Juli Cason

Throughout the summer I'm going to be posting stories from other church planting wives. Please email me your story at j_antonucci@hotmail.com. Today's post is from Juli Cason.

"What?? I am not pastor’s wife material!”

I’ll never forget gasping those words on my honeymoon in 1999. It was the last night of our cruise and my husband, Chuck, had just told me he was pretty sure he was supposed to be a pastor someday.

We weren’t even Christians. Chuck had grown up going to church. In fact, his father was a pastor for a number of years. But, when Chuck was 16 he decided it was all junk and decided to do life his way. I grew up as a “holiday Catholic.” We went to church on Easter and Christmas Eve. I was never “confirmed,” nor did I ever learn about having a relationship with Jesus. When I was 16 I chose the path of partying and did so as often as I could. Chuck and I met in a bar.

Fast forward 15 months from our honeymoon. We gave our lives to Jesus and got baptized.

Fast forward another 15 months. We moved to Virginia Beach, VA.

Four months after that we found Forefront Church. It was wild and crazy and we were sure the small southern Baptist church that we’d come from wouldn’t approve. We got involved in a Gel Group (small group) and each began serving in various ministry areas. Our lives really began to change for the better.

About a year and a half after coming to Forefront, I became Vince’s (lead pastor) administrative assistant. I was very excited to work for Forefront and in preparation I read a TON of Vince’s messages that he gave at various conferences. It was then that I truly fell in love with Forefront. I realized that every opening secular song, wacky video, top ten list, etc. was so completely intentional. Chuck realized this all along and loved that Forefront did church in a way that made people truly far from God comfortable enough to come and learn about God.

In 2005 Forefront revisited its original vision to be a multi-campus church. I was pumped. I lived 35 minutes away from where we met on Sunday mornings, so inviting people was a challenge. But, if we opened a campus closer to where I lived, I could invite my neighbors and friends. I’ll never forget the staff meeting when it was announced that we wouldn’t open our 2nd location until September of 2007. I was so mad! I was ready to get started on reaching more people who otherwise might not come to know Jesus.

Unbeknownst to me, the reason that the launch date was set so far in the future was because the leadership of Forefront wanted my husband to lead the new campus. You see, Chuck was in the military, but due to a major back injury and surgery we knew it was a matter of time before he was medically discharged. He was already attending Bible College online in preparation to go into ministry. In June of 2006 the first launch team meeting took place and that fall it was announced that Chuck would be the Campus Pastor. We began having monthly meetings and planning events. In May 2007 Chuck was medically retired from the military and joined the Forefront staff full time. We were so excited about what God had in store for Chesapeake, VA, which was where our new campus was to launch.

Unfortunately, planting a campus of a church isn’t always fun. Chuck was on staff a total of two days when he learned that a group of people had spent their small group session questioning whether he was the right person for the job. Chuck handled it well. Me, not so much. It was very hard. These were friends. It hurt.

The summer of 2007 was a whirlwind. We had events most weekends. We tried to do random acts of kindness wherever we could in Chesapeake. We had a prayer calendar and people prayed every day for the new campus and the people who would come. The last ten days before we launched we had people praying every hour. The morning of October 7, 2007 will forever stand out in my mind. The campus was finally launched!

This journey of planting a campus has definitely had its ups and downs. Sometimes I wonder what we were thinking. However, I know for certain that we are doing what God wants us doing right now. Probably the moment that shines the brightest in my mind is the first baptism service after we launched. Peoples’ lives are changed for eternity and we got to be a small part of that! Hearing the stories of how God is moving in the lives of people at our campus is awesome.

One of the saddest things on this journey has been the people who’ve left along the way. Not all of our original launch team are still involved with our campus or attend Forefront. The thing that makes me sad about that is that they had the opportunity to do something really cool for God and they walked away from it. They are missing out on some joy and that hurts my heart.

If I can give a church planting wife just one piece of advice, it would be this: Get to know other church planting wives!! Seriously. Because we planted a campus, I was lucky and had a church planting wife who was already my friend. Jen Antonucci has been such a tremendous support to me along the way. She’s been there and she understands. I ask her questions all the time and she shares her experiences with me. She’s who I turn to when I’m not sure what my role is or what I’m supposed to do. If you’re going to be on the church planting path, you need a Jen!!

The Chesapeake Campus has been open for nearly 9 months now (I can’t believe it’s been that long!) and I’m continually blown away by God. No matter where you’re at on the church planting wife path, I wish you the very best. When we are following the path that God has for us, we are on the best possible path – no matter how easy or hard it is!

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