 Radiant Church presents Radiant Stories, a collection of stories that showcase God's faithfulness to take our hopeless situations and craft them into beautiful testimonies of His power, provision, and love. This is fun. Can you hear me? Yeah, I hear you now. Okay, great. Perfect. It is so good to talk to you. I'm on the phone today with Morgan Combs and Amanda Jensen, and they are now Nashville residents, but they hail from Kalamazoo originally. But they moved to Nashville with the Nashville church plant. And so I am calling them, my dear old friends today, to talk about that and what it was like and their hearts and their vision. So I want to start with just a little backstory of each of you. I know both of your stories relatively well, and both of them are pretty in-depth individually, but I would love to kind of focus on, slash, hear what it was like kind of moving together and being partners in this sort of faith step with the church plant and stuff like that. Just talk about what led you to decide, both of you, that you wanted to move to Nashville. Honestly, to be vulnerable, I did not want to move to Nashville. Michigan was good enough for me, and I was like, I just loved calling it home and I loved my people. And so when I started to sense the Lord was telling me to move to Nashville, I kind of shut it out. I was like, there's no way. Nope, not going. And so it was a real struggle for me because I fought that, but I chose obedience and I moved to here and I can honestly say that I'm so thankful that the Lord picked Morgan to go with me and that we were able to live together and be roommates because I don't know that I would have been able to really get through it without her, if that makes sense. I know for me, I heard about the radiant Nashville plant and I was like, okay, have fun. Good luck. It was not even a blip on my radar at all or something I would even consider to begin with. And I just remember going over to Amanda's house one night and her other roommate Rachel had just decided, I'm going to move to Nashville for the church plant. And Amanda was kind of considering it and they jokingly were like, you should come. And I was like, no. And it was like the Holy Spirit spoke to me and was like, but you didn't even ask me. You didn't even ask me if you should go. And I always know I'm in trouble if the Holy Spirit corrects me like that. And so I just felt like you didn't even ask if you should go or you didn't even consider it. And so that began the process of just asking the Lord if this is something I should do. And honestly, it wasn't like writing in the sky. It wasn't like there was a banner that flew through the sky that said move to Nashville. It honestly was just a choice I made. And it took a few days and weeks. And for some reason, I just began to love the city of Nashville and I started gaining the love for it. And I ended up asking the Lord, can I go? And he said, yeah, let's do it together. Yeah, I know that you guys were pretty close friends before, but talk about how your relationship has grown. Because I know it's not all daisies and roses when you do a church plant and when you literally are sold out for the Lord and you sell all your stuff and move after visiting the place one time. And I mean, I just want to hear kind of like how your friendship has grown and really specific things that the Lord has revealed to you guys through the process. Well, for me, I had lived in Michigan with the same beautiful humans for the last like four years. So to give perspective on that, I'm 28 years old. And I lived with girls that were in their late 20s and then eventually in their 30s. And so we just had gotten used to each other. And I knew that because I'd known Morgan previously and I knew her maturity and I knew her heart and I knew her fire for the Lord. I was like, I don't know that I could live with anybody else. And we definitely had to work out some frustrations and just having uncomfortable conversations. And it has really caused me personally to face my fears. And because my my natural instinct as a human, I think is just to run and to hide and to avoid conflict. And I'm thankful for the past year that I was at Radiant because I think that I was under some really amazing leadership. I was under Pastor Stefan and under Candace Davis. And I think they really showed me what healthy confrontation and communication looked like. And so I was able to carry that. Honestly, it's just caused our relationship to grow stronger and deeper. And I'm like, wow, I love this human so freaking much. So it's just it's been worth it. Every every struggle and every awkward moment and every insecurity that, you know, I feel like I personally had to overcome. I'm like, it was just the Lord's goodness and his own kindness that he's like, I'll give you Morgan to like work that out. And I'm like, well, thank you, Jesus. So that's my side of it. And then for me, logistically, it was the first thing that made sense because our timelines kind of ran parallel to each other and we're planning on moving at the same time. And so logistically, it made sense to move in together and financially because to be quite honest, it is so expensive to live here. And that was like a huge part of our leap of faith is knowing that we're already really tight on budgets and it's triple to live in the city that in Kalamazoo. So it made sense to move in together and to be really transparent. The first six months were so difficult, not just like living together, but personally, we had so much that we had to face in ourselves in the first six months. It was something how like the seven months Mark of being here, it was like something just broke off of us and we started coming alive again. The first seven months felt like we were just trying to tread water, spiritually, emotionally, trying to create community, all of that stuff. And it was really about seven months, something just like broke and we started living again. And I feel like our friendship and our relationship has just grown together since then. And so we're really thankful for each other. We're thankful for the hard stuff we had to do. I wouldn't change it. Same. Yeah. What you guys have is a very encouraging picture of friendship, female friendship. You guys are kind of thrown, yes, you chose each other, but you're kind of thrown into a situation together. And much like any marriage or something like that, you're coexisting in pretty close quarters, coming to a place where your insecurity, once you've gotten on top of it, it's so much easier to speak truth about each other. Even if one person is in that place, it's so hard for the other person if they're still kind of within their own insecurity and in their own head, because then you end up resenting the other person for trying to speak truth into your life. So that is so encouraging. I feel like you guys individually, your testimonies are so, so cool, but you've created this whole new beautiful garden as friends in this place that the Lord has called you to, which is so, so awesome. Talk about kind of the church plant and what you guys do there. I know you're both on the worship team, and that's something that you're both very, very good at. You're anointed in worship, both of you. Talk about how that's been. I mean, talk about kind of the team dynamic and what it looks like. What does a typical weekend look like for you guys? So a typical weekend for us, the Lord blessed us with getting a spot at the Brentwood family YMCA, which is a little bit southwest of Nashville. It's like on the outskirts of Nashville, and with their facility hours, we're able to go in after they close on Saturday night, which is at 8.30pm, and we're able to set up all of our wonderful gear, and then we are able to occupy the building from 8.30pm Saturday until 11.30am Sunday. And so a typical weekend looks like we have a set up and pair down team that will go on Saturday nights, and then we will come in as a worship team, usually at 6.30 in the morning, maybe seven because we don't have a building to rehearse in, so we have to get up super early on Sundays to, you know, rehearse. And then we have service, and service usually starts with us getting together as team radiant, and we actually pray together, and Pastor Tony will usually have a scripture or a word for us, or we'll share something encouraging in our lives before we actually get started, which is at 9am when the door is open, and then we have to be out of there, torn down, nothing radiant left in the building by 11.30am. It is hard. I will say that other church planners that have gone before us and have spoken over us and kind of trying to give us a heads up are like, this is going to be really hard, just so you know. And I just want to say, yeah, you're right. You were right. There was really no way that you could express with just level of hard that it was going to be. Church planning is not sexy at all. It sounds very cool. And until it's 4.30am you've woken up to go set up church on Sunday, just to tear it down six hours later. But honestly, it's so rewarding. And every moment that we feel like, I don't want to wake up again, or I don't want to go set up. We just think to the stories of people finding radiant and starting to call it home, and the transformation that's taking place in people's lives and the way that God is growing us and reminding ourselves of the promises God has made to us about this city. It makes it so worth it. Amanda really mapped out a good outline of what our weekend logistically looks like. Before we even launched in September, we did a lot of practical stuff. I mean, on our free time, we were the ones who were planning out the layouts and designing things and giving a lot of ourselves to the logistical side of the church plan and all starting to take on some weight. So yes, we lead worship on the weekends, but also we do a lot of legwork. I mean, anywhere from setting up chairs to hanging pipe and drape to making coffee to cleaning the bathrooms. We do whatever it takes. And it really is so rewarding getting to know new people and the way that they have come to find us. Everybody has a really beautiful individual story of how they found radiant. And it makes it all worth it in the end. And so we're really thankful for radiant Nashville. Wow, that's so sweet. I appreciate your guys' honesty and candor because people will say like you said, Amanda, it's hard. Like it's going to be so hard. And you can't, you literally cannot know until you are in it. You can't know how truly hard it will be because it's not just the giving of yourself when you're in ministry. It's not like just the early hours. It's not just the manual labor. It's the emotional toll that it takes on you too. We don't want to go on here sounding like we're like, don't church plan. It's the way it is honestly been so incredible. But I mean, you can't talk about the good things without talking about the very difficult things. And I think the difficult things make the good things even better because you see the cost and it outweighs it. I think the Lord has just shown up and he's the reason. I mean, he without a doubt has shown up every single weekend, even the weeks before we even had a building, even before we officially launched like his presence would come in and it's like he was just like, yes, I called you here. Yes, I want you here. Yes, I have you here. And I'm here with you because if you wasn't, then it wouldn't be worth it. And so I think he's been so gracious to show up and his presence comes even in like a small moment when we're like setting up pipe and drape like just something it's like you just hear his whisper in little moments and you're like, okay, you're with us. Like you're here and you make it all worth it. That's so sweet. That's such like a tender, very, very sweet depiction of how the Lord has met you guys in this season. So how long have you actually been there now? 10, almost 11 months. We're one years in May, so we're coming up. That's what I thought. Yeah, that's what I thought. I feel like the Lord is going to do something big for you guys at the one year mark even just in your lives and in your relationship because I know kind of what's taking place recently. I know Morgan, you got a new job and Amanda, you are like following your dreams which is amazing and you've had a lot of stuff in the past few months that have just broken off and I feel like one year is going to be so significant. Us too. That makes me excited for our one year. Yeah. Honestly, seven months. Seven months is what makes it December and into January. Our church started a church-wide fast seek like they do in Richland. We did it here and I think that's when we saw some of the greatest breakthrough in our lives. That's when we saw the Lord move. Yeah. Both Amanda and I got new job offers in the same week. We both offered pay higher than anybody else really was making or started at. We got like things we prayed for during the fast. We actually saw them happen within weeks and just feel like we are coming to life and I can't wait to see what one year holds. It's going to be incredible. Yeah. Well, you will probably see myself and Elena, sound engineer. You know Elena. Oh my gosh, yes. This summer because we're going to do a little tour and we're going to come interview people at the church plants around. We'll go to Luddington. We'll go to Jackson. We'll go around and then we'll come to you guys for just an extended period of time I think. Yeah. I can't wait. I'm so excited to see you guys. And man, I'm so thankful for both of you. I love you both as friends so much. I'm so excited to see you. So I appreciate both of you. Thank you for taking time out of your day to have this phone call with me. I think you guys have a really significant special testimony as two female friends that have kind of partnered together in a call and taken the same exact leap of faith at the same time. And I feel like it's all for such a time as this. It's really powerful that you guys have gone through this together. And I think that the story is just beginning. It's just unfolding. And I think that there's something to what the Lord is doing in both of your lives. Even if it leads you in different directions I feel like you guys are going to be connected forever and really, really cool. Yeah, I agree. We're so thankful we got to talk to you and share our story. I'm going to say goodbye. We don't have to get off the phone. But we can. I'm just going to hit this stop.