“ It seems clear leaving what ’ s familiar isn ’ t an exception when it comes to stepping into what
God has for us . ”
of his life , he had to leave the familiarity of heaven and step into the unfamiliar territory of a human body — a tiny one at that . Do not think you will be able to accomplish the mission God has for your life unless you first step away from what he no longer has for you .
When the idea of starting a new church first entered my mind , I was thirty-one years old . I was serving as a teaching pastor at a large church in the Midwest . I had been hired to teach weekly for one of our Sunday services . The senior pastor was fifty-six at the time , and we hit it off right away . He became a great mentor to me , and I knew he could help in my development . I assumed I ’ d be in this role for many years , and I intended to make the most of it . This was an amazing setup for me and for our family . I had a great work-life balance during this season , which was helpful as our three sons were all under the age of five . I had just been accepted into a doctorate program focused on preaching and leadership . Our closest friends lived two houses down from us . Everything was present for the kind of life we had sought to live , and then came the calling of starting a church in a city far from where our ideal life had been created .
If we were going to move to San Francisco to start a new church , we would have to walk away from all kinds of familiarity .
We would have to leave a familiar church for one that didn ’ t even exist yet . We would have to leave our close friends and go make new ones . I had never been a lead pastor before , which meant there was always someone above me to provide protection and coverage . Raising our kids in a major city like San Francisco meant we would have to leave the familiarity of the safe and high-caliber school system we thought our kids would always attend . I had to leave the familiarity of having a guaranteed paycheck and venture into a fundraising world where nothing was promised . Our family would have to walk away from a familiar culture to step into a culture that was as different as you can imagine .
“ It seems clear leaving what ’ s familiar isn ’ t an exception when it comes to stepping into what
God has for us . ”
I knew Shauna and I had to be honest with ourselves about what we would be giving up and walking away from . Not knowing how best to do this , I simply got out a sheet of yellow notebook paper and made two columns . The first column included things we would willingly walk away from , while the second column involved things we would never give up . We wrote down a number of things we would give up to step into what God had for us . Here are a few of them : ever owning a home again , comfortable schools for our kids , the size of our home , and living close to our families . We wrote only two things in the second column : a thriving marriage and our kids being able to do well in San Francisco . This exercise helped us so much , and I still have this commitment to our family today .
There are some familiar things you should never walk away from . At the same time , there will be many familiar things you will have to
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