3 Times I've Been Grateful God Didn't Give New City What I Prayed For
There are many times that God doesn't give us what we ask. There are also times when he doesn't give us what we ask because he intends to give us what we ask in a better way than we could have imagined. Here are three times God has done exactly that for New City Church.
1) The facility we meet in
When we began preparing to launch New City Church, I didn't think finding a space would be hard. Boy was I wrong. We wanted to be in a particular part of North Raleigh, but for various reasons, we couldn't get into any of the schools, community centers, and various other potential places for us to meet in on Sundays.I was extremely discouraged by all this and couldn't understand why nothing was working. Especially considering that this is where we felt we were supposed to be. Our original plan was launch in January 2017, but because we had no place to potentially meet, that also meant we didn't even know when we could really launch.Finally, we came across a space that we could rent 24/7 and at the same cost as renting a school for only Sunday mornings. Oh and by the way, it was in the dead center of the area we wanted to be in. If God had answered our prayers in the manner and time in which we asked him, we would be meeting in a facility we could only use on Sundays. Instead, we have our own space that includes zero setup and tear down, and allows us to do a lot of events and other things that wouldn't have been possible otherwise.
2) Our financial provision
Even though Christina and I had (what we thought) were strong relationships with a few larger churches, we still had no significant funding help from any churches. Not only was that hurtful, but it was really discouraging. It didn't seem like we would have anywhere close to what we needed for some of the necessary start-up expenses (even with us being minimal as possible in what we were trying to get).However, instead of providing any significant church backing, God provided through the generosity of his people. And while we did and still do receive some financial backing from people who are not a part of New City (of which we are extremely grateful for), it was our own people that have primarily funded the mission of New City from the very beginning.While we do have a very tight budget, to essentially be a self-sustaining church a year and a half into being a church is not a normal story. And while it was difficult to receive so many "no's" in the beginning, God had a much better and healthier plan for our church.
3) The rate in which New City has grown
I'm sure there is probably some part of this that is rooted in pride, but like most pastors, I want New City to grow simply because that means more people are meeting Jesus and growing in a relationship with him. And while New City has certainly grown since we began, it has been much slower than what I would have wanted if you had asked me what my hopes were when we launched as a church.But again, this has been for our good. Slow growth has allowed is to really figure out what we are doing, what we want to do, and how to assimilate new people as they come. I have needed this time to grow as a pastor, preacher, and leader. As a young pastor, and with New City having a young staff team, we would not have been able to handle too many people right away. It honestly would have setup us up to fail.Instead, we have been able to learn and grow in a healthy manner while our church has grown. Ultimately this will lead to New City being a healthier church with the potential for a bigger impact than if we had a bunch of people and were scrambling to get by.While there are many more I could share, I am thankful for God's faithfulness and his grace. And sometimes an unanswered prayer isn't a no, it's a yes in a bigger and better way than you could have imagined.