David Bendett: Walking In God's Peace And Rest

In this episode, I have a conversation with Pastor David Bendett, of Rock City Church in Corpus Christi, Texas. 

Pastor David shares his testimony of how he was born in Miami, Florida till he was 5 years old. His father left him and his mother when he was small till she met his step-dad and they moved to the Excelsior Springs, Kansas, where he grew up for most of his teenage life.

After several years, his mother divorces and moved back to Miami, where David went back after High School. It was during this time that he became addicted to drugs and alcohol and also was arrested with LSD and sentenced to jail. It was while he was in jail that he gave his life to Christ at the prison chapel during a Gideon's service. During this time he began to teach other inmates how to read by using the Bible as he was growing in his faith from reading the Bible.

After his time in jail, David decided he wanted to go to Bible college when the Lord directed him to go to Oral Roberts University to get his Business Degree.  David then served in ministry at various positions when a friend asked him to move to Corpus Christi to help be a campus pastor for a satellite church.

After nearly six and a half years the senior pastor from the home church, which was based in Oklahoma City, decided to close the church. It was from there that Pastor David and the congregation launched and started Rock City Church that has grown from a school cafeteria to now owning a strip mall that the church is in. 

Pastor David shares about his family. His wife Amber, who he met at the church plant, have been married 10 years. They have a daughter, Cadence age 8, and son, Zion age 6. They are currently in the process of adoption.  

David talks about one of the darkest times in the life when Amber had to deliver their daughter Eden Grace, who was a still birth at 32 weeks. Through that tragedy, Amber began writing and share their story. From that she wrote a children's book called The Lost Crown and how it is a story of trading ashes for beauty.

David then tells about how the mission field is in our backyard then into the world. He talks about how through the church they are not just active in the community, but also that he owns 2 coffee shops, voted best in Texas, and even sits on boards and committees for the city. 

Pastor David shares how Rock City Church believes in the operation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and that is shouldn't be an oddity, but as they have coined the phrase "Super Normal Natural". It should be natural just as Jesus and later the church did and that the Bible is full of the supernatural. 

He talks about how God wants and army and not an audience and that as Christians we should not be consumer, but wind driven. He shares that the fulness of the Holy Spirit comes when we are saved and that initial filling of the Holy Spirit; but that God has more for us through the gifts that we are greater equipped and not all about salvation. 

He uses an illustration of how God is a gardener and that is represented in Genesis 1:27 as the job title; but that the job Description of God is defined in Genesis 3:27 in the five fold ministry of being fruitful, multiply, replenish, rein and dominion. This, he relates that God took it from the Garden Commission the the Great Commission and that the same five fold ministry must be in operation through the body of Christ, the Church. Through this we can have a desire for the super natural gifts of the Holy Spirit without having to chase it.

Resources:
https://www.rockcitycorpus.com
https://www.facebook.com/RockCityCorpus
https://www.facebook.com/david.bendett
https://www.instagram.com/djbendett/