The Last 11 Months in a nutshell.

Where has the last 11 months gone?

It has been a long while since I wrote on my blog and shared. Mostly because I have school work, kids, wife,  and a church to shepherd, but I feel the need to now get back to writing and be a bit more faithful to bring creative content.

Some of you who know me already know the highlights, but I will unpack the last 11 months in more details over the next several weeks and some of this will include my 42 pages of writing on church planting in the Alabama-West Florida Conference.

It has been an extremely weird year.  January began and the world was full of wonder. I had been asked by my previous Bishop, Paul Leland, to plant a new church. It was a labor of love. A two year discernment process that at times was... less than thrilling. I went through assessment after assessment. Even was flown to Indianapolis to be run through a very stringent assessment, where we were one of seven couples, and to my knowledge, the only couple given the green light to plant a church.  I had expected in 2015 to be moved to my launch city only to be told to stay put and wait another year. Not because of anything I did, but because the Methodist itinerant system  said so. It was awkward, but it ruined any and all momentum that we could have had.

Let's fast forward. My wife is also a pastor and was appointed to be the pastor of another church  that was 55 miles from the outskirts of where I was planting.  Anyone who knows anything about church planting knows that it is already has enough pressure without adding a one hour each way drive. In less than 5 months of being on the job, I recognized early signs and began the smart process of praying more and more, because I knew that either my marriage was going to fail or the new church would. I chose my wife.  This was not an easy choice, but I made my choice that if they could not move my wife closer for the sake of my family, then I would let go of church planting.

Between February of 2016 to May 2017 , I drove 73,000 miles. That time gave me some time to really pray about what matters.

In late January of this year, my wife and I met with our new Bishop, David Graves. He said he would do all he can, but our priorities were placed as his ultimate goal. In mid Feb, our DS called and said that he and the Bishop were working hard and that it was a 50/50 chance of staying or going.  Mind you, we launched full time worship services in January. By the end of February , I felt the nudge of the Holy Spirit to prepare my heart for letting go. In March, I got the call and while I was prepared, it still felt like a punch to the chest.  My heart sank. I had grown to love this community that I was investing in. I had regular prayer meetings and slightly hoped to stay because I saw the potential future. Worship was vibrant.
The church had a young group that was driving down every week from Tallahassee to be part of what we were doing. Our church was just taking on their identity. Then ... it was over.

I was faced with some hard choices. Rip the band off slowly or quickly. I chose quickly, because I felt it would be disingenuous to keep services going while knowing we were leaving and closing the church.  I called my Kids director and broke the news. Devastated. My assistant and her worship leader husband. Bummed but knew that my family was important and prayed over us.  We cried a great deal. Closing the doors on a dream stinks, but even as we cried... the greater good was my family.

It was not until recently that I really began to allow myself to process the whole series of events. Which is why I want to write more. I want to help church planters to look for warning signs. What to to do when people who say "ALL IN" and then flake out. (some of that is ME TOO) I mean lets be real... HEY I am here to start a church... pastor a community.... and HEY ... I am gone.... Integrity takes a gigantic hit at that point. 

I will be writing a series of posts specifically about my dealings with church planting nuts and bolts. What NOT to do...

How to avoid dangerous predatory  pastors and the importance of building right relationships.
What do when you get asked out to lunch and cornered by others.....
Learning that people will let you down and give them grace , because you will let them down too.
Raising funds.
Why house church is a better start to the building process.
Ultimately, I know this won't sit well with others, but I knew going into this process that planting in the Alabama-West Florida Conference had low probability of success. Something around 25 %. I knew that going in and wrote 25 page paper about the strengths & weaknesses.

I thank God that I am healing and able to be where I am now.