Giving Birth

by Josh Duncan

Giving birth is a topic that's obviously been on my mind lately. On June 8, we were blessed with the birth of our second child, Kolton Josiah. These past few days have been full of excitement, lots of food (thanks to our amazing family and friends), and less sleep. Nevertheless, these past few days have made me once again fully aware of the process of giving birth... the anticipation, pain, adjustments, and excitement.

Anticipation comes from waiting on the baby to arrive, making plans, picking out a name (and for us that means not telling anyone and watching them suffer, ha ha), and looking forward to how your current kid will interact with the new one.

Pain comes from the pregnancy and process of giving birth. I won't even start to act like I've experienced pain through this process, but I know Jennifer has. Pregnancy and labor are both extremely painful, tiresome, and seemingly endless at times.

Adjustments are the needed changes to your life and routines you must make once the baby is born. Immediately things must and will change. They're no longer as they once were, yet they quickly feel as if they've always been this way. You have to establish new routines and let go of certain comforts you once had.

Excitement arrives as you begin to see the baby progress. You watch has he begins to open his eyes no longer being blinded by the light. Those first smiles, even though you know they aren't "real" smiles, only leaving you wanting more. You dream about their future and their potential. You're excited because you'd never go back to how it was before!

Why all this talk on giving birth?... Giving birth is also something that's been on my mind in regards to our church as well. As we've been sharing for the past couple months, our commitment moving forward is to make disciples, and because of this, the day is coming (I believe within the next year) where we will give birth as a community of believers. We're praying for and anticipating the opportunity to multiply our efforts and start a new Overflow Community.

For us, church is not about building buildings or gathering 1,000s of attendees at a weekly worship service. We want to give birth to new communities that are committed to making disciples who overflow their faith throughout the rhythms of life. When this time comes, I imagine there will be much anticipation, pain, adjustments, and excitement, but it will all be for the glory of Jesus and the advancement of His Kingdom!