Things are really moving fast in our first few months at Englewood. The church is growing and we are growing as well. Honestly, there has been an ease and authenticity about this whole experience. Ministry should not be a chore and this has been anything but, it has deepened our relationship with God and maximized our gifts. Jeanne and I are really blessed to have the foundation that is here to build on and to have a board that has such vision and a true spirit of serving. We have really worked hard to create a team atmosphere with the current staff and I am so happy with the progress. We have had some new staff come on, including a new senior associate, Carl Tillery. Carl has a phenomenal heart and giftedness about the way he operates, we are thrilled to have him and his great wife, Teresa.
I am blown away at how fast things are moving and how open the church is to the simple moves that God is leading us to make. Probably, the biggest moment we have had so far is what we call the "P.I. Project." This has represented the strategic move of our missions ministry, Partnership International to the Englewood offices. We have created a divine partnership of sorts that will serve both the ministries of the church and God's heart for a lost world. Brandon and Ashley, our directors, will be moving to Kansas City sometime this summer. Partnership International will remain a separate organization, but will base out of Englewood church. This is really a unique match made in heaven that will have huge benefits for both organizations.
My traveling ministry is still functioning at a high level with some obvious limitations. In the past ten weeks I have spoke at three major events. The first was a series of meetings for the UCLA Chi Alpha. This tremendous ministry is run by some dear friends of mine named Winston and Kim Bui. Just 2 weeks ago, I was privileged to speak at the Northern New England District Men's Conference. It was amazing to see the deep work that God did in a short period of time. All 150 men in attendance participated in the altars and were impacted by the messages. Finally, this past weekend, I missed the first of 3 Sunday's this year that I will speak at churches other than my own. I really felt a burden to be with Mark Boone at Heritage A/G in Brainerd, MN. This tremendous work has been led with a visionary excellence that I have seen in few places. I did a 3-service "life conference" for their church.
My family has made this ministry transition with both grace and an attitude of sacrifice. All three of my kids have just been troupers and have already relationally connected with the church. Jeanne has become an administrative assistant to the pastoral staff and is heading up the restructuring and development of several new and existing ministries. It has been a lot of fun to get to know our existing and incoming staff.
This Wednesday I finish up a 12-week topical series about God leading us out of the wilderness of our issues. So many of us struggle with a sense of lostness among the issues we face in life. Wednesday nights have grown from around 50 adults in attendance to somewhere around 175 during this series. My next trip will be to Twin Falls, Idaho for a 2-service "Life Conference" with a leadership event in between.
So sorry for the lack of blogs over the last couple of months, but my transition really took me for quite a ride. I am back...
