Nehemiah 11:1 – Now the leaders of the people lived in Jerusalem.
My wife Grace and I have been doing ministry together our entire marriage, always in larger cities, having even moved a few times in response to God’s calling. We know many ministry families, including international missionaries, who have done the same thing.
For people who are not believers, the thought of moving your entire family to a large city where you know few if any people, on the hope that you will be able to put life together for your family, and minister to others, can sound a bit crazy. From the days of Abraham and Sarah to the present, this is exactly what God has repeatedly asked some of his people to do.
A few years ago, our family uprooted our entire lives to move to Arizona. At the time, we didn’t know what God had for us, but He has been faithful to guide us in planting Trinity Church as a family ministry and growing our church family into what feels like an extended family.
The city of Phoenix and the region surrounding it is made up of many different suburbs that make it one of the largest metropolitan areas in the nation. From the ministry we do at Trinity, people’s lives are affected not just in the outskirts of the Phoenix Valley but all across the nation and world thanks to RealFaith Ministries, which helps us get Bible teaching out nationally and internationally.
We see this very thing happen, where ministry starts in the city and flows from the metropolitan areas, in Nehemiah 11 for at least six reasons that we’ll look at over the next few days.
Has God ever called you to move for ministry reasons? What was that journey like?