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

Because all of the other resources had completely bombed out on us, Juli and I decided that what we would need to do is just start a church out of the living room of our house. But to have a house, you needed a job or at least the possibility of a job in the near future… Detroit has no jobs for those that are already living there, let alone some outsider like me. Meanwhile, there was a guy up there telling me that he wanted this to happen so badly, that he was fully willing to have us move in with his family. So, we revised AGAIN. “Okay God, maybe you want to teach us about community. Maybe you’re trying to help us to live out that whole ordinary radical community revolution like in that book Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne, and then we’ll grow the church out of THAT. Maybe we need to humble ourselves and be willing to move in with another family…do life with them, start a small group” (by this point we already had around 18 people wanting to be a part of it… so it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch). Juli and I prayed about this, and then less than 6 hours later, we found out that the dude didn’t even talk to his wife about us moving in… AND they were having some wicked problems of their own… a really bad time to have extended company. Once all was out and on the table, their demeanor really changed, and things got awkward. So, I said, “Okay God… THAT’S obviously not the way either. You’re not really leaving me any options here. We’re willing… but we’re following YOU.” My biggest fear is that I would create some sweet plans on my own, and then ask God to be a part of it and put His stamp of approval on it. Instead, I only wanted to go as He led us, wherever that may lead.

While all of this was going on, I was busy forging relationships with a few churches directly in the area that we were looking to plant in. I was going to them for financial support, or any ideas that might help get this show off the ground. Each one was struggling incredibly themselves in the financial department (there are 13,000 person churches in Michigan struggling against bankruptcy right now… that’s insane!!). However, they loved some of my ideas, my passion, and the vision that God had given me for the area. Once they learned of my connection with Vince Antonucci and Forefront Church, they started asking ME to help THEM. They wanted to actually BE the kind of church that I was looking at starting… they just didn’t have any clue on how to get that way. So they got really excited once they learned that I was open to sharing with them how we do things here in Virginia Beach, and how I was planning on doing some things right there. In all, there were 4 churches, completely surrounding the area that I was going to plant in, that allowed me to meet with their staff, and kind of be a consultant for them on how to really become a church for people who are far from God. Here’s the coolest thing yet: THEY LISTENED!!! And now they are implementing some of the ideas that we talked about. Maybe I wasn’t off and running with this plant idea…but the over all mission was being taken care of. SWEET!!

More tomorrow, and how we ended up with a road map to Sin City…till then, stay sexy Forefront.

Chuck

So, here we were, full blown “church planters.” Well, at least that’s what my title read on my email signature line. Juli and I were on our way to planting a church in the Detroit area of Michigan… a church like those folks have never seen before. That part of the country is so entrenched in old Catholicism that a dude with a 12 string and a set of bongos could sometimes be considered rockin’ out (most people there have not been inside a church in numerous years, but merely call themselves Catholic as their grandparent were and their parents were ordered to be… but they themselves – well they do not consider themselves anything, but would chose “Catholic” if given a choice on an application). Not to mention, adding side splitting comedy to a church service is way beyond what they expect to find. We wanted to reach the guy there that has given up on church. The guy that is about to check out on life altogether. The 25-35 year old guy that has been sold the line that if only he gets a job working in the factory, then life’ll be grand for the rest of his days. The guy that wants to be a good father and husband, but had no idea what that looks like. The guy who wants to draw nearer to his Creator, but doesn’t know how, nor is he willing to reshape himself into something that he’s not… some khaki wearin’, button-up shirt donning, simple shoes footin’ kind of guy. The kind of guy that wakes up and says things like, “Blessed be the blood of the lamb. Amen and amen. Right Brother?!” (Read this aloud with your best Ned Flanders voice.) We wanted to show an entire generation of leaders, husbands, and fathers, that we can coscumnnect with the mighty God and fall into grace with Him and learn to love Jesus while still being us. While still being that rough around the edges, black steel-toed shoes wearin’, shop pants sportin’, tattoo fetishin’, kinda guy. He can still rock out to some Seven Dust and still love Jesus. He can still dig skull stickers on his motorcycle while having a passionate romance with the Creator that gives him breath. There are so many of these guys in this part of the country and they are quickly becoming the majority there. Those with retirements can afford to pack up and move elsewhere to find more work. The younger single guys can split whenever they want. If it fits into their truck, it goes with ‘em. If it doesn’t, then it gets set on fire and then they move to find work in Kentucky or somewhere else. But the young family kind of guy… he’s stuck. And he’s scared to death. He doesn’t know what to do… everything he put his life and beliefs into has completely crapped out on him. And he doesn’t need another church, speaking an entirely different language, and belonging to a completely separate demographic, sitting there and telling him why he is wrong and what he needs to do before Jesus will accept him. He needs someone who has been there – in his shoes, living his life, sharing in his fears, to share with him about how Jesus died to pay for his debt while he was still a scum bag. And that we are all there together, living out the grace that God offers us through Jesus.

We were taking trips to the Detroit area every other month, and then eventually, every month. This was purely to investigate things: learn the people, learn the styles, learn the vibe, and much more about the specifics of the area. We were also forming relationships with many of the people from the area, and other churches up there. This was going very well. We were not even living there yet, and we had a small group of people that wanted to be apart of starting it with us (this might be called a core team, or a launch team).

Then, we finally had finances raised enough for our family to live there while building this church. One organization was pledged to give a certain amount, while another organization was going to double whatever was donated, and a third company was going to match all of that. In addition, we had a church plant organization willing to donate all of the funds needed for start-up purposes (anywhere between 25K-30K dollars); this would be the sound board, speakers, lighting, trailer, and all of the needed junk to have a full blown service. All in all, we were just about to the point of having financial success. Then, almost as soon as we had it raised, it was lost. One of the organizations had financial difficulties (quite a common thing nowadays) and had to withdraw their original pledge. This caused the entire pyramid of funding to collapse.

After I learned this, I did what every Godly man in history does. I panicked!!! I quickly abandoned the idea of following God and starting a church in Detroit. I started looking for a job here in Hampton Roads just to pay the mortgage and take care of my new family. At first, I wasn’t too worried. After all, I had more than 11 years of military experience, tons of volunteer work done around the world, tons of leadership, a college degree, and we lived off of a small budget to begin with. I looked at federal jobs, I looked at jobs on all of the bases around here, I looked at Food Lion, and I looked into many of the law enforcement offices in Hampton Roads. Actually, I tested and passed at a couple of local law enforcement agencies and was essentially hired. However, after each was ready to hire me they contacted me and told me that they had just received notice of going on hiring freezes, and that they would not be able to take me on after all. Job after job was falling through. With all of this adding up, I really started to kind of freak out and wonder, “What the frickin’ crap God?!” And then it dawned on me, “OH! I’m not supposed to be here. I guess there might be a different path for us than to plant a church in Detroit after all.” So, I started back in on this journey after my 18 day side freak-out detour.

That’s enough for now…next time I’ll tell you about our plans to live in a commune… and I’m serious… we’ll make Waco look like childs play.

Chuck