Am I actually trusting God, or am I just managing a building program?

While producing this story in partnership with @CollegeroadFL what struck us about Pastor John’s testimony was the simplicity of obedience underneath all the logistics. They cleared land. They dug a well. They put up a modular unit and a trailer. That’s not impressive… and that’s the point. God doesn’t wait for you to be impressive before He starts moving. He just asks, are you willing?

Pastor John arrived in 1982 to 45 or 50 people. And instead of playing it safe with what they had, they began searching souls and minds and hearts. Before they ever touched a blueprint, there was a searching. A surrendering.

That’s the order we keep getting backwards. We hire the architect before we’ve genuinely gone to our knees.

By 1986, 237 people walked into that new sanctuary for the first time.
That’s not a growth strategy. That’s a God story.

And now Pastor John, though retired and watching from the outside… is calling the current generation to the same surrender. Not to copy his methods, but to have his posture. Eyes open to the harvest. Hands willing for the work. Hearts soft enough to recognize the season they’re in.

So here’s a challenge: Don’t let your capital campaign become a monument to your vision. Let it be an act of radical obedience to His. The fields are white. That was true in Ocala in 1982, it’s true in Ocala in 2026… honestly, it’s true wherever you’re sitting right now.

The question is never whether God is moving forward. The question is whether you are.