Well incredibly enough this all seems to be for a real, and even though Emma and I often look at each other and wonder, it really does seem that from early 2010 we are going to be relocating to Australia. For at least 3-5 years we are going to be doing all we can to launch the first Sovereign Grace church plant in this new nation, and to be honest, even as a write I can’t believe we get to do this. But how did we get here you may wonder? Well, let me explain…

At the beginning of July last year I had the privilege of accompanying Pete Greasley on an exploratory trip to Sydney. Over a number of years Sovereign Grace has had an increasing amount of contact from Australia with folks buying up materials and CD’s, and increasing numbers enquiring after a Sovereign Grace church plant.

Mike Pasalich (a Sydney born Australian) was one of the guys leading the line in this, and having just completed a year at the Pastors College he also joined us on this trip, and what a time we had! It was clear that God was calling Sovereign Grace to Australia. We had so many good meetings with people, and God knitted our hearts with so many.

I returned from this trip refreshed and enthused for all that it seemed God was going to be doing in Australia. And that’s where it stayed. I was devoted to helping them in this church plant, and felt privileged to do so, but doing anything beyond helping others to do it hadn’t even come into my mind.

December 2008 then became a very significant month in my life, and the lives of my family. In talking to Mike Pasalich and encouraging him in all that God was doing in his life, it was clear from him and others that he wasn’t going to be ready to take on the proposed church plant into Australia. No one was clearer on this than Mike himself, and yet with great enthusiasm and humility he continued to apply himself and pray for others.

Then Dave Harvey (part of the Sovereign Grace Leadership Team) was over to spend some time with the UK churches, and on the Saturday morning of his weekend we gathered together homegroup leaders so that they could hear Dave preach a message entitled, ‘Ambition’.

The thrust of Dave’s message was actually to do with contentment, posing the question to us all of ‘By now I should have been ….’ – What’s your blank? And I was pleasantly surprised. I had no blank. I love my wife, and have always been amazed that in a moment of insanity she said “yes”. I love my children, even with endless bike-rides, ice-creams, football games, etc, etc… I love it. And I love Christchurch. My life is just one absolute scandal of grace, and so fill in the blank… I don’t have one… happy days! As the message went on I therefore began to slowly congratulate myself, until Dave randomly in a throw away comment quoted William Carey: ‘Attempt great things for God, expect great things from God’.

At these words a bell resounded in my heart. I had arrived to this message on contentment seriously content, and yet now I found myself strangely uneasy… how did that happen? I didn’t know what the Lord was up to at that point and yet I knew something was taking place in my heart, and so I began to chew things over.

On the Monday my wife and I were then enjoying a quality BHS breakfast before the Christmas shop (it’s the only way I can get through it to be honest!), and Emma began to ask lots of questions about the Australia church plant. It was a fun talk, speaking of the passion of the folk over there that we had met, and considering what God may be up to in it all. She then asked me what type of experienced leader would be needed to bring the church plant about. I replied and at the end of my little talk she simply said these words, “I think I know a guy that is like that… you”.

We laughed about the possibility, but it was a nervous laugh, because the truth is that in that moment the Lord put very clear seeds in our hearts, seeds of faith, that this may well be the path that he was leading us on. It was out the blue for both of us, and yet over the next week we began to pray about it and talk some more about it, and by the following week, I needed some counsel.

So I sat with Pete Greasley on the Tuesday morning, and knowing that this was going to be a shock I ensured we were both sitting before I started. Pete was excellent. He listened intently and asked questions. Having been discipled by Pete for over fourteen years he knows me well, and so this was just another rich moment in our history, a moment I don’t think I’ll ever forget. It concluded with one simple answer from Pete, “I don’t think so Dave, but leave it with me and I’ll keep chewing it over”. To be honest, I was really happy with this. I really trust Pete and knew that he would care for Emma and I in this process.

Although we had received a ‘probably not’, an answer that we were content with, our hearts continued to stir for Australia. Even when we tried to put it out of our minds something would take place that put it right back in there again: emails, cards, conversations, it was an interesting time. And so when the conversation continued with Pete some two months later, we were ready for it to do so. We had just decided on the Monday not to go back to Pete and re-spark the conversation. We needed to know for ourselves that God was at work beyond us and so we held off. It was so good then on the Tuesday when Pete came back to me and re-opened the conversation. Pete had been considering things and he too now also felt the Lord was really in this for us, and so after many questions and tears together, the process began.

After several Sovereign Grace assessments and conversations of real care with Dave Harvey and Jeff Purswell, it became official at the start of May that God-willing we would be heading out to Australia in early 2010 to launch the church plant. At one point Dave Harvey thanked Pete and I for all that is taking place and said it seemed to be ‘grievously exciting’. How true that is. It is so exciting to consider that God has revealed a path to us that involves a church plant in Australia – for the furtherance of the Gospel this is so incredibly exciting!

As a family we are so humbled that God would have us do this, and for me, my story of scandalous grace continues… absolutely scandalous. And yet, this move is also grieving. We love this pastoral team and this local church and to move away from you, and from our families is filled with so many emotions for us… tougher than I could have ever thought.