Nathan Miller

I just wanted to give you all a brief update about our church planting meetings last week. Our meeting in North Carolina went great, and at this point it looks like we are going to pursue church planting opportunities there. Thank you all for your prayers! God has brought us on quite the journey. He has been good and faithful to lead us where He desires us to be. The process has not always been the easiest, but He has taught us His faithfulness.

Please continue to lift us up in prayer as we now turn our attention to the city God would have us plant. My desire is to find where God is working and join Him in that work. I believe we are at the beginning of a movement of God across our country. It is time and it is needed. Let us join together in prayer for God to pour out His Spirit upon us!

I want to make an appeal this morning for your prayers. After work today, Jenny and I are heading to Virginia to spend the night at my parent’s house. Then tomorrow we will drive to Greensboro, NC to talk to a church planting strategist about church planting opportunities in North Carolina. If you have been following me for some time, then North Carolina might come as a surprise. Jenny and I have been praying about planting a church in the west for  a few years now, but God keeps closing the door. I’ll explain the whole story on another day.

Please pray for us that we will have wisdom from heaven as to where to plant a church. It is my fervent desire to serve the Lord with my life, and I want so desperately to go where He would desire me to. I’ll post an update about our meeting later, but please remember to keep us in your prayers. Our meeting is at 11:45 tomorrow. Thank you!

Ask many of you know, Jenny and I just got back from a trip to San Diego. We went with the intention of looking at the city as a possible place to plant a church. Although San Diego needs churches, it is not the place for us. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but God didn’t give us a peace about planting there.

Thank you all for your prayers! We are now back to the drawing board looking for our next step. The Lord has been leading us down an interesting journey, and we are looking forward to seeing where He will take us. Hopefully I can share some stories about our trip, but in the meantime, here are some photos. You can see them all and many more here.

This morning , as I do every morning, I read My Utmost For His Highest by Oswald Chambers. If you are looking for a good devotional to read, I highly recommend this one. I have been reading it for years, and it continues to minister to my life and challenges my walk with the Lord. This morning’s section challenged me in regards to my prayer life and I wanted to share it with you.

This morning Chambers opens with the statement: “The reason many of us stop praying and become hard towards God is that we only have an emotional interest in prayer.” How true is this in my life? I have to admit that far too often. I come before God looking for some magical, emotional experience where I can “feel” closer to God. However, is that Biblical? No where in the Bible do you find that teaching. Maybe some of that thinking comes from our “American mentality.” We are so emotionally driven!

Chambers continues his challenge:

“Worship and intercession must go together, the one is impossible without the other. Intercession means raising ourselves up to getting the mind of Christ about the one for whom we are praying for. Too often instead of worshiping God, we construct statements as to how prayer works. Are we worshiping or are we in dispute with God— ‘I don’t see how You are going to do it.’ This is a sure sign that we are not worshiping. When we lose sight of God we become hard and dogmatic. We hurl our own petitions at God’s throne and dictate to Him as to what we wish Him to do. We do not worship God, nor do we seek to form the mind of Christ. If we are hard towards God, we will become hard towards other people.”

“Are we worshiping God in a way that will raise us up to where we can take hold of Him, having such intimate contact with Him that we know His mind about the ones for whom we pray?”

Prayer is not about us, it’s about God. Prayer is not for us to change God’s mind about a matter, but rather to get our thoughts in line with His plan. Prayer is an act of worship! It is an amazing thought that we can come before the throne of God to speak to Him. May we not abuse the privilege, but rather let it touch our hearts. May we walk away from our prayer time more like Christ than when we entered. May our prayer time change our outlook on the world, and may we see people the way our Lord sees people. I hope that you apply these truths to your prayer life today!

As some of you might know, Church Planting has been a burning desire in our hearts the last few years. I won’t dump the whole story on you, but it all dates back to the Bonfire Conference held here at FBCW in October of 2006. At that conference I heard Vance Pitman speak about their church planting experience at Hope. During his session, he whet my appetite for Church Planting in the West. Yes, there is a need for churches in the East, but in the West there is an unbelievable need. The demographics show a much higher percentage of unchurched people in the West – in many places as high as 95%.

I say all of this to update you on our current endeavor. Since being at Woodstock, we have been looking at San Diego as a possible place to plant a church. I’m asking that you all please pray for us as we will be traveling out there April 3-10. Yes, there is a great need for churches, but we desire to be where the Lord wants us. Pray that if it would be His will for us to be in San Diego that He would make it clear to us. Thank you all for your prayers as they are greatly needed. If you would like some more details about our trip or our desire to do church planting, send me an e-mail ( natekmiller@gmail.com ).