Q&A

Many questions have been coming our way and for those who may not have had the chance to ask but want to know, I will do my best to answer them below:

1. What is a church plant? That is a great question and I am sorry it hasn't been answered sooner. Church planting is truly not something that JR and I made up and its actually been going on for many many years. It is in a very basic explanation: moving to a community, creating relationships with people, sharing Jesus with them and as new believers are made a church is formed. It has the idea to think outside of the "traditional church setting" box and do whatever it takes to make followers of Christ.

2. Who is providing your training? There are 3 different groups that will be helping consisting of:
OneLife church, where we will be serving during the training process and is an actual church plant, The Missionary Church which is a network of churches committed to church planting and world missions and strives to be focused on the fulfillment of the Great Commission, and the Tennessee Baptist Association.

3. What is the Great Commission? According to Matthew 28:18- Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

4. Is this a cult or a scam? Ha! Yes, we were asked this question and no neither of them are true :)

5. Where will you live? We aren't exactly sure at this point but our team is looking for us some free missionary housing in the local area now. If that doesn't work, we will go to plan B and look for a rental ourselves, but know that either way God WILL provide! (For those who hadn't heard prior, we recently had to find a place to live in TEN days and He provided, so now a month seems like plenty of time!)

6. How will you survive financially? The network is providing some funding and insurance. JR will be getting a part time job (or more if needed) and I hopefully will find a Mother's Day out program or something similar to provide what I can too. We are also asking other Christians to partner with us. Although we don't all have the call to church plant or be pastors, we do all have the same commission to make disciples as Christ followers.

7. How much financial support do you need to raise? I'll be flat honest. Our family lives off of a $30K yearly budget with no extras or fat anywhere. Our goal is to raise $20,000 to support us through our training process.

8. Do you realize that is a crazy amount of money? Of course we understand it seems crazy to trust God to provide that much money. We have heard several testimonials already, however, that 20K is actually not that much. One family of 3 raised more than double that and another single female raised $19K by herself.

9. Why do you think its okay to quit your job and expect other people to give up their money to pay your bills? There are many different viewpoints on this of course but here is the best way I can explain it. Our life is supposed to be about fulfilling the great commission that God has called us to do and He has set up the church in a way that everyone together is responsible to do that. Not everyone is called to give up their jobs and move to another city to plant a church, however, as the church, fellow believers are called to contribute in whatever way that they can. For some that's financially giving, for others its support through prayer, and for us it is to go. You can read more about this on JR's blog here.

10. How do you have such radical faith? I remember reading a book not too long ago and thought this very same thing of the girl whom I read about. You see, at 18 she moved to Africa and did whatever she could to care for those that she came in contact with there. She has now lived there over 5 years and has adopted 13 Ugandan girls by herself! (You can read more about her story if you wish here.) And when she was asked that very same question she very humbly said, "I am just reading my bible and doing my best to do what He tells me to do. I have made myself available to God, and He has done the rest." Now several months later as I cannot believe that very same question has been asked of me, I very humbly know no other way to answer than just as she did.

11. Where will you be planting a church? We honestly have no idea at this point but know that God will lead us wherever He wants us to go.

12. How did you know that this is what God wanted you to do? I am simply amazed at the various ways He made it evident to JR and I, both individually and together. I knew 5 years ago when we surrendered to the call to full-time ministry that I would be in for a wild ride, but I truly had NO idea!
It was not a sudden thing as I mentioned in my previous post. As He began to reveal His plan for us, throughout those months I really didn't know. But once everything came together by the end of our decision, there was no question in my mind that He was asking us to go. The only question was would we say Yes or No.

13. Aren't you scared? I know that JR and I would answer this a bit differently but I will again be honest. When I look back at how faithful He has been over these past 5 years, from working out every detail of our move from Atlanta to Wake Forest by providing us housing, jobs, friends, a Masters degree debt free and so much more, I am in awe. It would be easy to say, well we did those things and it was by chance that it all worked out, however I disagree completely. We didn't know what we were doing, He did. So yes of course I am scared. I feel as if I am jumping off a cliff blindfolded! I am trusting God in a way that I never have before and walking by my faith in His goodness, not by the things that I can see! That is very difficult for a person who is Type A and wants to plan out everything! I do know a few things that's for certain though. One being that is that it is NOT okay to say no to God. Also, that God loves me, my husband and our two boys more than I can fathom. He has never broken a promise to His people and He wants whats best for me. I will do whatever it takes to follow Him and one day I know He will say, "Well done my good and faithful servant."

14. You can't expect everyone to understand. Obviously this is not a question but a statement and a very true one at that. My prayer is that everyone would understand but the reality is unfortunately that is not true. It has been extremely difficult to explain this to everyone we know and love who surround us. I'll be honest and say that I have never felt so alone and alienated in all of my life. It is so frustrating when I want people to understand but they just don't get it. And if that's you... hold on for the ride! I pray that you will continue to keep up to date with our crazy journey and that you would experience God and His faithfulness in a way you have never seen before! It's gonna be good... and you wont wanna miss it :)

If you have anymore questions, PLEASE ask! We are wide open and are willing to answer anything!!

Whatever it takes

Here is a video about church planting. Right now within the churches their is a movement going on and believe it or not... we arent the only crazy people :)

The rest of the story...

After sharing our BIG news with everyone that we know, I have had many questions about how all of this came about and so I wanted to also share with anyone else who may want to know!
First of all, of coure this isnt something that happened over night. TRUST ME :)

About 6 months ago, the idea of church planting started coming up on a regular basis."Church planting" was something we were familiar with because we had friends from seminary who had planted in the last few years, but it was never something we saw our family doing. Oh boy wasn't God laughing at me when I thought to myself, "Who on earth would want to do that? It sounds scary to me!" So anyways, as different people in different circumstances started bringing it to JR's attention that they saw him as a church planter we just began to pray, "God, we dont know why this is coming up or what it means so please make it clear to us."

By January, the call for church planting was becoming very clear to us but we still couldnt see what exactly God was doing. Little did we know He had a LOT planned behind the scenes. On January 13th, we received a phone call from a good friend's husband who was a church planter in Oak Ridge, TN. He said that he was asked to pray about a pastor that would come and take over a church plant in the Knoxville area and he continually came back to JR's name. Now all along, he had NO idea what we had been praying for the past several months and just simply said if its even a possibility then you should call and talk to the men who were over the church planting network that he was a part of.

JR and I were shocked at the call, thanked him for ruining our weekend, and immediately started to pray. Because Jacob, our pastor, had been one of the ones who had saw the church planting call in JR, we immediately told him about the call and asked him to pray for us. You see we never had planned to leave Bethesda and were very confused as to why this opportunity was even before us.

As we prayed, it continually became clear that we did need to meet with the church planting network. And I personally took it as we would go and learn how they were being successful at their church plants and we would bring it back to Bethesda. JR met with the network the first weekend in February and spent many hours with them. When he came back to update me on what went on he knew that God has placed these men in his life for a reason. Of course we had no idea why or what they even thought of us. It was very apparent that we had zero experience in church planting and but our vision for what God had called our family to do alligned with theirs completely.

We attended 2 services that Sunday; one of their first church plants and also the one that we had received the call about. Our eyes were opened to a whole new world of "church" and we couldnt stop smiling. It was simply amazing to see many different people of all different backgrounds joining together to worship Jesus! Their love was truly contagious and we soaked up every minute of it.

We returned after that weekend with a lot of questions remaining and yet the most important one answered: Yes, we were supposed to church plant. We continued to pray, talk to other friends who were church planters themselves and with our staff at Bethesda. We got a phone call a few weeks later saying that the position we had went to speak to them about was no longer available. Door shut. Ok, now what God??

As our eyes had been opened to a whole new world of church planting it became evident that we would need training. One of the friends JR spoke with had told him that his greatest asset going into planting the church he was a part of was an internship that he had received at his local church in NC. "Ok, so should we go and enter into their intership program", we asked. No actually, believe it or not just a few hours later, we received another phone call from this same network in TN that had told us they didnt have a position for us. "Although the position we spoke about before isnt going to work out, we see the potential in you and would like to offer you an internship." DO WHAT?!?!

No we would have never imagined completing a college degree, then a master's degree only to return to an internship. No we didnt want to leave our church. No it wasnt going to be easy. BUT we knew we had to go! We continued to pray earnestly over the next few days and then called to tell them yes.

We began to learn the details of what this would look like: that they would pay us $10,000 and provide insurance, they would also look for us a missions house that would be rent free, and they would invest in us over the next 18 months so that we would be equipped to be sent out to church plant.

And even more questions were left unanswered. Where exactly would we live? Where would JR find a part time job so we could provide for our family. How would we come up with the remaining 20K that it would take to meet our family budget?

All of these questions remain left unanswered even now and yes it is scary to me. We are walking in faith and it isnt easy. We do know, however, that His grace is sufficient. And where He leads us, He will sustain us. This is never ever a situation I ever thought our family would be in, but there has never been a time in my life that I have been more sure of anything than this and so therefore we will continue to say YES to God and see what He has instore for us!

God is on the Move!

***copied from my husband's blog

Friends & Family,

Greetings from the Isham family! We have some exciting news to share!

In the past 6 months, the Lord has been cultivating within us a deep passion for making authentic disciples of Jesus who make authentic disciples of Jesus to the glory of God. We want to leverage all that we are and all that we have to that end with every remaining day that the Lord graciously gives. In light of this work of God in us, as of April 15, 2012, our family will be sent out from Bethesda Baptist Church in Durham, NC to OneLife Church in Knoxville, TN in order to enter a training program to prepare us for church planting. God has graciously provided the opportunity for both the hands-on training within a three-year old church plant, OneLife Church, as well as weekly coaching through the Ignite Church Planter’s Network. Over the next two years, we will have the privilege to engross ourselves in this training while laying the foundation for our very own church plant in a city to which the Lord leads.

This is in no way an easy decision. We love and have thoroughly enjoyed co-pastoring Bethesda Baptist Church and truthfully, we are as comfortable as can be, having many of the things most pastors would greatly enjoy, such as: loving members, great co-workers, an excellent Christian academy and childcare, a big house in a golf course community, and a salary that enables my Bride to fulfill her dream of being a stay at home mother. Life is great! However to selfishly stay here and bask in this comfort, would be to blatantly disobey and abandon the very will of God for our lives. And so we must proclaim from the rooftops with Paul in Philippians 3, that, “whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ…that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him.”

We are definitely taking a step of faith that only the Lord can craft. To pursue this training, we will be taking a $35,000 pay cut and I’ll have to work a part-time job to supplement our income. Furthermore, as I write this letter we don’t know where we’ll be living, where I’ll be working, and the Lord will need to provide $20,000 in support for us in 2 months. Many people and maybe many of you, will hear this story and say, “This Dude is crazy!” But I say no, this is the beauty of a faith that only God could precisely craft in us so that we not only have peace in this uncertainty, but great joy, knowing that our Lord is going to provide. Our prayer is that people would look on this situation and think we are insane and that that would create the opportunity for God to show up and proclaim to all who are looking on, that He alone is God and He is a faithful God who never forsakes His people whom He loves. There are several questions, which still need to be answered, however we’re confident that this is the Lord’s direction for the next season of our lives and we know that where the Lord’s Will leads us, His grace will sustain us!

In 2 Chronicles 20, there’s a story of King Jehoshaphat with three armies stacked against Him and he cries out to God, “These armies are stronger and mighty than we are and God, I don’t even know what to do, but my eye is fixed on you!” God, then, tells Jehoshaphat a little later in that story, “Do not fear or be dismayed, for the Lord is the with you and this is not your fight, but His….station yourselves, stand and see the salvation of the Lord.” And, this is where we’re at! We are stepping out with the faith that God has so graciously given us and we don’t know how our needs are going to be met, we don’t know the answers to a lot of questions that need to be answered, but our eyes are fixed on our King! It’s His fight that He’s going to fight and through it all we will see the salvation of the Lord. That He and He alone is the one true God! We are tremendously anticipating with great excitement How He’s going to show Himself!

Now, you might be saying, “That’s awesome JR! I pray that the Lord works everything out for ya’ll. I really do.” However, at this point, I humbly ask that you hear me out because God has given You an incredible opportunity to be a part of what He’s doing, not only in our lives, but in the big picture of all eternity. There is an excellent book entitled, “The Treasure Principle”, by Randy Alcorn and in it he reveals the following biblical truths about the finances God has graciously given to each of us:

1. God owns everything and we are His money managers.

2. Our hearts always go where we put God’s money.

3. Heaven, not earth, is our home.

4. We should live here, not for our time on earth, but for our time in eternity.

5. God prospers us not to increase our standard of living, but our standard of giving.

In Ephesians 4, Paul tells us that God graciously gives gifts to every Christian in order that these gifts would be used “for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” In other words, if you are a Christian, God has given you gifts to build up the church for the glory of God! It’s our prayer that you will see that You, at this moment, have an opportunity to be a part of God’s work, which will impact all of eternity! All Christians no matter what church you go to, are THE church. We are one; and God’s purpose is that the world would know Him by seeing the way we reflect Him in our love for each other. 2 Corinthians 9:8-11 tells us, God is able to always generously provide all you need and more, so that you can generously bless others. He tells us that when we give, He will continue to give us more and more, so that we can keep generously giving to others. And when we do, those who receive these blessings will thank God because of us.

Friends and family, if you are receiving this letter, you are one of two hundred people that God has used to impact our lives in some way. If God moves each of you to invest only $10 a month in the work He’s doing, you would more than empower us to do what we feel the Lord’s leading us to do! Now we do know, in reality, that some receiving this letter will simply trash it, so we pray that God would lead you to give out of the abundance that He’s given you in order to compensate for those who aren’t able or willing to give. Our questions for you today are, “Will you seize this great opportunity to be on mission with God? As a part of THE church, will you help support us, by praying and/or making a financial investment that will impact all of eternity? Could you sacrifice $10 a month, knowing that our family and all those who come to know Jesus through us, will be thanking God because of you?

If the answer to these questions are YES, please support us by going to http://www.onelifeknox.com/jr . There you can securely and conveniently make a one-time investment or set up recurring investments with your debit card that will instantly begin helping us make an impact in making disciples who will be face to face with Jesus for all eternity! We pray that the Lord would move your hearts to join Him in His work!

Walking by faith because of the work of God in us,

The Isham’s

Carter's First birthday party

The Gospel

Back in December, I posted this blog about a book I had began reading and to be quite honest I haven't been able to put the book down in 3 months. AND I would even say this has been a lifechanging book for me. When I first heard of the book Gospel by JD Greear, I thought, "Oh yea, well I know what the gospel is," since I had been saved by it many years ago. But until reading this book, now for my 2nd time through, I honestly never looked at the gospel in the way it was intended all along.

You see "the gospel is not only the means by which we get into heaven, but it is the driving foreve behind every single moment of our life." And I too, just like Pastor JD says about himself, am so thankful to be rediscovering the gospel all over again AND that has given me a joy in God I never experienced in all my years of fervent religion.

The gospel is not just supposed to be our ticket into heave; it is to be an entirely new basis for how we relate to God, ouselves, and others. It is to be the source from which everything else flows. Now that is a game changer for me! Growing up in the church I never remember hearing that the gospel is not just there to "save us" at that moment but to continue to change us as we learn to so adore God that we are consumed with a passion to love Jesus and love others. This sentence struck me to the core, "that we would gladly renounce everything we have to follow Him."

Now although I am a "pastor's wife," for those that know me well you know that this was never the life that I imagined to live. JR and I met in high school and although we did love Jesus, our plan was to have the normal life, normal job, go to church and have a normal family. I would argue that while we are still quite normal I had no idea that we would now be where we are now... renouncing everything we have to follow Him. I will also be honest and say that now that I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, I have so experienced His love for me, that I simply cannot imagine being anywhere else.

Growing up I knew I was supposed to: read my Bible, have a quiet time, pray to God, go to church, etc but the thing that was missing the most for me was not that I had to do these things. I am incredibly grateful that God is continuing to open my eyes that it is completely not about all of these things we should and shouldnt do, but instead being so in love with God and in awe of everything He has done for us, that out of love for Him we cant help but do these things, simply because we want to worship Him and know Him more.

To continue on with the book JD continues to say, "We somehow think God is pleased when we serve Him because we are required to. He's not. God desires a people who desire Him, who serve Him because they love Him. He "seeks those," Jesus said,"who worship Him in Spirit and in truth. In fact, Paul says whatever we do for God that is not fueled by love for Him is ultimately worthless to Him."

Going to church, means nothing. Attending seminary, means nothing! And even being a pastor's wife at a church, means NOTHING! For it is without this complete love for God that even the most radical obedience is of no value to Him.

I can honestly and boldly say that the gospel has done such a work in me that I crave God more than anything else in life- more than having a husband, being a mom, having money, health and even fame. And when I see His kingdom advance in the lives of others it gives me more joy than anything I could own. As JD says, "When we see Jesus as greater than anything else the world can offer, we'll gladly let evrything else go to possess Him. And when we love others like He loves us, we'll willingly yield our possessions to see His kingdom come into their lives."

I think it goes without saying that I HIGHLY recommend the book, "Gospel: Recovering the Power that made Christianity Revolutionary," by JD Greear. If you havent read it before, please do! Truly understanding the meaning of the gospel and being able to view all of life through those lenses is something you will NEVER forget!

Carter's blog

Tonight I finished a project of blogging Carter's first 365 days. I have done this for both of my boys in hopes that one day they will be able to go back and smile as they see what life for them was like during their first year (since no one has memories that soon). It has been fun but definitely a lot to remember to take at least one photo a day when 2 boys are keeping you busy!

If you havent checked it out before please do! Happy blogging :)
http://carterisham.blogspot.com/

Happy Valentine's Day!

 I am extra blessed this year to have THREE Valentines! I am still amazed that God chose me to be the Mommy to these two precious boys!

Special thanks to Stacey for taking these pictures of our sweet boys! Her and I are actually starting our own photography business together so let me know if you would like us to capture your family!

 Here are the Valentine cards I made out of the lovely pictures she captured!

Love to you my blog friends and Happy Valentines!!!

Love story

Its hard to believe that this is my 13th Valentines with JR! We had a wonderful date night last night and went to see the movie "The Vow." I love any mushy love story movie but this one struck an extra cord because it made you really think about what would happen if you too lost all your memories with the one you love. For those who know me well, you know that I have a really bad memory already and so you can laugh to know that I told JR after the movie, "We need to write out our love story so one day I wont forget. Oh wait, you may have to now because I have already forgotten!" Being that it was over 14 years ago when it all began and we have been through so so so much gives me a little bit of an excuse but still. We had a great conversation reminiscing over how we met, our first date and all the other fun (and not so fun) stuff along the way. I can truly say I am one blessed woman and I am so thankful our love story continues!

Happy FIRST birthday Carter!

 Happy FIRST birthday Carter James!! We are so blessed by your life and simply cannot believe a year has passed already! We celebrate your first year of life today and truly cant imagine what our life was like without you! Your are sweet yet sometimes stubborn, that bright smile you show off, your exploring nature, and even those squeals that come all too often if you dont get your way are what make you so special :)

At one year old you are:
-wearing 12-18 months (torso is long but legs are short ha!)
-size 3 shoes and 4 diapers
-standing on your own and have taken a few steps
-still crawling with a peg leg
-exploring EVERYTHING
-love playing with cars
-Mickey is your man!!
-always a Mommy's boy
-you can blow kisses and wave bye bye
-baby signing "more" and "all done"
-love clapping your hands and dancing to music
-have 4 teeth and 2 more on top coming through
-just got your first haircut 2 days ago!

 We had your first birthday photo shoot with Aunt Stacey last week and here are some of my favorites!

 Just one year ago we saw your face for the first time.... and now you have changed our lives forever!

 We had no idea how much our heart could grow for a second child

 your sweet little face stole our hearts from that first day on!

 I still cant stop giving you all my kisses!!

and you have brought more joy than we could imagine to our now family of FOUR!

Happy birthday sweet boy!

We love you, Mommy, Daddy and Griffin