State of Flux

Kids are back in school. Teachers are back to work. Evenings are becoming cool. Leaves are starting to fall. -- But these are all changes that happen every year and we grow to expect them. Although these present challenges, we have learned to deal with them.

But what about those changes that are not "usual" or "expected." We are dealing with new people coming into the church family and others leaving the family. We are dealing with the deaths and accidents of those in our church family. We are thinking of building a new building. We are interviewing potential new staff members from different states. What do we do with these changes?

It seems trite to simply say, "embrace them" especially when some of them had some level of control associated with them. So, what then do we do with change?

My immediate family is going through even more change than what the church family is going through -- my wife has a different job, my role at one of my jobs changed, all three kids are going to different buildings for school. In the midst of changing circumstances, I lean on my core beliefs and vision like never before. I ask if the changes are impacting my foundational beliefs and passions or if they are merely impacting the circumstances in which I go after my foundational passions aligned iwth my foundational beliefts. My core value is to make transformational impact and my beliefs include "all means all" and "the term 'we' is universal". I can expand if you really want.

The purpose of New Hope is to make passionate followers of Christ. Our core value is transformation. We do ministry going after the captives, lost, poor, and broken-hearted as described in Isaiah 61:1-3. Every thing we do desires to be done in alignment with these passions and values in mind. I am so encouraged by those in the church family who have persevered through the transition - I believe simply because they (you) are so passionate about seeing lost people get found, seeing found people become passionate, and seeing passionate people reproduce their passion in others. God is on the move in tremendous ways at New Hope and it fires me up every week to see how the people of New Hope avail themselves to partnership with God as He redeems indivdiuals and the community.

May God richly bless you today. May God have mercy on us and bless this ministry to live to its full redemptive potential even during this state of flux. I'm proud to serve along side of each of you - you all inspire me to become a better man and follower.