Greetings From Orlando

Greetings from Orlando, Florida, USA!

Dorcas and I arrived safely in Orlando last night, all the way from Lima, Peru. It's a high tourist season here in Orlando right now, with US colleges and universities having their spring breaks all throughout the month of March, but it's hardly tourist weather here, as it's cold, gray, cloudy, and very windy - hardly the type of weather that a frozen vacationer from the snow-buried north would be looking for in usually warm and sunny Florida.

The US economic crisis has hit Orlando very hard. There are empty storefronts everywhere. We've even seen large hotels and auto dealerships that now are shuttered tight. Many strip malls and shopping plazas are only half occupied with tenants.

Many pastors have told me, with furrowed brow, that this is totally the wrong time to start a new church, and that we should "batten down the hatches" and "ride out the economic storm."

I disagree entirely.

Millions of people in the USA, as well as worldwide, as a result of this global economic crisis, have lost their jobs, lost their money, lost their savings, lost their bank accounts, lost their retirement funds, lost their health insurance ... and also now have lost their hope.

All of these people are now searching.

For hope in the midst of this storm.

That's why this is not the worst time to start a new church.

In fact, it's just the opposite.

This is the very best time to start a new church.

Anywhere.

This is the best time to start a new church - anywhere - because people are hurting and feeling hopeless, and it's time to give them the words first sung by David in Psalm 62:5 (TNIV), "Yes, my soul, find rest in God; my hope comes from Him."

It's time for us to show hope - and not hopelessness - to this world, wherever you are located in it.

www.twitter.com/StephenGuschov