Adam had to write a ministry report earlier this week for the board at church and I wanted to share the first two paragraphs of his report.
It is with a heart full of both relief and anticipation that I formulate the beginning thoughts of this report. In the past church year, I have amassed a pool of experience, the sum of which takes most young pastors many years to accumulate. Two lay-offs, interviews at eight different churches, three months of severance, four job offers that I turned down, a ministry position out side of my gift-set, two different denominations, a part-time side-job, the humbling act of working the produce department at Kroger, the even more humbling act of accepting loans from my in-laws, weeks on end to spend time round the clock with my wife and daughter (ask a full-timer if he’s had that!), a season of painful questioning of my calling and desires, a cross-country move, bosses with four radically different leadership styles, several leaps of faith and - through it all - a deep reaffirmation of God’s providence, omnipotence, impeccable timing, reckless love, and strong call on my life.
And it is through this strange, surreal collection of events that God has brought my young family (back) to Marion, Ohio, a town that is more beautiful in the spring than I ever remember. My spirit is both full and heavy for this town…for the young people who are more spiritually conscious and inquisitive than ever before but who grow more and more indifferent to the church…for Marion First Church of the Nazarene as they adjust and rumble and try to reach a broader, younger, un-churched and de-churched audience with the love story and saving grace of Christ. That is why I came here. I feel like that’s why God called me here.
