Reclaiming Authentic Discipleship

The origin story of Heritage has been told and now it’s time to ask the Sutherland family what they thought of the journey.

After loss and wandering in the wilderness, there was a promise from Jesus that “It’s Coming!”. Now the rebuilding begins with Stuart and Sara sharing reflections, hope and fresh vision.

After the excitement of starting a “new expression of church,” the wear and tear of daily life started to challenge our expectations. Wasn’t more supposed to happen by now? Now comes loss, leadership challenges, and a huge wildfire.

The impossible was accomplished in 14 months: we had a building, remodel work complete, a small community of committed folks, and three of us to operate the coffeehouse. It was finally time to open the doors to a vision-come-true!

With keys in hand we just saw the impossible accomplished. Oh-my-gosh we have a building! Now the real work begins. It’s a 14 month journey of fund raising, construction, more fundraising, more construction…you get the point. Every obstacle becomes an opportunity for a supernatural provision.

We received vision for Heritage, vision continued to develop in community, and we shared that vision with others. Momentum was outpacing our expectations and we now needed to find a building. The hunt was on, and things only got crazier!

My last episode concluded with God’s call on my life. This included what seemed to be a long intermission between being called to go and knowing exactly what that looked like. Now the vision comes, and look out, it’s bigger than you think.

My story ended with a short-term mission trip to Paraguay where the missionaries there called Sara and me aside to say we had what it takes to be missionaries. To our relief we were also warned not to go, unless God calls us. So here is what happens next.

Last time I left you hanging with me talking to my youth pastor, and mentioning that someday I was going to marry this cute girl. Well…it’s now 3 years after our camp encounter and here comes the next part of the story.

It seemed like every kid I grew up with knew what they wanted to do when they grew up…I was thoughtful, quiet and my sister called me the little old man…maybe it was because after a pensive pause I would share my thoughts of junior wisdom. When I was asked what do you want to be when you grow up I would freeze up. All I could answer is I want to do whatever God wants me to do…as long as it is not being a missionary in Africa.