I’m so excited for what’s NEXT at Rolling Hills. It has been an incredible 20 years – praise God! I am in awe of what God has done – so many lives transformed for Christ, so many growing disciples of Jesus, so many preschool, children and students who now have a spiritual foundation in the Lord on which to build their life, so many RH campuses around our city, all the precious children of the Rolling Hills Learning Centers, Justice and Mercy International with thousands of orphan and vulnerable children in Moldova and over 1,200 pastors trained in the Amazon jungle and so much more. All glory to our great God! And, yet even with all of this, our God is not finished with His Church, or any of us, yet. In fact, I truly believe – the best is yet to come!
NEXT is a Capital Campaign to address the NEXT 20 years of Rolling Hills, the NEXT Generation, the NEXT Ministry, the NEXT Mission and the NEXT One. God has been preparing us for this NEXT initiative, and now we, together as God’s Church, step forward in faith. I’m so excited to see what our God will do for His glory! It would be so easy to sit back and be comfortable. We are so blessed as a church, but there are still so many in our families and city who do not yet know Jesus, so many hurts and needs in our country and world. We cannot turn a deaf ear to the call of God on us today. If not us, who? If not now, when? This is our time.
Here’s what I am asking all of us to do: 1. PRAY – Pray for God to give us wisdom and to accomplish His will. Pray for these next 50 days to be a time of spiritual transformation in our own hearts and lives. Pray for each of us at Rolling Hills to take a NEXT step of faith in our spiritual journey.
2. PREPARE – Prepare your heart and life for God to move. As Joshua told the people in Joshua 3:5, “Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you.” Consecrate means to prepare spiritually. If there is any unconfessed sin in your life, then confess it and prepare your heart to be fertile soil for the prompting of God’s Spirit. Prepare your calendar, time, and resources to invest in what God is calling you to do.
3. ACT – When God stirs your heart – respond. It is easy to talk about spiritual matters, but another level is when we act on what God calls us to do. Whether it is making a commitment to spend time with God every day for these NEXT 50 days or entering into spiritual conversations that God has put on your heart, whatever it is, let’s act. Just like God’s call came to Nehemiah when he was comfortable and he acted on that stirring in his heart, so God’s call comes to each of us today.
Our obedience to God impacts more than just our own lives. Our obedience to take a NEXT step of faith impacts our marriage (or future marriage), our kids (or future kids), our work relationships and even generations. Joshua had his time. Nehemiah had his time. And, this is our time. Aren’t you glad that the people who went before us prayed, prepared and acted when God’s call came to them? Let’s be faithful in our day and our time. Let’s invest in what truly matters – eternity.
I am so excited about this NEXT Campaign. As a church, this will be our sixth Capital Campaign and each time our God has blown us away. He truly does “immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine.” Let’s pray Ephesians 3:20-21 and place all of this in His hands. I encourage you to read through the brochure that will hit your mailbox this week. Also, to go to the microsite at rollinghills.church and pray through all our God is calling us to do in these NEXT 20 years. It is a God-sized assignment, but I can’t wait to see all the people whose lives will be impacted for Christ. And, who knows the NEXT One may be your child, grandchild, great-grandchild, future son or daughter-in-law, neighbor, co-worker or friend.
This is our time. This is your time. Let’s pray, prepare and act on what God calls us to…NEXT!