The time has come to move to Detroit.

We’ve been praying for over a year for God to make a way for this to happen. We’ve described it as a season of “waiting on God”. I think a more accurate description would be that God has been “waiting on us”. He made his calling clear. He told us to go. He showed us where. What are we waiting for?

We are moving. This Wednesday. Our house is not sold. There is no backup plan. No safety net. Just the belief that this is God’s idea and not ours. We are moving to a 2 bedroom apartment in midtown, about a block and a half from where we hold our Woodside Detroit worship services. We just sold one of our 2 cars. We’re selling our John Deere Riding mower. We’re selling all we can.

It is time. Time to push all in.

Jesus is worth it. The city is worth it. People are worth it. I’m not worthy of this calling. For the cross gave me everything. I brought nothing to the cross, yet I took away everything.
My life is His. My wife is His. My babies are His. My voice is His. My mind is His. My stuff is His.

This is the kind of decision that forces my fears to the surface. It forces my tears to the surface.

“Do this in Detroit.”

The Johnson’s are coming, Jesus. We’ll be there in a minute.

“How much are you willing to lose to do what I’ve called you to do?”

This is the question that has been reverberating in my heart for the last week or so. God has definitely called us to follow Him into the city. We’ve started our bi-weekly worship services. Things are going well. Things have gone smoothly. Relatively. There have been some issues, some problems, some intense moments, but overall we have been able to move forward without much resistance. But personally, I have been really frustrated. I have been pleading with God to pave the way for our family’s move into the city. With every “almost” sale of our house, with every delay, with every roadblock my angst was rising.

Then our Detroit Core Meeting happened last Sunday. I was explaining some of the difficulties we’ve had in getting our family moved into the city God has called us to. Then I just lost it. Completely. I lost it so badly that I had to stop talking, shut my eyes, and just wait for it to pass. It was so silent, so awkwardly silent that all you could hear was my labored breathing as I tried in vain to get in control of my emotions.

In that moment it all hit me. I can’t ask others to follow the journey that I won’t take. If I’m unwilling to take a financial hit, how could I possibly look at our core and ask them to do it? How much am I willing to lose? What cost is too high to follow Jesus? It was as if in that moment, the mask fell off and everyone saw me for who I am. Trusting God as long as He plays by my rules. Following Jesus down the path I’ve laid out. Expecting God to miraculously deduct the cost from his cattle on a thousand hills.

Can I afford to do this? Wrong question. How can I afford to not do this? All I have is God’s. He has been so generous with us. I think it’s time that I practice what I preach. It’s time to move. In faith. Ready and willing to lay down my rights and expectations at the foot of the cross and beg Jesus to move. God, please forgive me for my slick presentations and hubris in discussing this season as an easy one. It needs to be hard. It needs to be dicey and desperate. I desperately need You to move so that we can move. I want this to be a movement of your Spirit, and those are both rare and costly.

Please give me the strength to lose everything for the sake of the gospel.

Have you ever had a dream that seemed so far off, so impossible, so unreachable that in a sense you considered it more of a “daydream” than a vision for your life? Sometimes we can find a certain sense of control and predictability in our lives when we have relegated our dreams to “daydreams” because so much needs to happen that we sort of give up.

But then it happens. The daydream becomes a reality. All of the impossible things get out of the way. You find yourself standing on the stage living in the center of your daydream, only to realize that this is no fantasy – it has actually materialized. You quickly realize that the dream that seemed so far off and impossible was not too big, but actually too small. Now your mind and heart are rapidly shifting gears to enlarge the dream to compensate for its limitations.

Dreams are great, but I’ve noticed that when they are accomplished, a rush of emotion is quickly replaced by a feeling of emptiness. A “now what?” feeling swoops in and overwhelms the long awaited feeling of accomplishment. I’ve experienced this more than once when seeing big dreams come to fruition. I used to be confused by it. I used to be frustrated by it. I used to think there was something wrong with me. That could be. But then I figured out what the real issue was. It wasn’t that these dreams were too big. It wasn’t that they were too small. It was that they were an accomplishment, not a person. Until my ultimate dream becomes Jesus, all other accomplishments are going to leave me feeling empty. When Jesus is your dream, all other dreams seem really small and insignificant. Suddenly, the dream to start your own company, family, or church seems really small as compared to the dream of wanting to make Jesus known through my company, family, and church. The other dreams are worthy endeavors, but they all need secondary goals, right? You start the company, now what? You have a child, now what? You start a church, now what? When Jesus is your ultimate dream, then the company becomes your vehicle to advance the kingdom of God through generosity. Your family becomes missional, binding itself together to reach the neighborhood for Jesus. Your church becomes a sending agency for passionate lovers of Jesus looking to belong, grow, and reach the world.

Dreamers need this reminder, that every dream that is not focused on Jesus will come up short. May I live this way as I seek to be a dreamer that is fixated on Jesus.

I was halfway through a five shot iced caramel macchiato when I heard the voice.
My other hand was lifted high, my eyes were shut, my heart was soaring, my lungs and vocal chords were heaving out the bridge of the newest Hillsong worship song, Arms Open Wide.

“My whole life is yours, I give it all, surrendered to your name. And forever I will say, Have your way. Have your way.”

It’s easy to get caught up in the moment at Hillsong London Church. Thousands of worshippers fully engaged in cutting edge music that the rest of the world will soon be singing, lights, smoke machines, skinny jeans, all happening in a theater that the rest of the week houses We Will Rock You! The Queen Musical.

But this was different. I honestly heard a voice.

I was very moved by this church. They were not only succeeding in reaching a very difficult city for Jesus, but they were exploding. What really stood out to me was that they had embraced the city of London, choosing to pay much more to rent a theater near London’s famed West End than to go outside the city. People got off the tube stop and walked straight into church. It took 900 volunteers to pull off a Sunday full of services, with the work beginning at 5am. It was very inspiring to dream in that environment.

So many times I have begged God to tell me clearly what He wants me to do with my life. If I could just hear His voice! Don’t misunderstand, He still leads me. Sometimes it is an impression. Sometimes it is a peace. Or a lack of peace. A slammed door. A broken window. Taking a risk. Playing it safe. An unsolicited phone call with a life-changing offer. Then another an hour later. Praying without ceasing. Inhaling scripture. Weeping like a baby. Laughing like a hyena. Weeping while laughing. Selling a house. Resigning during an elder meeting. Twice. Getting laid off. Getting dumped. I have found myself wishing that God would just sit me down sometime and share with me the plans He has for me. Plans to prosper and not harm me. Plans that give me hope and a future. The offer is on the table.

But never has He initiated conversation with me.

Until this moment.

The five shots of espresso were just beginning to work their magic on my central nervous system during this morning service when I heard something that stopped me in my tracks. I stopped singing mid note. My eyes popped open. My blood went cold. My irregular heartbeat kicked into a new gear. My raised arm fell to my side. I frantically looked at the screens to see if there was some clip playing. I looked around me. Behind me. I asked my buddy next to me, “Did you hear that?” Huh? No.

“Do this in Detroit.”

As clearly as I have ever heard anyone directly addressing me, I heard a voice say those words to me. One time. Audibly. For the first time ever. While I was having my heart refreshed in one of the largest churches in England, God was thinking about Detroit.

While in London taking seminary classes during the Summer of 2009, I would get asked by the locals where I was from. My answer elicited the same reaction, every time. “Ohhhh.” Eyes would get really big. Smiles would be replaced with furrowed concern. How could a city be known around the world as the emblem of suffering and blame? It was during this trip that I realized that the whole world was watching Detroit.

Earlier on this trip, God had laid adoption on my heart as a calling, not as an alternative offspring option. The ink hadn’t even dried on this major shift in my heart and now another bombshell has been dropped. “Do this in Detroit.” My interpretation of these words was that God was calling me to plant a church in the city just 20 miles from my house in Rochester, MI. I didn’t take it as a mandate to approach senior leadership in Australia about starting Hillsong Detroit.

When my wife Angela picked me up at the airport after being gone for 20 days, I dropped both of these massive revelations on her while she was driving. Tears flowed as we vainly tried to unpack the implications of what God had laid on my heart. Adoption and Detroit? Are we to start a church with an adoption ministry in the city of Detroit? What does this mean? What do we do first? I was a mess. Where do we start?

Three days later our adoption journey began.

I kept the other part of the vision mostly to myself. After all, now we had a beautiful little baby girl and our lives were flipped upside down. Rooms were being renovated. Showers were arranged. Strollers were being assembled. Diapers were being changed. Not to mention, our young adult ministry, Lighthouse, was really starting to pick up steam. We were starting to outgrow our current room and plans were being made to move into the main worship center.

But I couldn’t shake that voice.

There were many times that I would be reminded of what God had laid on my heart that day in London, but I felt like the deal had changed. I still had the flickering hope in my heart that this is what God was calling us to, but I was afraid to bring it up only to have reality of family and finances snuff it out for good. Sort of like the little kid that is riding with his parents to get ice cream, but on the way they get in a car accident. The little boy asks his dad amidst the sirens and flashing lights, “Hey, we’re still getting ice cream, right?” I didn’t want to have this dream dashed, so I kept it burning in a secret room in my heart.

Our sweet daughter Lily had been growing in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man, when one day Angela asked me, “Don’t you think Lily needs a sister? Should we start the adoption process to get Lily a sibling?” To which I replied, “You mean, do the portfolio deal, pay the money, and pray that someone picks you?”
“Yeah, honey. That’s how it works for most people.” To which I replied without trying to be dismissive, “Sweetie, I’m not trying to blow you off with a clichéd answer, but I just truly feel that if God wants us to adopt another baby, He’s just going to drop one into our laps.” She laughed. This was early January of 2011.

For her Christmas present, Angela wanted to go see Mary Poppins at the Detroit Opera House, so I generously offered to buy her a ticket to go see it in early January with a pack of girls that would appreciate it. Nice try. After the show, we were driving up Woodward Avenue and Angela turned to me and stopped my heart. What she said next I’m sure will have eternal implications.

“So, when are we moving to Detroit?”
“What? You are still up for that? What about our little family? I sort of thought the deal had changed for you now that we have Lily.”

She sternly said, “DON’T USE US AS AN EXCUSE TO NOT DO WHAT GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO DO!” God used the most beautiful and delicate woman to shake me out of my self-induced calling coma. She was more beautiful to me in that moment than ever before.

That Sunday night I shared my story with the Lighthouse Collective, and sobbed through a lot of it as I recounted the journey that God has led us on. It was the first time that I had publicly connected many of the dots of the suffering and waiting that had been the dominant narrative arc of our marriage and ministry. At the end of the message I prophetically stated with a wink and a smile that 2011 was going to be a big year for us as a family, ministry, and a church. I figured I would plant a seed of expectation after our car ride had reignited the vision for Detroit. But God had much, much more than we could have imagined in store to fulfill that haphazard prediction.

The following Tuesday I finished meeting with a young adult and realized that I had a voicemail from the adoption agency that we had used to adopt Lily. Here is the transcript from that message:

“Hi Cliff it’s Kris from the (adoption agency we used). Hey I got a call from (Lily’s birthmom) today and I don’t know if you folks know it but she is pregnant and she reached out to me and said she’d be interested in looking at having a placement with you and Angie. So, give me a call and we can talk through some of the details. Thanks, bye bye.”

I collapsed to the floor and wept.

I left church immediately and drove home to tell Angela in person. I woke her up from a nap that she desperately needed, so of course she thought someone had died. We wept and hugged and laughed. Lily’s biological sister was going to become her adopted sister! This is absolutely unheard of, especially the part where she reached out to us.

A few weeks later, our Senior Pastor, Doug Schmidt and I had lunch to talk about the future. We discussed how Lighthouse was going, the implications of the upcoming paradigm shift that the church was going to be going through, and some books that we were reading. At the end of the lunch I asked Doug if he had ever thought about putting a campus in Detroit. He shared some thoughts that he had and some people that he had in mind for a future campus in the city. I quickly began to share with him the vision for a campus in Detroit, what it could look like, and how we felt God calling us to do it. Immediately, I could see the excitement building in his eyes. We talked some more that day. Then I saw him the following Sunday after the service, and he told me he couldn’t stop thinking about it. We set up some more meetings to discuss it. Others were brought in. The official plan for Woodside Detroit was in motion in late March.

As this process unfolded, it was amazing for me to witness what an amazing leader Doug is and how blessed we are to serve under him at Woodside. His desire to see everyone in this area reached with the gospel was evident by his leadership in the EACH campaign, but also as he embraced the idea of a campus in Detroit. There was a tangible excitement for this idea from Doug and the elders from the moment it was shared. I cannot fully express how much that has impacted my heart. God has truly given us humble leadership that follows the Spirit of God wherever he leads.

In the midst of this, something very powerful happened from an offhand comment that was made before a meeting in my office. I had innocently mentioned that we would love to have our annual Lighthouse Good Friday Service in Detroit this year, but that the theaters were too expensive for us to pull it off. The following Sunday, the father of one of the guys in the room pulled me aside and shared that he wanted to pay for us to have our event in Detroit. I told him it would be expensive. He asked two questions, “Will the name of Jesus be praised? And will God be glorified?” I nodded furiously. That’s all he needed to know.

We were able to book the Fillmore Theater in Detroit on Good Friday because a national act backed out. I had made a super lowball offer based on what we could do, which the booking agent originally laughed at, but then accepted. Our dream was to see 2,000 people pack the Fillmore and 100 come to Christ. Our Lighthouse Collective fasted and prayed and invited friends and family. The Street Team tacked up posters and flyers all over town. We prayed for a beautiful late April day, and instead got a freezing cold rainy day. But people came. College students drove from all over the state. People were walking past and saw the marquee and wandered in. Our count had the crowd at somewhere around 1700. The service started at 10pm and ended at 12:56am. We performed 20 songs, and John 3:16 was preached phrase by phrase in five different segments. During the phrase “that whoever believes in him shall not perish”, the gospel was presented and a salvation call was given. Over 50 young adults came rushing to the front of the stage and knelt down. Many were weeping as they prayed to receive Christ.

It was a moment that no one who was there will ever forget. I walked off the stage as the next song started and fell on my face and wept. This happened in the middle of Detroit. God was giving us a glimpse of what He is going to do. I laid in bed that night with a thousand thoughts racing through my head. All I could do was dream about what God has in store for the city of Detroit.

We rushed to the hospital ten days later so that Angela could be in the delivery room and even cut the umbilical cord of our beautiful new baby daughter. We named her London, and she is a beautiful healthy baby girl. Someday we will tell her about the city that she is named after and the voice that her daddy heard. We pray that our children will grow up to realize that we love them dearly, but that we will always love Jesus more. We never want to get so enthralled with the gifts that we lose sight of the giver.

Stepping out of Lighthouse at Woodside Troy was an incredibly difficult decision. The ministry has continued to grow and reach a demographic that is statistically known as the hardest for churches to reach. We had an amazing summer, and watched our weekly attendance jump over 600 for the first time. We even had a special service in July with over 1000 people there to celebrate 23 young adult believers proclaiming their love and obedience to Jesus in baptism. Feeling God’s call to walk away as things are growing assures us even more that this is God’s idea and not ours. We would question it more if the ministry was slowing down. And Jim and Sarah Dahlke, former Student Ministries Pastor and Worship Leader of Woodside Lake Orion, are ready to take Lighthouse to the next level. We are excited to see them step into this ministry and lead with humility and passion.

Our dream is to join God in what He is doing in Detroit. We come to the city humbly recognizing that there are many who are proclaiming the name of Jesus and preaching the gospel already. We pray that God would prepare us for the people that we will love and lead, and that we would follow Him every step of the way. We don’t come in with a plan to end poverty by next year, or to resuscitate the economy overnight. All we have is the burning passion to preach the name of Jesus and love people right where they are.

We believe that God is calling us to live in the city, and to raise our children in the city, so we are selling our house in Rochester. We want others who feel called to Detroit to pray about doing the same. We believe that God is going to lead 100 people / families to move into the city that we want to reach with the love of Jesus. We want to be an incarnational ministry, inhabiting neighborhoods with the love and mission of Jesus.

We are renting a theater for our main worship space and will strive to elevate excellence in music and the arts. We will be passionate in our worship and in the preaching of God’s word. We desire for this church to be truly missional in the city so we are creating a way for people to share life together and reach their neighbors through a small group program called “Neighborhood Groups”. True community will be vital to our success as a church. As it relates to service projects, we want to partner with existing ministries to serve those in the city who need it most.

We are going to launch Woodside Detroit with Monthly Worship Gatherings this fall on October 16, November 20, and December 11 at 6pm. We have rented the Ford Theater for the Performing Arts located in the Detroit School of Arts on the Corner of Selden and Cass (one block off of Woodward) in Midtown Detroit.

As we meet monthly for worship, we will be forming our Neighborhood Groups in the city. In January, we will begin to meet bi-weekly for worship through March on Sunday nights. The Launch of Weekly Services will officially begin on Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012.

“Do this in Detroit.” We believe that God is already doing great things in the city of Detroit, and we are excited to be a part of His plan for the city. Would you pray for us as we move into the city and also pray about joining us as we start this new campus in Midtown?