Rock City has a home, after 61 Days of Fasting...

Okay, so just in case you're wondering, it wasn't 61 days in a row. But it was 61 days nonetheless! Saturday night, as I was getting ready for bed and looking forward to waking up on Sunday morning for two reasons - ONE, I got to spend time with our launch team and meet several new faces - and TWO, I got to break a 21 day fast - Both were exciting - It hit me.

You know how God sometimes just pokes at you or whispers something so quietly in your ear but it hits you like a ton of bricks? Saturday night that kind of thing happened to me.

As I began to think about the 21 day fast that was ending, and the BIG announcement I was preparing to share the next morning, I was reminded of the last time I was led to fast, just a few years ago. That time it was a 40 day fast. And here's what I wrote down at the start of that monumental fast...

"In order for me to take you to a place you've never been before, you must first begin to do what you've never done before." -God

It wasn't like God showed up and spoke that to me in a loud voice, but I knew that's what He was saying - to me in particular. Looking back, I remember rounding the corner of day 41. I literally hadn't eaten ANY food for 40 days. I lived on juice and water. I lost 40 pounds. Physically it took a toll on my body. Spiritually, I'll be honest, I didn't really feel that much closer to God. I was a bit surprised. Nothing extraordinary happened. So I thought.

Having been far removed from that time in my life, I've often looked back and shared that that season of my life marked a significant milestone. Clearly, as that 40 day fast ended, circumstances and events took shape in my life that would, in less than a year's time, take me from a secure ministry position in a church I thought I'd live and die in, to a desert road experience that made absolutely no sense, to a hotel conference room on the night of January 1, 2010 gathering with a core group of people consecrating ourselves before God and to each other with a commitment to plant a church in Columbus, Ohio.

Clearly, God made good on His word. I did something I had never done before - fasted, 40 days nonetheless. And the result was that we were literally transported to exactly the place that God intended for us to be. Columbus, Ohio.

And sure, I'm making it sound so easy and simple. It wasn't really. Actually, it was painful. It hurt. We got a lot of sand in our teeth and our feet blistered from the long journey, but the result was the same. When God leads, it's not always easy. But He'll get you there. He'll get you to where He wants you. Whatever it takes!

What struck me Saturday night was that the same exact thing has resulted in this 21 day fast. I was astonished. We've been trying to secure a location to launch Rock City for months. Several plans had fallen through at the last minute. We were honestly beginning to feel a bit desperate. We had put in an offer to the AMC Lennox a month earlier and hadn't heard back. I'd followed up regularly, but the answer was always the same. There was no answer. Then, I think around the 18th day of our fast, we got the news. They had accepted our proposal. And on the 20th day, I was sitting in the middle of Theater 13 at the AMC Lennox, filming the video I've posted below.

This isn't to say there's some magic formula to fasting. It's a purely spiritual thing. But one thing I know is this, these last 61 days of fasting have produced a whole lot more than spiritual blessing in our lives. I can clearly see the how the hand of God has literally and physically moved us, not a day early and not a day late, right to the place where He can use us. For us, that's Columbus, Ohio. For Rock City Church, that's the AMC at Lennox Town Center, where we'll be launching on April 3, 2011!