Last November the Lord gave me the word “transition” for 2018. It was hard for me to grasp at that moment. My family and I had suffered a huge loss in the death of Joel, and the thought of more transition was ominous. As I prayed about that word over the next few days I sensed God’s peace. I felt like God was moving pieces into position for our church for 2019 and for the next season of our church’s growth. Within days of that revelation, a number of 2018 changes came into view, and ultimately happened in early 2018 with Kerryann McFarlane and April Gordon both stepping down. April has continued to play on the worship team, and we are grateful to have the Gordon family remain a part of the congregation. At around the same time David Ebbecke joined our staff as the Connections Pastor, and Linda Dix moved to Adult Education as our Adult Christian Education (Grow) Pastor. Then in May our search for a Youth Pastor and a Worship Leader ended with the good news of Bobby Hardwick joining our staff, although he could not join us until July. Also during the summer we had some members move away, and those goodbyes were difficult. I thought surely everything was settled, but then the Lord spoke to me again, reminding me that 2018 wasn’t over, and neither was the transition. Soon after Dr. Skip Lewis joined our team to develop our Congregational Care Ministry, and we were glad that he did.
So after all of those transitions, I will tell you about two more transitions. In October David Ebbecke decided the Connections role was not the role for him, and he officially resigned at the end of October. He has continued to teach the D.E.S.I.G.N. course and work in hospitality, for which we are very grateful. Also Linda Dix felt it was time for her to permanently retire this time, as of Thanksgiving. When Linda and her husband, Larry, moved here in August of 2013, she came out of retirement to join our staff. We are very grateful for her service. Although she will no longer be in the office as one of our pastors, she will continue to be our LifeGroup Coordinator.
It is my hope this tremendous season of change is now stabilized, and that we are well positioned for our next chapter. Please be sure to thank David and Linda for their service, and please continue to pray for the staff as we reorganize our responsibilities and roles for 2019.
The Lord gave me two words for this next year. The first is “growth,” which will be on the same level that “transition” was in 2018. The second word is “refinement.” As we head into 2019 I will be sharing more about what I think the Lord is doing in the way of refinement across four areas of our church: signage, sound, systems, and simplification.
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