The Paradox Turns Three on Sunday!
By Pastor JimThe Paradox Church started in our living room a little over three years ago with about a dozen or so people. Quickly it grew to about 40, then to 50, then to 60 people as we all dreamed about being a grace-formed, Jesus-glorifying community anchored to the Word of God by the power of God's Spirit, and sent by God to proclaim the name of Jesus to the city of Fort Worth.
After multiplying that original group into three City Groups, living as families of disciples on mission, we began to gather as The Paradox Church at the Van Cliburn Hall on January 9th, 2011. This Sunday we will celebrate our third birthday.My wife and I welcomed our first daughter at the same time as we birthed a church. So as she grows and matures it is a constant reminder of the growth and maturity The Paradox has gone through. I am overwhelmingly amazed at God's faithfulness to The Paradox.In three short years we have baptized over 50 people; sent out a dozen or so short-to-mid term missionaries; multiplied our three original City Groups to now 18, with one even in the highly diverse Eastside of Fort Worth, in Arlington, Benbrook, and four near the TCU campus; given away over $100,000 to church planting in places like Detroit, Toronto, Denton, Frisco, Indiana, and Missouri; mobilized volunteers working with refugees, the homeless, and women in the sex industry through The NET; sent teams of people to serve the city of Moore, Oklahoma to assist with disaster relief, partnered with the Fort Worth Pregnancy Center; mentored students at IM Terrell on the Eastside through Kids Hope; and we have seen our Sunday gatherings grow from 120 on that first Sunday three years ago to upwards of 550 on Sundays in 2013.
Simply, God, in his grace and mercy, has flexed in us and through us for his glory.May he do even more in 2014, and may the name of Jesus spread throughout the city and to the Nations. And may. . .
"Christ dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." —Ephesians 3:17-21