The story of how we settled upon Cambridge, MA to plant a church was a 3-4 year process. It all started back in 2005 when God gave me a vision one day during prayer. Though I had never been to Boston, I saw a huge heart beating, it was placed over Boston, and it was pumping blood (life) in every direction. My heart started to leap and I said, “Something must be happening in Boston. I need to go check it out!” A friend of mine had also been considering starting a ministry in Boston so he initiated a scouting trip and sent me and a few friends. At the time I was directing BASIC College Ministries. He only knew a few people in Boston so he hooked us up with a couple of appointments. The first person we met with was my friend David Hill Jr. I share more about how my relationship with David impacted our decision to plant a church here. That was no coincidence! The second person we met was no coincidence either. His name was Larry Showalter, pastor of Ruggles Baptist Church in the Fenway. Larry has been in ministry as long as I have been alive and has been welcoming people and church planters alike in to Boston for years. Currently, I think there are 4 or 5 other churches that call Ruggles home.
Interestingly enough, on that first trip, we stayed in Cambridge, right across the river from downtown Boston. I didn’t even know Cambridge was its own city at that time or how close we were to where I would live 4 years later. I’ll never forget the sense that God was up to something big while we looked upon the Boston skyline and prayed for the city. I knew after the first trip that something came alive in my heart. Pay attention to your tears and when your spirit leaps over a person, place, someone’s words, or a particular issue. God is probably trying to direct you! After this trip, I began to travel to Boston regularly, so much so that after 25 times I lost count! It felt like the center of the universe for me. I was so alive! For one, there are around 250,000 college students in the Greater Boston Area. Apart from NYC, I don’t know any other place that has that many students, and I love students! Some of the greatest universities in the world are here in Boston: Harvard, MIT, BU, Boston College, Northeastern, and the list goes on. I always saw myself being right in the thick of things and for me Boston represented that desire perfectly!
Next time we will discuss how to pinpoint a location.
What people, places, things, or issues make your spirit jump?
