(Note by Pastor Bill, written on August 15, 2006)

I remember the rock. It wasn’t anything special but it sticks in my mind like a photograph. Sitting there beside that creek in May of 2004, arguing with God after He put a crazy thought in my head, I was determined to ignore the idea and think about something else. He wouldn’t let me. He was putting the desire to launch a church in my heart.  I ignored His idea for a year.   After that day by the creek, when I’d almost heard a voice, I determined that I needed to back off on the caffeine. But that didn’t help either. I was in a great place and very comfortable and didn’t want to rock my world with this craziness.

Then I saw the little country church. It was at Christmas and my Dad and I were driving across what had been open fields several years ago. Now, as we drove mile after mile, I saw homes. Thousands of homes! Thousands of people! After several miles, I finally sat up and thought, “wow, God, you see them too and it breaks your heart”.   We reached an intersection and stopped. To the right were these thousands of homes. To our left, only fields and a small country church with a bell tower. It was ringing. It was Sunday morning and there were only 15 cars in the parking lot! But I saw thousands of people across the street! Why weren’t they coming? Why didn’t they cross the street? It was only 50 feet between them but it may as well have been the Grand Canyon. Those people were not going to come into the church. The church needed to come to them.

That image really messed me up. I couldn’t sleep for months. All I saw was people. Decent, good people who were walking around with a giant hole in the middle of them who only needed someone to come into their world and be Jesus. They needed to see Him. They had marriages crumbling, sexually transmitted diseases, kid’s goin’ off the deep end and financial ruin crushing them. They were drowning in loneliness, emptiness and a miserable existence. But they are capable of so much more. They are worth a ton more than they realized. They matter!

In fall of 2005, I lost it. At the funeral of a young father I watched some really great people go through hell. I watched a young widow and her three small kids try to cope with hopeless sorrow. I listened to friends try to say “goodbye” when they didn’t know how to.   It was such a wake up call for me. God said “so, your stuff, comforts and security is worth more than those people?”   I couldn’t bag on Him this time. I knew I had to give it all up for them. For people. I said “I’m all in God. I don’t have a clue, a hint or any skill but I HAVE to do this. I’m in”

Along the way, we've seen God bring other gifted leaders to join the Lifepointe team. He has already started touching and changing lives and we are determined to work hard as he keeps bringing people across our path. People who matter and who are capable of changing their world as God changes them!

We can’t wait to see what He’ll do