According to your Faith

It has been way too long since I blogged. I am making a commitment to blog more. Life has finally slowed down a little. More on that in another blog…
Here is what God is dealing with me on as we launch Sunday. Please be praying for us!!!
Mathew 9:27-29
As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus *said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They *said to Him, “Yes, Lord.” Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.”

How many of your prayers would be answered if God said “Be it done according to your faith?” I wonder if sometimes big God sized things don’t happen because in our hearts we really don’t think God can or will do something. God healed the 2 blind men because they had enough faith to believe He could. They were unable to see. Imagine what they would have missed if their faith was weak. Let’s have total faith that God can fill up that auditorium. I am praying that the faith of Canvas Staff and core group would be increased as we all prepare for this awesome weekend. It’s coming Savannah. The presence of God is coming.

COMMUNITY!!

Its all about community.  As the Journey Pastor at Canvas Church it is my job to push community.  As a staff, we though community was lacking at core group so we paid money to move it to where we thought community could be better cultivated.  At Canvas, we are about transforming a city by transforming lives.  We focus on 3 things and three things only: Elevate (gathering together as the body) Journey (we believe life is a journey and we focus on helping people walk through it) and Action (we want to be the hands and feet of Jesus).   So why is community such an important part of this? I am glad you asked.

The Journey is best lived out with other people to support you.  A group of believers doing life together, holding each other accountable, and encouraging each other.  In Acts the community was so strong in the early church that they sold possesions to make sure no one had need. Community brings the church together.  But how does it tie into anything else?  I am glad you asked again.

I was reading Erwin Mcmanus’ book Soul Cravings (wonderful book – easy read).  In it he says the following that just made everything click.

“The more we live disconnected lives, the more we become indifferent to the well-being of others. The farther we move from community the closer we get to violence……. When there is disengagement from human community, there is the potential for inhumanity.”

Community is the key to seeing other people the way Christ intended us to see them.  When we spend more time with humans, in human interaction (facebook doesn’t count) we are reminded of the struggles people have or the financial difficulty they could be going through.  True christian community makes sure our hearts break for the things that break the heart of Christ.

That is why I will forever say the answer to our problems is small groups and deep community.  Community causes people to see Christ!!!

Yea – Yea I know – Its been a little while

I haven’t blogged in a while.  Not because of the lack of things to blog about – and I can’t really say it’s because of the lack of time.  It is more the lack of priority.  Sorry it has just fallen down the list.  So here I am blogging again.  Let me fill you in on the last month.

– I started this month off with a trip to Savannah to speak at core group about the journey and also look at houses. Trisha, Trey and Kid all joined the trip and we had fun.  We also found some awesome houses.  Core  group was a blast.  God is stirring things in Savannah.

– Trey turned 3 months old.  I can’t believe it.  He is one of the coolest things that has ever happened to me.  He is smiling and playing with us more and more.

– I went to Catylast with Doug, Jared, and Richard.  We had a blast.  I was challenged alot.  My number 1 take away came from Andy Stanley (suprise suprise) – To reach people no one is reaching you must be willing to do what no one is doing.  I also discovered Matt Chandler from the Village church. I have been listening to his podcast. WOW!

– God has been fine tuning my vision for small groups.  I am seeing it in a cool way and am getting very excited about what God will do.

– Trisha and I spent a whole Saturday together just us.  We needed it.   We just hung out and had fun.  With no house to go to it kind of felt like we were dating all over again.

– Trisha went to dinner the other night and left me alone with Trey.  I have an amazing respect for all she does everyday after that.  I don’t know how she manages to eat or sleep much less get some other things done.  What an amazing wife I have.

All in all it has been a good month.  God has done some awesome things.  We are just waiting on Him to move us in His timing.  Please continue to pray for us as we seek God’s direction in finding our way down to Savannah.  This is going to be one amazing ride.  I will try to let some more of you in on it by blogging more.  Sorry.

Getting settled and stirred at the same time…

So we are getting settled in at Trisha’s parent’s house.  It has been a stressful tiring week.  Ike had me working late all while trying to get ready for moving while also trying to drum up money for closing.  All this time, while trying to get physically settled, God has been stirring my spirit.  God has shown me His provision this week.  IT looked like the money wasn’t going to be there for closing (several times) and then at the last minute it showed up.  God increased my faith greatly.  Early on some people made the comment that some of us were going to Savannah because it was “sexy.”  I assure there is nothing “sexy” bout what we have gone through.  God has stretched us. Let me explain a little.  You my remember from several earlier post that no one looked at our house from May to September (quite the long time frame when you are waiting on something.)  When we received the offer on our house we knew we would lose a lot of money if we took it.  It was a hard decision until Trisha put it into perspective.  We were talking about the money we would lose when she said if you could pay “x” amount of dollars to go to Savannah and do what God called you, would you do it?  I could not help but to say yes.  And with that, we signed the contract.  Well when the money we would owe came in even higher than we thought, I will say, I never doubted that God would come through, and I never doubted that I made the right decision.   It became easy to ask myself that same question about everything.  If you could give up your car to do what God called you, would you?  If you could sell your guitar to do what God called you, would you?  It hit me, how many times did I not do what God wanted me to (or did it slower) because I couldn’t let go of something?  God desires all of us.  All we have belongs to debt.  And while God does give us intelligence and common sense (some of us any way) He never tells us to rely on it over Him.  There is a verse I have probably heard a thousand times.

Pro 3:5	Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.
Pro 3:6	In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING!!!!  – That part of the verse has never jumped out at me so much.  What we did many would call stupid.  I don’t care. I am excited about what God is going to do in Canvas Church. I would much rather do what we did than live safe and comfortable.  The free fall of faith is the most amazing rush ever.  So I ask you, what are you holding on to.  Jump out and enjoy the life Christ meant for us.  Like this my favorite commericial, I guess i am the pilot.

If you ever liked any of our stuff…..

If you have ever liked anything the Tanner’s have, let us know.  We are selling everything that is not tied down.   We know God has called us to Savannah and are ready to do anything to make that a reality.  Make an offer.  Trey and Trisha are off limits.  The House is spoken for… but anything else is fair game.  As a matter of Fact, Free Cat to the first person who even asks about anything.   This post is not a joke.  If you know of anybody in need of Cars or Guitars or fine China, let us know.  We are also willing to sell furniture.   So come on down to our house and pick what you want.  Please help us out!!!

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/cto/835721480.html

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/cto/835707500.html

I also have available the following:

Taylor 414CE Accoustic Electric Guitar

G&L ASAT Special Tribute Series Electric Guitar

Line 6 POD with floor board

Line 6 Echo Park

Boss Chromatic Tuner

Peavey 15 WAT Practice Amp

Let me know if you are interested.  And please tell all your friends.  We need to sell this stuff as quickly as possible.

Expectin a Miracle…..

So there is a contract on our house.  We are excited.  I am excited to be finally able to move to Savannah.  I am excited that Canvas is becoming more and more of a reality.  I am excited that my friends and family get to witness God stepping up and providing for my family in an awesome way.   There is some great oppurtunity for God to be glorified in our lives this next week.  I can’t wait to watch it and brag on Him.  Be praying for us as God prepares to blow us away.

Alrighty Then…..

***Warning**** The post you are about to read is way longer than I would normally write – But I couldn’t help it.  Try to stick it out to the end.  I think it is worth it.

It all started last Wednesday.  I was spending some time in prayer and in the word when God told me to make sure our house was clean.  At first I was thinking, ‘God, is it that bad that you have noticed…..”  Just kidding – Trisha always makes sure our house is kept clean.  I just felt God saying, “Even though no one has looked or called on your house, have it ready.”  I don’t know if you have noticed or not, but cleaning with the anticipation of someone coming to look at your house with the intention to buy it is a huge step of faith.    So I spoke with Trisha that morning and we made sure (more her than me) the house was clean.  I had forgotten about that morning until Monday afternoon – but I am getting ahead of myself.

This past weekend we went to Savannah.  It was amazing.  We had an informational meeting with people who were interested in coming to the church.  I had a good opportunity to sit down and talk through some things with Doug, and we also were able to look at a few potential meeting places.  It was a great weekend doing Canvas stuff.

On top of the Canvas stuff, Trisha and I had the chance to hang out with each other and play with Trey (who by the way is becoming more and more active and smiling a lot lately.)  Trisha and I talked about how this trip felt differently.  It was as if our hearts were already there.  Overall it was wonderful.  But all of that is not even the coolest God stuff…..

Monday Trisha and I were sitting in the kitchen of a potential landlord filling out paper work when my blessed blackberry buzzed with an email.  Being OCD and not having the abitlity to let the email sit, I picked up my blackberry and saw an email from our Realtor.   As I read it, I thought it was a mistake.  It said,

“Trisha and Mark,

Good morning. We have an offer on your home. I will call you to discuss.

Thanks.

Jennifer Weakland”

My first thought was, how awesome a couple with the names of Trisha and Mark sold their house and the Realtor thinks it is us by mistake.  It can’t possible be us as noone has seen our house since May.  I am excited for this Trisha and Mark and hope we can get the confusion settled soon.  Then I realized that the odds of that were about as slim as us having an offer in the first place.  I showed the email to Trisha and bolted outside to call the Realtor.  Wow….

To make an already long story not as long as it could be…  We eventually accepted the offer and now HAVE A CONTRACT ON OUR HOUSE!!!!!  How awesome is our God???!!!!!

As I reflected on these events, I remembered my last blog before receiving the offer.  It was a list of things for which we needed prayer.  I was blown away by the number of people who were praying for us.  I am blown away at the ability of our God to answer prayer.  Our God cares enough about His people that he will answer the things we ask.  Thank YOU so much to everyone who is praying for us and praying for Canvas.  I can’t deny the work that God is already doing and the huge work that He is just now revealing.

Glory to our God.  The one who can sell a house in this crappy market and THE ONE who can transform a city for His Glory.

This post was long sorry…. thanks for sticking it out.

PRAY….

Pray for the Tanners.  Something awesome is in the works……..

Yes I am still alive….

I am great at this regular blogging thing… I recently realized that alot of our payer partners read this blog. With that in mind, I feel the need to post a prayer list. We have alot going on and have been under attack a lot lately. Here is a list of things we need you to pray for:

+ We have a house to sell – a house that hasn’t been looked at since May 10th. 🙂

+ There are some spiritual attacks going on that we just need to band together as a family on.

+ we feel this enormous since of disconnectedness – Its not anybody’s fault – its just hard to be connected to your church when it is 4 hurs away

+ We will be getting to go to Savannah this weekend. This will only be our 4th trip since God called us there. I need a job and I think we will eventually need a place to stay. (if we can get past number 1 – house for sale)

+ Pray as our church staff will meet together for the first time in a long time.

+Pray as we look at potential meeting space

+ Pray that God will continue to prepare us for the awesome work ahead

+ Some needs that only God knows, that don’t belong on the internet

+ Some opportunities that God has to show up big in our lives.

My family and I need your prayers. We have a lot going on. We are trying to move, start a church and figure out how to be parents, all while college football is starting… Ok – so some of those are more important than others… but – hey – you get the point. We appreciate your support – If you want to do more than pray check out these sites for more info….

http://savannahcanvas.com/

http://the249.com

We are excited to see what God is going to do through us!

Different

Life is very different. It’s a good different. I don’t get to sleep much. I am constantly thinking about the little man. We can’t jump in the car and head out for a quick trip to … anywhere. It is different. My heart has been captivated by this little guy. I love him in an indescribable way that only other parents could understand. He is amazing. It would be impossible to live life the same way now that I know him. I wouldn’t trade him for anything.

That being said, I have had little time for blogging so here are some things I have learned in the past few weeks.

1. My son is smart enough to know the exact moment his diaper is off
2. Baby pee doesn’t smell as bad as adult pee
3. A wake time for a baby is apparently sleep time for everyone else.
4. we have managed to dirty up all the closets we had clean a few months ago
5. Houses don’t sell well if people don’t look at it
6. Urine is not too hard to get off the wall (see number 1)
7. I will do whatever it takes to get to Savannah (anybody want to buy a recently reduced townhouse)
8. I am more attached to Canvas than I thought – I feel like a part of me is missing
9. God’s timing is perfect.

That’s what has been going on. Pray Trisha and I sell our house. We listed with a new agent this week and lowered the price. Also pray God will provide the money we will lose when we sell our house. Hopefully it will be soon.