Signing the Deal

Well, I promised to give a little update on how the Lord called me and my family to this particular church. I guess I should start with a little back ground. Almost a year ago, Jenelle and I started to seriously ask ourselves the question, "what next after seminary?" We spent some time praying and seeking the Lord for guidance and we were prompted by a Psalm which says "Delight yourself in the Lord and you will have the desires of your heart," to ask ourselves 'what are the desires of our hearts!' As we sat down and wrote out our desires we developed a short list of priorities that we believed were consistant with His Word. This list included the following:
1. A chance to be near family while the boys were young so they could be known by their relatives.
2. An opportunity to serve cross-culturally and grow in that way.
3. Find a church that we could lay our roots down at for a number of years and eventually be sent from to start a new church or to serve over seas.
4. A job were I could serve in a visionary/leadership role that is consistent with my personality and giftings.

In addition to this list we went and prayed with our neighbors Robert and Maryann who prayed over us that we would find a job that would provide for us financially and would be a great joy as well. We did not expect that God would fulill all of these specific desires, but we still made our requests known nevertheless. It has been amazing to see how God has exceeded our expectations.

We first saw Mountain View Community Church when we were driving around town a couple of months ago. We mentioned that we would like to check it out and it wasn't a week later when we had got together at my aunt and uncle's house for worship that the church came up in conversation. My aunt mentioned Mountain View was where a mutual friend was attending and she had heard that the music was amazing. We decided to check it out. Sure enough the church was hopping, filled with life and energy and wonderful music. We had a really good time and I left thinking that was the type of church I could see myself serving at...

The church is predominately black, and one of the themes emphasized by the pastor and staff the morning we attended was a desire to be a church where everyone could be at home, no matter what race or culture a person comes from. I took them at their word and decided to call the church office to see if they would consider hiring a white pastor onto their (then) all black male pastoral staff. I wasn't sure how my frank questions would be received, but ironically it seemed to be exactly what they were looking for. They wanted to continue to grow multiculturally and they needed someone who was not affraid to talk about issues of race openly and honestly. My risk had paid off and I was able to go meet with their executive pastor, Lamonte Lawson, a couple of weeks later. The more I learned about the church, the more I desired to get involved. The have a very concise and clear model for discipleship, which is a key to a healthy church in today's world (check out the book Simple Church for more on this). But more importantly than that, I was convinced that the people I would be serving under were sincere men of God, who were seeking Him and His will for their church and loved His people.

At that point we began a fairly extensive one to two months of interviews, meetings and the like. I met pastors. I met staff. I met parents. I met students. It was intimidating at times, but the Lord kept showing me little ways that He was with me: through a song, through a psalm, through an encouraging word or prayer from strangers, even through very specific symbols that He had given me as signs of His blessing... I was impressed by the involvement of the families at the church and the character of all the people I met.

I finally signed the papers last week. It was a perfect match. I couldn't believe how God had orchestrated everyone of our desires into His plan! What a loving Father. He listens to His children. Not that there won't be hard times and conflict between myself and others- but it was the match the Lord had ordained. I had a very clear sense of that and so it is easier to hold on through the hard times when I can remember that. I have already starting meeting with people within the Student Ministies department and am excited by what I see. I cannot wait to get started full time on Friday. Please pray for God's blessing on our time at MVCC. We are thankful for this opportunity and even in this long entry I feel as if I have only scratched the surface in telling of how faithful God has been to us through this whole process. Bless Him.