It was the fall of 2007...

 

Ah, the memories...

I was about 35 years old and our 2 children were 5 and 9. We moved to Dallas in 2007 - the year of the first Apple iPhone release and a year or so before the great recession hit (yikes - remember that?).

I had never preached 2 Sundays in a row in my life at this point. My wife Jackie and I had never planted a church before as the lead planters. But, as God had let us, on Sunday, October 21st, 2007, Dallas Church held its first public worship meeting at the Whitworth Elementary School cafeteria/gym.

Looking back we were so clueless. God worked through us in spite of ourselves. Our initial launch team was a big reason we're still alive all these years later. Thinking back to how naive and foolish I was and, well, 'green' in ministry leadership, it is only by God's grace we can look back to lives changed, baptisms, weddings, marriages healed, and a city that would notice if we didn't exist.

God is still working in and through all of us @ Dallas Church and He's not done with us! Until Jesus comes back, we've got so much good we can do for every neighbor and the 'least' in our circle of influence.

I remember that Scripture from the beginning of Paul's letter to the church in ancient Philippi (Phil. 1:3-6 NIV):

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Let's partner with God to carry His good kingdom work to completion!