Honestly, it felt like everything changed on one evening in March 2010.

Up until this point, we had been battling our way from zero people to slightly more than zero people. It was getting very close to the point of sacking it off. Before Christmas, we had see a little bit of growth but really nothing to write home about and that growth was beginning to evaporate.

I keep a journal of what I pray about and what I think God might be saying. I was pretty low at this point so most of the entries make for pathetic reading. On one particular entry in February 2010 I told God that I was done unless he had a better plan.

Turns out he did.

What happened? Two people happened.

Two people started bringing five friends each. Suddenly we made the room at Baa Bar look slightly fuller than before. This had a domino effect on who we were. New people saw other people and started coming back. Out of nowhere, we had momentum.

When you’ve been scrambling along with almost nobody for ages, 20 people feels like a full-blown revival. In all honesty, we have never looked back from that moment. There have been some ridiculously difficult hills to climb since then, but something in me changed that meant this church plant would probably work.

Four years later I can look back at that evening in March and realise that I got some confidence. Confidence in what?

The right thing to say is that I got confidence in God. However, that wouldn’t be the whole truth.

I realised that I could in fact get CCM:City to more than 20 people, build a community and develop some vision. That may sound a little “Tim focussed”, but if you don’t have confidence then you eventually give up. I believed God could do whatever he wanted, but up until this point I had no faith that he wanted to include me in his plans!

I didn’t get too far ahead of myself and start planning global domination. I just realised that the first stage of the plant was complete. We existed and we were off life support.