I’ve known our next building was on the horizon for a while. You’ve probably known, too. We outgrew where we are about a year and a half ago. There have been many Sundays since then when we were well over 100% capacity.
But here’s the deal: I don’t move on to something new until the Lord reveals it to me. Until then, I remain faithful to what He told me last.
Some see this as being too slow, not aggressive enough, or maybe even lazy. And I get it. We are encouraged to forge our own path and make our own way.
I’ve done it that way. And it was miserable. There’s nothing that can convince me to go back to that.
Here’s what I can promise you. We will do nothing here that is not directed by the Holy Spirit. I don’t care if it’s the best idea since sliced bread. If it’s not Holy Spirit-led, we’re not doing it.
I will not move on to something new until the Lord reveals it to me. But that doesn’t mean I sit around in sloth. Oh no. I am diligent daily, working hard on what the Lord previously told me to do.
A year and a half ago, I told the Lord we needed a bigger building (as if He didn’t already know). Since then, I’ve had my ear tuned to heaven, waiting for His direction.
I’ve been confidently waiting all this time, knowing that the Holy Spirit would reveal it at just the right time. I’ve looked at available spaces occasionally, but nothing resonated with my spirit.
Until a couple of months ago, when I was driving down Highway 169 South. I was headed into Tulsa, just past 76th St N and on the right side noticed the new 5th Avenue Business Park.
As I looked over, I heard the Holy Spirit say, “They built that for you.” Then, with the eyes of my spirit, I could see the future of our church there. I knew which building of the three we would occupy.
I told Beth about the experience when I got home but didn’t mention it to anyone else for a few weeks. I let it marinate and looked for the Holy Spirit to confirm what He had shown me.
A few weeks ago, I had lunch with our Evangelist, Tim Coleman. I was led to share this experience with him.
His response? “Are you talking about the building on the West side of the highway?” Yes. “Hm. I know the owner. Let me set up a meeting.”
Let me get this straight. I am drawn to this building by the Holy Spirit and looking for confirmation. Then, my fellow elder, our evangelist, knows who owns it. Wow.
This is a great time for me to share a word from the Lord I received this time last year. It was a personal word for me, so I wrote it in my journal. This is my first time sharing it with you.
“Go forth with great boldness! You are my anointed one for this task. No one can touch God’s anointed. You will feel unqualified. Do it anyway. I am the One who qualifies you. Don’t look for man’s qualification. You will think you are too young. Do it anyway. Age is irrelevant to Me. I am going to take you on an adventure. Enjoy the ride! You will not have to force yourself into any of it. It will practically fall in your lap. This is My show. Rest and trust in Me.”
Y’all, I’m overwhelmed with the goodness of God. My mind wants it to be hard. I almost can’t stand how easy this journey has become since I’ve learned to wait on the Lord.
His yoke is easy, and His burden is light. Looking back, I can now see that all those grueling, hard times were not the Lord’s doing. That was my doing. That was the result of following my plan.
But when I follow the Lord’s plan, it really is easy and light. It’s work and it requires a lot of me. But at the end of the day, I am at ease and full of peace.
The same is available to you. You just have to do what I did. Abandon your own plan. Ask the Lord what He wants. Do that and nothing else.
When you feel like you need to be moving on to something else, don’t work something up. Instead, remain faithful to what you already know is from the Lord and wait on Him for what’s next.
He won’t move as fast as you want Him to. You’ll think He’s running behind schedule. But He’s not. He’s just waiting on you to exhaust your own plan, get quiet, and wait on Him for direction.
So, I’ve been waiting with confident expectation for the past year and a half for God to make His plan known for our next building. It’s been so long, I was kind of shocked when it started to unfold.
Tim scheduled the meeting with the owner. In the time leading up to the meeting, God revealed His plan and purpose for this new building. It became so clear I put it in a floor plan.
First, let me explain God’s purpose for our building. Yes, it is where we will have church. But that’s not all. This building will be known as:
When you walk in, it will feel like home. Not a commercial space, not an industrial space, but a space that gives you a warm hug and you can’t wait to get back.
Now, let me show you the floor plan and explain.
You’ll walk into a spacious lobby with warm, coffee shop vibes. Speaking of, we will host a coffee shop that will be open to the community every day.
Not only will people hang out here on Sundays, but people from all over Owasso will come here throughout the week for meetings, work, and whatever.
The lobby itself will seat around 64 people in comfortable chairs. There is even a section of private booths for one-on-one mentoring sessions, which I’ll tell you about here in a bit.
On the left side of the lobby will be doors to the auditorium that seats 300 people. At least for a little while, we can come back together in one service.
This room is where Owasso will come to meet Jesus, get filled with the Holy Spirit, and get healed and delivered. This is the dedicated spot for the Holy Spirit to move and change lives.
To the left of the auditorium will be church offices, the nursery, and a video recording studio. We will use it for our own videos, and we will also rent it out to the community.
Video content is a great way to spread the gospel. It is also how we help our kingdom business owners grow and multiply. It’s how we will get godly people into government positions. It will be the best video studio in Owasso.
Back out into the lobby, on the other side, are three different meeting rooms.
First is the Dining Room. You’ll walk into a beautiful, warm dining space with a wall of windows. It will be like a dream dining room seating up to 20 people.
Next to that is the living room, which has a huge fireplace, a wall of windows, and the most comfortable furniture. Just like home, but big enough for 20 people to gather.
These two rooms will be used for small group meetings. But they will also be available to the community to rent for family gatherings, reunions, holidays, you name it.
When the Holy Spirit revealed these two rooms to me, I got so excited. What a great plan! Our church desperately needs these two rooms, and so does Owasso.
We live in a time when people don’t gather because they don’t want to clean or they are embarrassed that their home doesn’t look like HGTV. We are eliminating those excuses.
It’s time for people to gather again. We are called by God to create a place where Owasso gathers. So much connection, healing, and meaningful relationships will be born in these two rooms.
Then, we have our dining hall, which will seat up to 80 people. We’ve already been filling this need by making our current venue available to the public.
In this room where you are right now, we’ve hosted about 40 non-church events this year. This represents about 2,500 people coming through our doors who don’t even go to our church.
So, the Dining Hall is our continuance of what already serves our community well. Only, we will do it better because, at NoLimits, we serve like Jesus and do everything well.
Everything else on the diagram is what it takes to have a useful building, like a kitchen and storage. And I know you’ll appreciate this: large bathrooms.
So, there you have it. That’s how the Lord would have us use 14,000 square feet. For comparison, we currently occupy 4,000 square feet. This will be over 3 times the size.
You may have noticed there are no kid's ministry rooms. Before you freak out, let me explain.
Several months ago, as I walked into our kids' room here, the Holy Spirit prompted a question in my spirit. He said, “Where did you learn to do kids ministry this way?”
I thought for a minute and was very disappointed with my response. Yet, I knew this was a rhetorical question. So I disappointedly answered, “Because that’s how other churches do it.”
Do you know what my answer should have been? Either “Because it’s what the Word of God says” or “Because the Holy Spirit led us to do it this way.”
But the right answer was not reality. We were copycats, plain and simple. Then, the Holy Spirit said, “Stop it. No more.”
A few years ago, I would have been shocked by this direction from the Holy Spirit. I would have said, “What?! You want me to shut down kids ministry?”
But I have been faithfully obeying him for years now. I’ve moved past questioning what He wants me to do. I’ve learned that I don’t have a right to question Him. I’m here to simply obey.
So I made an announcement that Sunday that kids ministry as we knew it was over and we would be waiting on the Lord to reveal what’s next.
I didn’t think through how shocking this announcement would be. I was just excited to follow the Lord and eventually find out what He wanted to do next.
I learned a valuable lesson that Sunday. I have a responsibility to help you digest the things of the Lord. Not only the Word of God but things like this as well.
I can’t just drop a bomb on you and leave it at that. That leaves way too much room for all kinds of division. So, I sincerely apologize. I won’t do that again.
This doesn’t change the fact that the Holy Spirit wanted us to stop doing what we did. I should have just presented it to you in a different way.
I’m sure the Lord had a good laugh at my ignorance. But hey, I learned something and can do it better next time.
I’ve been waiting for several months now on what’s next for kids ministry. Several people have been asking me and asking me again. But I wasn’t going to make something up. I knew the Holy Spirit would reveal it when the time was right.
Part of the answer came months ago. But the full answer came when I received God’s plan for our next building.
This whole experience prompted me to go to the Word of God. I knew His plan for kids' ministry had to be in there. And wouldn’t you know it, it is.
In Matthew 19, you’ll read about a time when a group of parents brought their children to Jesus for prayer. The disciples got bent out of shape because they thought this was distracting.
Sound familiar? Have you ever known the modern church to treat children like they are a distraction? Let’s see how Jesus responds to this:
Matthew 19:14 NKJV - But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
Here, we learn that the Lord desires children to be part of the main gathering. He doesn’t teach us to put them in another room so the adults can focus. No, they are supposed to be with us.
And get this: they aren’t supposed to be wall flowers either. They are to be a part of the service, responding to altar calls, and being moved by the Spirit of God.
This is something many churches really struggle with. But we don’t anymore because the kids have been with us for many years now. So what about Sunday school?
Again, I went to the Word of God for direction. I asked, “What is the responsibility of the church gathering for children?”
You know what I found? Nothing. There is no mention of a special kids class, or kids ministry, or anything like that in the New Testament. So what’s the deal?
Since kids ministry wasn’t a thing, they must have thought differently than we do about the situation. So I went back to the Bible and realized kids are the responsibility of the parents.
Let me show you three of many places that reveal this:
Proverbs 1:8-9 NLT - My child, listen when your father corrects you. Don’t neglect your mother’s instruction. What you learn from them will crown you with grace and be a chain of honor around your neck.
Deuteronomy 5:29 NKJV - Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!
What happens when the parents live godly lives? The children benefit. And not just while they are in the home, but forever!
Ephesians 6:4 NKJV - And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.
We could keep going. The Bible is clear. The parents are responsible for raising children in ways of the Lord, not the church. Can the church help? Yes! By helping the parents!
Wow! Our culture thinks so differently. That’s why we wrestle so much with this issue of kids ministry. We are accustomed to teachers, coaches, and Sunday school teachers fulfilling a big part of raising our children.
For the record, I am not bashing people who think this way. I am simply awakening you to a Biblical truth. Parents carry a special anointing to raise their own kids that no one else has.
The best thing we can do for kids is equip parents to be godly leaders in their homes. The impact of this would far outshine even the best kids program.
Kids don’t need an hour of Sunday school. They need godly parents who value their kids and fully accept their responsibility to train their kids in the way of the Lord.
This is what the Lord revealed to me months ago through His Word. But I still needed His plan for accomplishing this. How do we undo a cultural norm? He led me to this scripture:
Titus 2:4-5 NLT - Older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children, to live wisely and be pure, to work in their homes, to do good, and to be submissive to their husbands. Then they will not bring shame on the word of God.
This is the answer! Mentorship! We must restore mentorship where the older generation trains the younger generation.
How does a young dad learn to be a godly father? By learning from an older father who has successfully raised his kids in the way of the Lord.
It’s so simple! It practically slaps us in the face! How did we miss this?
Did we really think a weekly one-hour kids program could fill the void for struggling parents? Never in our wildest dreams would that work!
NoLimits Church is called by God to restore mentorship in our city. We have a mandate from heaven to help connect the older generation with the younger generation.
Remember when I told you the lobby will have private booths for one-on-one mentorship? We are creating a space for this to happen.
Several times a year, we will host a one-day conference for parents. It will be open to the community.
In this conference, we will stir the parents’ hearts, giving them a deep hunger to become godly parents. They’ll discover that their kids aren’t a nuisance but a blessing.
Then, at the end of the conference, we will connect them with an older mentor who will walk with them weekly as they become the parents they are meant to be.
We can’t even fathom how much of an impact this will have on children. I’m telling you, the kid's ministry model we’ve known in the past won’t hold a candle to this.
And you know the best part? Once we nail down how this works, we will share it with other churches.
Now, the Word of God tells us that we all prophesy in part. That means this is an incomplete vision. God will use other people here to complete the vision.
