Why OKC?
We’ve been gone for almost 16 and a half years, but Oklahoma has never stopped being home. Every time my wife and I visited our family in Oklahoma, we felt drawn to the OKC area. At the beginning of 2022, I believe God said it was time to step out and make a change. In early 2016 while in prayer early in the morning, I felt God calling me to be a senior pastor. Now at the time, I didn’t understand that or fully believe that, but ever since then God has been shaping and molding every aspect of my life leading me to this point. Over the past year, God has opened and closed doors that lead us to plant a church in the Moore/Oklahoma City area.
The first question I get asked by anybody when I tell them I am planting a church in the Oklahoma City area is, “Why OKC?” Which is then followed up by something like, “Isn’t that the Bible Belt? Aren’t there churches on every corner there?” While all of that may be true the reality is that “the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.”
Oklahoma may be full of conservative values, but conservative values won’t save your soul. Living in the right place with the best culture won’t bring you salvation. Being born and raised in Oklahoma I have a deep understanding of God and church just being a part of life because that’s just what your family does, but never really having the revelation of who Jesus is on a personal level. To think that Christianity is just behaving a certain way, or living up to a certain standard. Knowing about Jesus, but never knowing Jesus. I thought I'd be good if I just did all the right things. That as long as I had the right behavior then everything would be good. The only problem with that is when we make the Gospel all about behavior we get false salvation. The reality is that you can behave better and not know Jesus, but you can’t know Jesus and not behave better. Good behavior is not what we should be seeking. Jesus is what we are seeking, and He is the one who changes us. Jesus is where freedom is.
When we make the Gospel about behavior we are trying to do it on our own. Instead of Jesus transforming our life we try to do it through our willpower. And at some point, we are going to fail.
When we make the Gospel about behavior we never measure up. Relegating the Gospel to behavior improvement or self-help is what causes people to keep their sins hidden in the dark. Because relegating the Gospel to behavior improvement brings only condemnation because we can never live up to the standards set before us.
That’s not the Gospel! That’s religion. Religion gives you a set of rules, but Jesus wants you to go on a walk. So many people believe that Christianity is just about behaving better! And we can’t even do that! That’s why the world wants nothing to do with Christianity! Because they think the only thing we have to offer is a list of dos and don’ts.
So why OKC? To show people the true freedom found in Christ. To break free from religious traditions and culture and go on a life-changing walk with Jesus Christ. A walk that never ends.
