Hello and welcome to Pastor to Pioneer, On the Road Edition.  This week, Britton connects with Lee Wood, a former pastor in the prevailing American church model from Tampa, FL who has gone through a variety of difficult life circumstances.  Lee shares with Britton some of his painful memories, including being dropped off at an orphanage by his dad as a young child after his mom died in a house fire, as well as his first wife dying from pancreatic cancer.  Lee also emphasizes, however, how good and faithful God was in the midst of everything, so it should come as no surprise that he continued to see the faithfulness of the Lord as he began to feel called out of familiarity and into smaller, simpler versions of the church.  Even though it was a rough beginning—starting with training in 2013, Lee saw several of his attempts as starting simple churches fail—he continued to lean on and listen to God, learning to do so better and better, and eventually realizing that those early attempts were failing because of a poor foundation and wrong focus.  Lee was putting all of his efforts into launching start-up simple churches rather than emphasizing disciple making and community creating.  Lee shares, though, how he started in Tampa and learned with others how to listen and truly obey Jesus.  As they did, God started doing amazing things.  Over the span of a decade he saw God build a network of simple churches and various practical and tangible expressions of God’s grace and love to the community - from tutoring, to a school, to a fitness center and more. Lee and his wife Stacy recently moved from Tampa to Fort Meyers to start a new work similar to what they did in Tampa.  They have started a fitness gym business called Catalyst Community Gym where they hope to model a self sustaining way of ministry as well as a provide a place to connect with those who don’t know Jesus.

Resources:

1Body Church Tampa - 1body.church

Lee’s Book: 7 Things in 7 Years -  https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6189ae9b760e043246e262da/t/6207a93229eb29355a27b457/1644669235034/lee+woods+seven+things.pdf

Love One Another Documentary - https://loveoneanother.life

Zume Training - https://zume.training