some cultural ladder but God’s purposes in this generation and we are the Esther Generation rising right here and now and it is us who want a life more than self-focus and cell phones, more than iPhones, iTunes, and iLove, who want a Life of loving the least, the lonely and the lost right. where. we. are

Who know that being like Christ and caring for the poor in our homes and down the street and across town means more than just caring about easing our consciences  – it means caring enough to live lives of real sacrifice.

We are the Davids who served not ourselves but God’s purposes in this generation and there is a whole Esther Generation rising right here and now and it is us who say now is the time:

For the faith brave 
to skydive, to take wing and fly.

I run my hand along the wall built by the radical two words — thank you —  the thank IOUs of Mrs. Stoope and the cutter and the brave mother and the worshipping men and all the band of revolutionaries who were changing the world and didn’t even know it and that is what the hand of God does. God’s making a thousand things happen when we don’t even know they are happening. 

God uses the “just” moms and “just” people to do just that: just change the world – them doing just what they’re called to with just what they have in their hands, with just enough faith to say thanks.

Radical Gratitude is the attitude of the revolutionaries. The radically grateful become the being radically generous.

For you who are worn from this battle

Hey, come here. Let me give you a big hug. 

He's got you, honey. 

I would move heaven and earth to fix this for you but the only One that can do that is the One who created you. The One who created the heavens and the earth. 

He not only knew about this moment-this struggle-when He was creating you in the secret place, weaving you together in your mother's womb, He orchestrated it.  Yes, this. THIS. 

Sometimes that thought makes me feel better and sometimes it makes me feel bitter. Just being honest. 

More than anything though, in the deepest part of me, it makes me feel created. Held. Not accidental. On purpose. 

*Purpose*

He wrote this into your song (yes THIS).  Let Him lead you in rhythm. Watch your Father smile, His head thrown back in ecstasy as his baton waves wildly before you, showing you how fast, how slow, how intense, how soft to play. Play to His rhythm, listen for His heartbeat to lead you (you can hear because you're close to it). Be silent when He calls for silence. Be loud when He calls for intensity. Let him conduct. Don't be intimidated by the silences, don't try to fill them with your own music, they're there for a purpose. 

Rest in the hands that are more than big enough to hold you, your baggage, your problems, your pain and your joy. Rest in the hands capable enough to sift through all of that and see YOU. Not the broken you, the whole you.  The created you.  His you. 

As we break away from this hug know that I'm actively praying for you today, sweet child of God. Whether you know it or not He loves you and He's fighting for you. Even as you don't believe in Him, He believes in you. 

When all hope is lost, Hope hasn't lost you. 

"He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing." (Isaiah 40:11, 12, 25, 26 NIV)

*on silence

"When you listen to a song, you only hear the harmony because of the emptiness between the notes.  If the song is too full of notes, it becomes nothing but noise.  To hear the harmony you have to let the silences have their place in the song.  It's like each note is a pearl upon a necklace and the silences are what strings them all together.

"Maybe God knows that without his silences in our lives, we will never hear the melody of faith.

"I think in every person's life a day comes when faith becomes a choice.  You can either give up on the silence of God or choose to trust him in the dark as Jesus did while he was dying on the cross. " - Steven James 

*Edit*

After I wrote the blog I thought of this:

It's kind of like when Willow cries for a long period of time and can't tell me why. All she can do is cry and be held while I say "I know I know". And I do, even when I don't.  God knows, He doesn't *need* your words.  Be held today!