It was the fall of I was six months into being a church planter and I was at the end of my rope. I could not figure out why God had called me to plant a church in the Oak Lawn area near downtown Dallas. Lorisa and I were still newlyweds when we moved into the Oak Lawn neighborhood, just two blocks from Cedar Springs and Oak Lawn Avenue. From the outside looking in, it was an odd choice for a young Christian couple to make when most of our peers were moving to suburbs, buying homes, and starting families.
Truth be told, we would not have chosen this area of our city to do ministry or plant a church. After a year of marriage, we had entered a season of deep hunger and seeking God for what He wanted to do in and through us. We knew we had a call on our lives, and we wanted Him to lead, at all costs, we just had no clue what those costs would be. We began praying together in our apartment every evening after work, asking for His leadership in our lives, asking for His plans.
There were many times we canceled social events just to set aside time to seek Him together in prayer. It was during this season of pursuit and consecration that the UPPERROOM was birthedβbut it was definitely not because of our strategic planning.
It was our death. In fact, we had a plan that we thought would please God, and we were quietly making plans to move to Redding, California. We had kept this decision discreet, knowing that our church community and close friends would be impacted by our move across the country. Moving to California would impact a lot of people, but we were sensing that God had something new for us.
We desired to join a church called Bethel, attend their school of ministry, and finish graduate studies at a local college. I had landed a pharmaceutical sales job and Lorisa was enrolled to finish her higher education.
