A Billboard & Two Songs
This is chapter four in how God has and continues to pursue me. It is God who is to be cheered in and through these chapters. While my story is unique to me, you too have a story unique just to you. After Jesus healed a demon possessed man, here were his instructions to the man – “‘Go back home and tell what God has done for you.’ The man went through the town, telling what Jesus had done for him” (Luke 8:39). Be bold in telling your story too!
In chapter three, I shared how God spoke to me in a dream that got us to move to Columbus, Ohio. Since my family would remain in Pennsylvania for a few months, my lodging was at an extended stay hotel. Every day to and from work I drove by a billboard that for some reason intrigued me. It advertised a “Vineyard” church. I had never heard of the Vineyard Church. At least I didn’t think I had.
A few months earlier (back in Pennsylvania), one Sunday morning at church, that day’s worship leader sat at his keyboard and sang “Refiner’s Fire.” In his words, a song “by a new group in California called Vineyard.” The song really resonated with me. In fact, for some strange reason, tears began to stream down my cheek. Oh my, I thought, hopefully nobody noticed.
Now back to Columbus. I had been visiting churches but found none to my liking. After several weeks of “ignoring” the billboard, God prompted me to call the phone number on the billboard. I had all my excuse ready for God as to why I couldn’t visit that church once I got directions – it is probably all the way across town and I would not know how to get there, being so unfamiliar with Columbus. And besides, what kind of church advertises on a billboard anyway? None I had any interest in. I called to inquire, and boy was I surprised when the person on the phone told me the church was less than a mile from where I was staying.
That Sunday, I nervously decided to “try out” this Vineyard Church. The minute I walked into the building on Cooper Road I knew this was not like any church I had ever been in. Immediately nothing resonated with me. From the clothes people wore to the design and casualness of the facility. Instead of an organ and choir loft, a worship band. But for some strange reason, it felt like home! The associate pastor had a ponytail. The senior pastor didn’t look like the “reverend-type” either. And his preaching style, nothing I had experienced before. Why is he looking at me?
The first song in the worship set was “Arms of Love.” It seemed like the song went on forever and we were singing to God, not about him – “In your arms of love, In your arms of love, Holding me still, Holding me near, In your arms of love” over and over again. Despite my annoyance that the song was dragging on and on, God said to me, “Dave, crawl into my arms and make these words the desire of your heart.” I mumbled “fine,” and the song soon ended. This song holds a very special place in my heart to this day!
And the second song, oh my, this cannot be happening, was the same “Refiner’s Fire” that I had heard a few months earlier. And just like the first time, I once again found myself with tears streaming down my face, still not having any clue as to why. You mean this Vineyard is that Vineyard? I wanted to run out the door as fast as possible!
While then I did not have the vocabulary to know what was happening, and despite my best defenses, that day God grabbed hold of me and did something in me that I had never experienced. He was putting a new song in my heart, both literally and figuratively. This verse speaks to me – “He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be amazed. They will put their trust in the LORD” (Psalm 40:3).
On my second or third week of attending, there was a video and an announcement about a two-year ministry program at the church, which I found out was part of a movement of churches that were at the time about 25 years old. Hmm? Nine months later, I stepped into a classroom with knees shaking. We sang worship songs before each class, and on that first night, the first song, you guessed it, “Refiner’s Fire.”
Soon thereafter, the egg farm gig did not work out (they fired me) and here I am in ministry school, one that was located only in Columbus, Ohio. The dream that I shared in the last chapter – “Dave, you are not going to Columbus because of the job but the job is a way to get you to Columbus” – suddenly began to make sense!
How we eventually got to New Bern, North Carolina, to plant a Vineyard Church is a story all unto itself. It involves that second 1998 dream8, the one involving a simple park bench. A park bench did not even exist at the time of my dream. That story will be the last chapter in this short series narrating pieces of my story.
You just can’t make this stuff up!
God was pursuing me even when I wasn’t too interested in His pursuit. He is still pursuing me, and He is still pursuing you! Are you responding?
If you are encouraged by this or any of my writings, you can subscribe to be notified by email when I post something new. To subscribe, click here. Once you put in your email address you will then get an email confirming that you wish to subscribe. Thank you.