Enjoy The Ride

“Enjoy the ride!”

When it comes to trusting God, sometimes that is all you can tell someone.

Last August, some good friends said exactly that about trusting God in our future plans. I attended a reunion/prayer retreat in Council Bluffs, IA – the brainchild of my good friend Shun Lee Fong – Principle Creative / President of The Greenhouse in Hollywood, CA. and author of THE SAINTS & THE POETS.

He also happens to be one of my very close friends. His mother is like a mother to me.

Shun Lee was one of the worship leaders in our youth ministry worship team and had a great idea to have a little get together at his parents home and invite some of the old band members. We got together and had a great time worshipping under the stars. Then Shun Lee reminded us of the amazing times of spiritual gift ministry that always happened at our retreats back in the day, and just said why not pray for one another tonight and maybe the Spirit will show up.

“Sure. Why not? I said. But to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much.

“Oh Ye of little faith.”

Not much trusting God, there.

So we started praying. Well, God showed up! I can’t go into all that happened but it was as if nothing had changed in 20 years.

And then Jeff Cahill started to pray for Sylvie and I and he began to laugh and said “I am seeing this hilarious movie of you guys – in a canoe, laughing and having fun, but then just being knocked around all over the place – rock to rock, rapids to rapids. But it is a good thing. You are both embracing it and getting through each jolt. Just enjoy the ride.”

I laughed. It seemed right on the very moment he started to share this.

Can I tell you something?

That word was our 2017, and 2018.

Little did we know, that in November/December of 2018, some new turns began to occur in our “river” and new rapids starting jolting us around.

As you may know, we had been producing a TV show/movie concept called “The Recipient” with Co-Producer Barry Ahlsten. And as the finances dried up, Barry could no longer afford to pay us.  Then Barry admitted that he wanted a new direction, story and script.

We obviously struggled to figure out our best course of action.

Now my wife and I had no choice but to find income ASAP!

Our canoe had virtually tipped and we were drowning! (We thought)

And then – God spoke to my heart. Not audibly. But this thought came ever-so-strongly – “Ask the church to hire you full-time for a season and plant the new church!”

I had instant peace. I was trusting God yet again!

So – about the church plant:

You see, when Sylvie and I moved to Edina in May 2016, Pastor Clarence St. John (former District Superintendent of the MN AoG) asked me if I would consider doing an interim church part time in Brooklyn Park called Heritage Chapel. It was a small church of 25 or so, and the senior pastor had resigned very suddenly, leaving them with a mortgage that was twice what the congregation could pay. So I had been part-time with Heritage Chapel ever since.

And too much for this post to go into great detail. But we ended up coming on as permanent pastors (still very part-time), we put the building up for sale in a superb location, sold the property and are using the proceeds to rent a new place for the next year, at least.

Thankfully, we developed a very positive relational connection with the Osseo School District. They virtually pursued us to use their High School auditorium for our future services. Sylvie and I decided to tour the location. And when we went inside, it was as if we entered a portal of spiritual light! It was incredible! And the auditorium is the most beautiful public school auditorium I have ever seen.

When we were thrown out of the boat last November, the rapids of bills began mounting, and the water starting to wash over our mouths… and I recalled Jeff C’s word to “Enjoy The Ride!” and it made sense. I will admit – my flesh, still exerted itself once in a while as I stopped looking at man, and turned my face upward in prayer and praise in the midst of the storm.

We trusted God, went into the board meeting and I gave them a 6 month proposal that was not too shabby! (It was from the Lord. And yes, it is really exciting.)

They agreed to hire us!!! Woo Hoo!

So – here we were in December, and we went from “horrible” to “amazing” in a matter of weeks!

And I write this to let you all know this latest update of what The Saxton’s are up to now. Please be praying for us on this journey. God didn’t necessarily promise us a smooth ride, but He did promise that He would never leave us or forsake us!

We would love to bring you along with us on our journey. Just go to:

www.authentikchurch.com and follow the links to get on our email list.

We would be happy to send you our email updates!

Because, when God shakes our boat, we need to be brave together,

and – ENJOY THE RIDE!

Jeff & Sylvie

JOIN OUR LIST HERE

PS – Pastor Kyle Edelman pastors a huge church in Kentucky full-time, and he wrote, produced and starred in the film “Not A Fan” that has impacted the world. Bishop TD Jakes pastors a huge church full-time and he started a feature film production company that his daughter oversees. Billy Graham was a full-time evangelist, and he started an evangelistic film production company whose movies touched the whole world, and my parents wandered into a theater in 1963 to watch one of those films, and they were both saved.

I believe I am similarly designed and called.

So please do not be shocked if in the future, you find me pastoring a church, making a film, writing a book, teaching a conference… and maybe doing more than one of these things at the same time.