I’m learning how to not just lead a ministry, but how to love people.

I’m learning how to not serve my preferences, but how to serve the needs of my church.

I’ve met incredible people. Some I don’t remember what life was like before them.

I miss some incredible people. I never knew I was so tied to my friends.

Life here is different. Good, but different. I have a new appreciation for my family and friends. I have a greater understanding of what grace looks like. The power a second chance can have.

My life is much different than what I would have written for myself, but I guess that’s part of why I’m not the author. Moving forward in faith is unsettling, uncomfortable, and even frustrating. Most of all, it’s been a confirmation. Confirmation that God is in control and truly knows me better than myself. Amen.

So, life is good and crazy and beautiful. If I had to sum the last months up in a few words, it’d be these:

God is faithful.

One.Love
cd

I’ve been in talks & processing with New Harvest Church in Clovis, Ca about an opportunity that might have been available for me out there to join their staff. From the conversations I’ve had with Him to my visit out there in early December, Pastor Mitch Ribera has done a lovely job of being thorough, detailed, & gracious in our exploration of this possibility. Through lots of prayer and feedback and questions, we’ve arrived at our conclusion.

Pastor Mitch has asked me to come out to California and join his team full time as the Creative Arts Director for the church. I couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity to serve and grow doing exactly what I love to do. Quite literally, this is my dream job. I’ll be responsible for the worship environments for the church & other media expressions of the church, as well as the technical aspects of the church. I’ll be responsible for quite a bit of work, but I can’t wait to get to it. I’m also comforted that I’m going to be well cared for and intentionally built up and poured into as a young leader and growing Christ-follower.

One thing I want to make clear is that this whole opportunity has had nothing to do with Port City Community Church or anyone there. I cherish my close relationship with several leaders and they have done nothing but ensure that New Harvest was a place that was going to take my walk seriously and continue to build into my life. I am so thankful for their constant prayer and how they have always valued my walk more than anything that I can do. I have always felt loved, and I’ve learned more than I could possibly write from my time at Port City, so I will miss this church family.

So, where does this leave me? Actually, leaving rather soon. I’ll be leaving either Sunday (1/10) or Monday (1/11), for the left coast, to arrive in Fresno next Friday (1/15). This means that as I sit here on Wed (1/6) morning, I only have 4 or 5 more days here in Wilmington. I’m going to be doing a lot of prepping and packing, but I want to see as many lovely faces as I can before I say “See You Later” for a while. If you have my number, give me a call because I’d love to see you, but if I don’t get to see you before I leave, know it was only a conflict of time that caused me to miss you.

Through this experience, I’ve seen that God is faithful and that He loves overwhelm you with grace. I’m excited to see where He takes my life, and I’ll continue to step in faith into whatever I feel He is leading me to. It’s hard to leave the home and family I’ve loved and known all my life, but I know that His plan is far better than any I could create. If you’re ever in Fresno, look me up, and I’ll buy you some real mexican food. I can’t wait, and I’m quickly on my way.

Wilmington, it’s been great.
California, here I come!

One.Love

cd

1. You can desperately hold on to your position until someone inevitably replaces you.

or

2. You can prepare someone to do what you do and strategically replace yourself.

The chapter talks about John Maxwell’s concept of “Leadership Lids”. Lids are anything that keeps a leader from growing. It could be an inability to let others into your creative process, not letting others give input on your system, or even getting possessive about your ideas. The writer expands this concept into “Leadership Walls”, which are things that keep future leaders out of your ministry.

I think that this practice is especially hard for us creative types. We tend to get quite attached to our visions or projects, which can lead us to being blind to other leaders or ideas. However, the truth is that if we don’t purposefully seek out others who are gifted leaders and volunteers and help cultivate their talent and leadership, the ministry will die off along with the natural life cycle of a leader. It may not be comfortable to talk about, but when you look at your ministry through the lens of the Kingdom, the need for replacing yourself becomes so much more evident.

When it comes to Worship and Creative communities, we have to be open and willing to welcome in and help develop young and upcoming leaders. Rather than fighting and holding onto whatever we “do”, we have got to embrace these people and build them up to eventually take over. This is how healthy ministries are built over time. It could be in a year or it could be in twenty, but either way, we need to start looking out for those who are to replace us today.

Have you been thinking about how to Replace Yourself?

One.Love

cd

I think that some of my greatest strengths have also been the source of the constant thorn in my step. A man much wiser then me once said, “Never let your talent outrun your character”. This is not to say that I’m some kind of over-gifted brat or that I am something greater than what I am. It is to say that I’ve allowed the things that I’ve been blessed with in life to control the direction of my life and effect my priorities in it.

The solution to all this is to humble myself. To humble myself daily and to focus on what it looks like to make humility what I am about, rather than this pride that I’ve allowed to fuel my efforts for far too long. Seeing God for who He is and how He is is where I start. Declaring my dependance on and trust in God is how I take out the corrosive leech that has securely attached itself to my character and identity for far to long.

All this is to say that I feel like I’m moving again. I feel like I have a plan for what I need to do. All is left is to wake up each day and decide to make choices that rebuild my character. That continue to erase this pride from who I am. That continue to help me find my identity in the death and rising of the God that’s never left me.

One.Love

cd

My problem is I don’t like to push myself. If something doesn’t come easy to me, I don’t like to work for it. Now that I’ve recognized the issue, I need to do something about it. I just need to keep myself aware of my tendencies, and then fight them. Just like when I’m running, I remind myself that I can go further than I think and I push myself. It’s helping and I’m changing. It’s a beautiful thing.

Ok, so lets get to some results. The last time I weighed myself (before tonight) was almost a month ago. In that time, I’ve been to NYC, Myrtle Beach for a Bachelor Party, & eaten more delicious food than is smart for a guy trying to lose weight. Enough blabbering, here it is:

I was: 235 lbs

I am: 229 lbs

What?!? I lost weight? That makes no sense, but I don’t think that it a coincidence that it happened after I started working myself by running again. Running seems to work really well for me, even though I hate it. Speaking of running, I went running this afternoon, trying to be the rain (or what turned out to be monsoon out of nowhere). I got in 5.75 mi, and around 4.5ish the bottom fell out of the sky. I just started laughing and smiled the rest of the way home. It was such an awesome time. Funny note: I was listening to Paramore – When It Rains when it started to pour. That’s just funny.

So my plan is to keep running hard, cut out most/all sugary drinks, & to be mindful of what I’m eating. I’ve got Tom & Martha’s wedding coming up this week, so that’s gonna be awesome. I’ll probably eat awesome food that’s not awesome for you. I’m telling you ahead of time that I’m not gonna feel bad about it. Cheers.

Here’s to bein back on the horse.

One.Love

cd