In preparation for ARC 3.0 (Assessment) being held in Villa Rica, Georgia, we had asked my parents to come up and keep our two older children. The night before we were to leave for Georgia, Hurricane Irene greeted us with her presence, knocking out our power. I felt so bad leaving my parents without power and no water that I almost decided not to go. My dad wouldn’t hear of it. He said they would be fine, and told us that we had to go.

I hesitantly relented and on Sunday afternoon, we were off to face our jury. Jacqueline and I really had no idea what to expect from the experience. The leadership of ARC sent us a few e-mails telling us where to show up and when to get there; outside of that, they were pretty “Cloak and Dagger.” Being on the other side of it, I’m glad… it was sort of like an initiation into the fraternity!Jacqueline and I had such an amazing experience at 3.0. We were humbled, encouraged, and challenged in ways that I can say, quite honestly, I had never experienced at any other point in my ministry. We left feeling so confident of our calling that on the way home we decided no matter what ARC’s decision was about us… we were going to plant a church!

Perhaps one of the coolest God moments in our story came while at 3.0.  During one of the sessions,  I was looking over my newly formulated Vision outline, reading it over in my mind.  “Awaken Church… It’s All about Grace.” Our Core Values are, “Generosity, Relevance, Authenticity, Compassion, Exuberance.”  “We exist to awaken people to God’s grace.”  As I was reading silently, I felt the Holy Spirit direct me to read my Life Verse.  This was a verse that I strongly felt like the Lord gave to me in college.  I tried to incorporate it into previous ministries… but it never made sense.  As I read the words of Habakkuk 2:2-3… I began weeping.  “Make it plain”, it said, “So that even those running by can read it.”  God had directed us to make our vision so succinct, so simple, that everyone who sees our name and tagline, will actually see the vision.  He had given me a verse in college 10 years earlier for a ministry that still to come… AWAKEN!

Brian

We are signed up for the ARC Assessment in less than three weeks… this is the place where you sell your vision for your city and for your church, but we no longer had any idea where we were going to plant Awaken Church.

So Brian flies to St. Petersburg, Florida, to find the spot. I was at home doing all of the normal mommy duties throughout the day, anxiously anticipating exciting news on the other end of the line. Every phone call was about the same – discouragement. Nothing felt like home; nothing felt right.

The night before he was flying out the next afternoon, I tossed and turned for four hours and could not sleep. I felt so prompted to look up the city we had heard tossed out by the Hankeys at lunch that day in Minnesota. On the map, there is not much to see, but as I started scrolling through the city-data and the demographics, this city had me extremely intrigued. Convincing Brian to drive almost an hour-and-a-half from St. Petersburg to visit this little dot on the map would be no easy task. I stayed up until I was greeted by the sun emailing Brian every possible fact I could find about this North Port, Florida, area… he called me a few hours later and said he was on his way to North Port.

And now we know that is the best decision he could have possibly made…

The voice had changed on the phone, the excitement had returned, the dream engine was working on overtime. I had never seen this place called North Port, but I knew that this was the destination that God had intended all along.

And then we had Hurricane Irene. We had already overcome so many hurdles… Now we had a location, we had finished all of the required paperwork and questionnaires needed by the ARC team in order to attend the 3.0 Assessment, and Brian’s parents get in town from Florida to keep Selina and Wyatt. My mom and sister were coming over to Atlanta to keep Lacie for us. Overnight, we lose our power and the expected time for the power to return was five to seven days. We have well water, so no flushing toilets and no running water… and it is August. Brian and I begin to question once again, how can we leave Brian’s parents in this state with our two children? How could this be God’s plan? Immediately upon realizing our questions, Dad Z put his foot down that our going was not optional. We needed to get our bags and head to the airport. And so we did…

We were full of anticipation… we had no idea what was in store for us. The next three days would shape us for all time!

Jacqueline

August 2011

I felt a deeply urgent drive to go back to Florida and find the place where we would plant Awaken. We had already made the decision to go to ARC 3.0 (Assessment), just about a month after 2.0, but now I was going to slip another trip into the mix. I knew that during the assessment phase of our involvement with ARC, they would want details about the city where we felt called to plant. I planned a two-day, in-and-out trip that would have me driving all over the southwest coast of Florida.

Jacqueline and I mapped out possible locations, which was a daunting task. With our desire to stay in the Church of God, while planting through the ARC organization… there were only a few locations that were open to us. We overlaid ARC’s church location map against the Church of God’s locations and picked out four potential locations that still kept us in the general area of Sarasota/Bradenton/Tampa. There was a fifth location, North Port, but I had ruled it out, because it just didn’t seem like a good location on the map.

Once in Florida, I quickly gravitated to St. Petersburg. There was an area, in particular, that just seemed like the right place. I got some great vision for the city and felt like we could do life there. But to be fair, I pressed on to check out the other areas. Time slipped by as I visited city after city, marking them off our list, one-by-one. That night I called Jacqueline and described to her my discouragement. As much as I liked St. Petersburg, I couldn’t honestly say I felt called there.

Jacqueline, ever the cheerleader, asked if I should consider North Port… just in case. I flatly told her no… it wasn’t what I wanted. It was too far inland, by my estimation. I went to bed and Jacqueline went to work. The next morning, I awoke to a ten-page e-mail from her describing to me all the reasons why we should plant in North Port. She included demographics, places of interest, city data, and tons of her signature rah rah! I decided I would never hear the end of it if I didn’t drive down to check out North Port in the flesh.

I packed my bags, loaded the car, and headed for North Port. I prayed on the way there (knowing that I would not have time to visit anywhere else before it was time to head to the airport) that God would make it clear where we were supposed to plant. As I neared the exits for North Port, I sensed a strange sense of excitement. I no sooner got off the exit and saw the first housing development before I sensed the Holy Spirit say welcome home. As I drove through the city of North Port, I captured a vision for the future in a way that I never had before, even in Sarasota. At this point, I like to think we were always called to North Port, but just got confused… you see, North Port is in Sarasota County and is actually its largest city… only God!

Brian

I never cease to be amazed at how God guides us. We went to ARC 2.0 convinced that we were a little ahead of the game, because we already had our name, our mission statement, and our core values…Crosswind Church of Sarasota, right? In less than 48 hours, we not only did not have a place to plant, but we also did not have a name for our church.

But we had a tagline… It’s all about G.R.A.C.E.

Brian and I said goodbye in Minneapolis. He was taking a flight back to Maryland for the weekend services, and I was headed back to Birmingham where my family was taking care of Selina, Wyatt, and Lacie; plus, I had a very special cousin who was getting married that weekend as well.

We had been bouncing ideas back and forth all morning long via text before and after our flights. Brian was now in Chicago on his layover, and I was in St. Louis. At the same exact time we sent each other a text… my text, of course, in long paragraph form explaining how I got to the idea, and his in a one-liner simply saying… “What about Awaken Church?”

Well, there is no explanation needed after that point… I guess we will be Awaken Church.

But Awaken Church of Where?

Jacqueline

July 2011

We took another big step when we made plans to attend ARC 2.0 (Training) in Minneapolis, Minneosta. We really wanted to attend the 2.0 in Birmingham a little later in the year, but God used Pastor Dave to press us to go sooner. It was costing us more money to go to Minnesota, and with all of it coming out of our pockets, we were kind of having a hard time getting really excited about the experience.

Our attitudes took another dive upon arriving at the church hosting 2.0. When we walked in, we were asked to give our launch date, city, and other info for the church plant.  Excitedly, we told them, “We’re Brian and Jacqueline Zdrojowy. We’re planning on launching in January 2013, in Sarasota, Florida.” The woman checking us in said, “Oh, so you’re the other couple that’s team planting.” Us: “Huh? What do you mean?” ARC Rep: “Oh, there is another couple that already checked in and they’re also planting in Sarasota… if you’re not together, you’ll have to talk it over with Cory Hardesty (ARC’s Director of Church Planting), because ARC requires we keep a 20-mile radius between church plants.”

Jacqueline and I looked at each other in disbelief. It felt like someone had punched us in the gut. I tried to make the most out of that first day, but honestly, I just wanted to go home. We briefly met and spoke with T.J. and Leah Hankey, the other couple planting in Sarasota during the lunch break, but I was not ready to be overly friendly, yet! Jacqueline rose to the challenge at that point and exchanged numbers with Leah. As soon as the afternoon session was over, we left and headed back to our hotel. The ride back was a long one.

When we got back to our hotel, we were both on edge and on the verge of fighting. I suggested that Jacqueline get in a nap before dinner. I had decided to cool off outside for a while. As I sat in the car, I began to pray… I said, “God, I don’t understand what You’re doing, but I refuse to believe the lie running through my head, that we somehow missed Your calling in our lives.” As I boldly proclaimed the truth of Scripture over our lives and future, I felt a palpable sense of God’s peace wash over me. I headed upstairs to cheer up Jacqueline.

Now if you really know us, then you’ll understand that what happened next was nothing short of a spiritual battle capped by a miracle. When I got upstairs, Jacqueline was not asleep, and immediately started saying how mad she was… she was being super negative (NOT LIKE HER AT ALL). I calmly said that everything was going to be fine, and that we should ask T.J. and Leah to go to lunch the next day. Jacqueline glared at me… “I don’t want to go to lunch,” she said… “Sarasota was ours.” I responded with, “God called us to an area, not to a specific street… Everything that has happened to this point was to let us know that we are running in the right direction.” As she stared through me, her countenance changed… “You’re right; it’s going to be OK!”

The next day we had a much better time, because the Holy Spirit had softened our hearts.  When it came time to go to lunch, there was a resurface of some tension, but we shook it off and decided to enjoy the ride. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with the Hankeys, and after hearing their vision and connecting with their heart, we could not help but be excited for them. We knew that God had indeed given them a vision for Sarasota, and that He would open another door for us. T.J. and Leah committed to pray for us as we were looking for a new location to plant and mentioned that we should check out North Port, Florida.

Another major change that came through our experience at 2.0 was the birth of the vision and overall strategy for our church. Up until that point, we were thinking we might call our church Crosswind, Florida. I was on a trip with Pastor Dave, Pastor Mike, and Pastor Mark when we came up with that name; we were all instrumental in writing the core values and missional strategy when we changed the name the year before. However, a speaker at the seminar who was dealing with the topic of writing the church’s core values challenged me.

He said that the core values for the church should be your personal core values. As much as I liked Crosswind’s written materials… they weren’t mine. In a moment of inspiration, I began to write down the words coming to mind.  I wrote down… “Generous,” “Relevant,” “Authentic,” “Compassionate.” As I sat back, I realized that I was making an acronym for GRACE. I added “Excitement,” which I was later challenged to change to “Exuberant” (I loved that change!!). I showed the words to Jacqueline and she immediately shook her head in approval.

On the way back to the hotel that night, I thought of our tagline… “It’s all about G.R.A.C.E.”  We ended up staying up most of the night, trying to work on the missional strategy, coming up with the name and just dreaming together about what God was really calling us to do. The way that it all came about gave us great assurance and confirmation that God was leading us, and we were obediently following. It would be a couple more days before God would let us discover the name He had in mind for His church. Even the way that God revealed the name to us was an “exclamation point,” if you will, helping to solidify and make undeniable the call on our lives.

Brian

June 2011

I took a scouting trip to Sarasota in June, to try and become better acquainted with the area. I would fly to Orlando, meet my parents, and together drive over to the West Coast of Florida for two days of sightseeing and planning. We had a great time, but really never felt like we found much that encouraged me about our next step. We spent a ton of time driving and my poor parents probably didn’t want to be in a car again for a couple of weeks. We literally drove up and down every major street in Sarasota, looking at apartments, schools, churches — anything that I felt might be important in our planning of the new church.

I kept telling myself that it was normal to feel disconnected, since we lived so far away.  Besides, I had never done anything like this, so I didn’t know what normal was. My parents were very supportive and encouraging the whole time. On the way to the airport, my dad reminded me that God already knew the end of the story… He smiled and said, “He’s just sharing one chapter at a time.”

Brian

March 2011

Upon returning home from our trip to Highlands, we met with the staff and gave them the rundown on doing mobile church and divided duties for Easter’s special service. We were all very excited about the day that God was helping us plan. After our meeting that day, Pastor David asked me to go with him to lunch.

We were on our way to Chick-fil-A, when Pastor asked me, “When are you leaving?” The prayer that Pastor Joshua had prayed was coming to fruition. We had a very emotional conversation, in which many kind words were exchanged. It was during this time that Pastor Sulcer expressed his desire for us to stay long enough to have a proper transition and send-off. He talked about his desire to help us, and has been more supportive than I could have ever dreamed. Crosswind Church is truly blessed to have a leader with such incredible vision, and I am honored and humbled to call him my friend.

Brian

March 2011

In March of 2011, Crosswind Church sent Jacqueline and me to Church of the Highlands, in Birmingham, Alabama. They were no longer meeting in Mountain Brook High School, but instead, were meeting in a state-of-the-art, $20-million-dollar complex that had seating for over 3,000. They were running multiple services each weekend, and as a way to continue growing, they had implemented the multiple-campus approach. This was one of the main things that attracted us to go, to see how they did extension campuses (6) as portable church setups.

As a staff, the Crosswind Team had decided that with all of the new growth the previous fall, Easter might be a bigger day than we were equipped to handle at our campus. We opted to consider an off-site location for meeting that day. We figured that we would have plenty of room if we met at Westminster High School. Excitement was generated from the anticipation of seeing all of the Crosswind family in one service; it would be worth all of the extra work it would take to make the day possible.

As we began to dream about the endeavor, I suggested that Pastor Dave send Jacqueline and me down to Alabama. She had been talking about going to shadow their assimilation pastor, who was already helping us implement the newly re-visioned volunteer central. I had also been talking to their small groups’ pastor, since I was taking over that role for Crosswind. I told Pastor that we could make the trip down a 3-in-one trip, which we did — only it actually became a 4-in-one trip! We were able to see how to prepare and set up a portable church experience at a school. We also set up meetings for both Jacqueline and myself to shadow respective ministry leaders in the areas we were being tasked to lead for Crosswind.

On the last night that we were at Highlands, we had a dinner appointment with the campus pastor of the Greystone portable campus. His name is Joshua Canizaro. Josh graciously sat with us for a couple of hours and answered every question we had about how to do mobile church, when to possibly launch a second Crosswind campus and what steps were involved, and who would be needed for such endeavors. As our time with Pastor Josh was drawing to a close, he asked a similar question to the one my brother-in-law had asked a couple of months earlier… “What about you; when are you starting a church?”  Me: “I’m not sure; besides, I’m not here to talk about me… I’m here to talk about Crosswind.” Josh: “That’s nice, and we have… Now I want to talk about you; what’s holding you back?”

Before I could answer, Jacqueline chimed in… “Well, my husband has Crohn’s disease, so we need group insurance. We need a job, because we have several large monthly bills…” As I heard her saying those things, my heart sank. Pastor Josh put his hands up, and with his eyes, asked me… “ARE YOU SERIOUS?” Not only had my excuses taken a toll on my faith, but now I was being made aware that I had poisoned my wife’s heart. I mean, Jacqueline is “Mrs. Faith”… she is always seeing the bright side and believing for the impossible!

I bowed my head and prayed a prayer of repentance right at the table. I asked God and my wife to forgive me for allowing lies and excuses to stop me from pursuing God’s plan for our lives. For the next 30 minutes or so, Pastor Josh encouraged us and once again hinted that God might have something bigger in mind than even we were thinking. He asked, “How do you feel preaching in front of large audiences?”  Me: “I don’t know… How large? I’ve probably preached to a few hundred at one time.” Josh: “No, I’m talking thousands… you might want to practice.” Me: speechless. JZ: “He’ll be fine.” Why was this kind of size being brought up again? I wasn’t asking for it, and honestly felt and still feel overwhelmed by the very notion. All I know is that I felt the very real presence of God during our conversation.

As we moved outside in preparation to leave, Pastor Josh said that he wanted to pray for us. Just before he began to pray, he looked at both of us and said, “This whole process is going to be more painful than you want it to be, but it will be worth it.” As he began to pray, he asked God for my healing; he prayed for our future and asked that God would surround us with support and confirmations. One of the last things that Pastor Josh prayed for was that Pastor Dave would push us out of the nest as soon as we got back. I was less than thrilled with those words as they came out of his mouth.

Brian

All of a sudden it was like I was living in a whirlwind, living every day feeling like two weeks from today, we will be moving to Florida. I had been to the West Coast of Florida one time in my life, and now I was considering raising my family there. Matt had stayed true to his word and had connected Brian with a trucking company in Tampa that offered him a job as a dispatcher with the possibility of an administrator job coming open within the next couple of months. In the meantime, we began using all of our open nights to begin the process of packing boxes.

I can see myself right now sitting at a table in Wendy’s during a lunch date. Was this it? Was this the door that we had been praying for God to open? Was this His plan for us to move down? It certainly alleviated the question of finances and insurance… but there were so many more questions that rose to the surface. Is this the way we wanted to leave Crosswind? Is this how we want to uproot our family and all of the relationships that we had made in Maryland? Was God asking us to move with no support and no clear direction?

So we prayed a very specific prayer… “God, if this is Your open door, then have the trucking company offer Brian the administrator job.” We placed the fleece out there in hopes for a clearly defined answer.

Two weeks later, the trucking company closed their doors for business — for good…  I guess when you ask a specific question, He gives a specific answer.

We were not moving to Florida in two weeks, but we had passed the point of no return… there was no looking back or second-guessing anymore… church planting was in our future!

Jacqueline

January 2011

Jacqueline and I received a surprise blessing for Christmas in 2010. We found out that my sister and her family were going to come up after Christmas and stay until after New Year’s. They were mostly interested in seeing our new baby girl, Lacie Rae. They got what they wished for, and, once again, we got more than we bargained for! As with other visits, we did a lot of running around with the Cervones, because much like us, they like to go.

On one of the rare days that week, we found ourselves sitting in the living room of our house when the question was asked. My brother-in-law Matt looked at me and said, “I thought you were planning to start a church in Florida; what happened… Are you coming or not?” I was taken back by his forward question (not because it was forward, but because it put me into a corner). I was now faced with a dilemma… What do I say?

A year earlier I was so gung-ho to leave everything and begin this crazy adventure, but now after a year of so much change and work at Crosswind, plus the added negative experience of the ARC roundtable, I really didn’t know what to say. I began making very strong and understandable arguments (excuses) about why we couldn’t plant a church. I explained how we really needed to look for an established church instead, because of our special needs in terms of health insurance and stable income to be able to pay our bills (particularly the school loans).

Matt smiled at me and said, “OK, I can get you a job with insurance tomorrow, and I know a very wealthy businessman who could potentially underwrite the entire church plant. I can set up a meeting for you with him. Will you come?” Now what… My excuses had just been decimated; now what was I going to do? I paused, calculating my next words and then allowed the Holy Spirit to speak through me, in an instant making a bold proclamation and ending the lies of Satan… I said, “I know I am called to plant a church in Florida… I just can’t get away from it, so if you can get me a job, I’ll come.”

Once again, the year ahead would prove to be a time of growth and personal change for me, as God prepped my heart to learn to trust Him more and to rely on His strength instead of mine!

Brian