Branded With Love

Juli and I had been trying to make the move to the hardest-hit-economically city in the nation. It is spiritually, emotionally, financially, and generationally depressed. The hard financial times came recently, however, it’s been struggling in all of the other areas for many years. We wanted to plant a church there for people who had just about checked out on life and had no where else to turn. You know the saying, “When you reach the bottom of the barrel, people tend to look up.” We wanted to be there to help them see Jesus, once they fully got to the bottom of life’s barrel. However, actually getting there has proved to be a tougher task than imagined. I questioned the mission that God assigned to me every 30 seconds. In the end, the mission was coming to fruition without us even moving there. Other churches (who we have pledged to stay in contact with and even agreed to regularly be a guest speak at) are rising up from the graves and starting to fight the fight that they once lost sight of many years ago. They are becoming the churches who will reach into the community and breathe the life giving breath of the Holy Spirit of God into their friends, neighbors and co-workers.

All through this journey there were a few very Godly men that I had made myself accountable to. Just because I had been all over the map, doing Lord knows what, does not give me a license to be a one man army. I need accountability. We ALL do. We all need someone who we can tell our deepest darkest trash to… otherwise, we can turn ugly really quick. Especially in full time ministry. Well, there were a few guys on my roster. Each step of the way I would ask them, “What the crap?! I don’t get this. Why would God call me somewhere… only to slam the door shut right in my face? I’m kind of getting pissed off here.” Each and every one of ‘My Guys’ had the same thoughts… they just used different ways of saying it. There are a few things that God could be doing this for:

1. Maybe God is just really seeing if we would follow through on our promise to go ‘anywhere for Him.’- Now, I dug so deep down this theological rabbit trail, I about went nuts. God is all knowing, God lives outside of time, God knows our thoughts before they even enter our minds. These are all straight from the Bible. So why would an omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent God need to “Test me.” On the other hand, there is a Biblical precedence for God testing us and our hearts for Him. Genesis 22 paints that picture much clearer than any argument I could make to the contrary.

2. Maybe God gave me a vision for something just to move me away from something. – I could see this being true as well. God knows my heart for Forefront Church. He knows that I would NEVER abandon the church or the people that He placed in my care in the first place. He knows that I would never leave Forefront unless it was something really, really big. So, once the Chesapeake Campus closed, we opted to go do the Detroit thing. Now, keep in mind, Forefront had already told me that they wanted to keep us around; we did not have to go anywhere. The ministry that we were doing was working very well at Forefront. So, to get us to pull up our stakes and move away from our beloved church, God placed a big hairy audacious goal in front of us… knowing that we’d bite.

3. Lastly, sometimes God has a destination for us…it’s just that we cannot see it over the mountain, through the woods, or around the bend. – This is the biggest walk away lesson for me. Imagine if when you were 7 years old, your parents told you that you were going to have to go and live on your own, get a full time job, raise other kids, buy a house, and have your college degree done by the time you were 8. You would crap yourself!! Good parents don’t do that. They help their kids achieve goals, one at a time. Then someday, when they are reflecting and looking back, they realize that their parents got them ready for what they are doing right now. God is the best parent that we could ever imagine. If God told me to go do something that I was not yet ready to do, He knows that I would kind of freak out. So, He first needed to get me to cross the river… then He told me to walk through the woods. Once I was through the woods, I could see a huge mountain, and He told me to climb it. Once on top of it, I could see a huge valley. God told me to cross the valley. Once I crossed that valley, He called me to hang out with Him in the gazebo on the hill. I NEVER would have known that there was a gazebo when I was standing on the shores of the river. God is an awesome parent, and He not only meets us where we’re at… He calls us from where we’re at.

With all of that Detroit stuff behind us, and staying here not being an option, I spoke with my biggest mentor of all… Vince. He told me that he would love for us to be able to be a part of helping Verve get started. I’ll be honest, when I found out that he was cool with us moving to Vegas and being a part of all that, my heart kid of palpitated, and I might have peed myself… but just a little bit.

When I originally heard of Vince’s plans to move to Las Vegas and start a church on the Vegas strip, I was pumped. However, God had me here. I am not the type of guy who abandons his team at the sight of something new and sexy. So, I just accepted this as the really crappy time when the Antonucci family leaves and we go our separate ways. But then, the thought of it all coming out to a really sweet ending with us in Las Vegas (did I mention that it doesn’t snow in Vegas?!) with the coolest family that we’ve ever known, and learning from them daily…that’s a dream come true. The opportunity to make an impact in peoples’ lives, who normally would not have any other Christians approach them on their turf… that’s awesome!!

Las Vegas is such a perfect fit for us. Juli and I are looking forward to moving there and quickly jumping in to help out in any way we can. A church that can adequately reach the broken, hurting, and entrenched in sin has been a needed thing for the Las Vegas strip for quite a while.

Though, we will be moving there in less than 4 weeks, we are still not funded $$. With Verve being a brand new church and all, each staff member needs to raise their own support. So, until we can get on our feet financially, we will be living with the Antonucci’s. If you are interested in helping Jen, Vince, Dawson, and Marissa claim their house back from the insanely wild Cason Crew, please consider supporting us with a small monthly amount. We are approximately 65% funded and we would love for you to be the one to put us over the top and help us do ministry (from our own apartment!) in Sin City. Our plans are to be there as church planting interns for 2 years. This will help us to learn so much from Vince and Jen, and also help Verve get off to a great start. From there, we will once again go wherever God leads.

If any of you are interested further, you can contact me directly, or just pop in on Juli’s (my stunningly beautiful and amazing wife… sweet, I should get mad props for that one!!) blog at http://www.cason-adoption.blogspot.com/. It’s just our family blog that updates folks on the craziness of the Cason household. She explains things a lot less ADD-like than I usually do, and she posted on November 3rd regarding all of this fun stuff.

Much Love, and stay the course. The Journey is rough, but well worth it.

Chuck Cason