If you're having trouble viewing this email, please click here.
Dear Friends and Prayer Warriors,
The new Storehouse location is fantastic, so one last huge Thank You to everyone who the Lord used to bring this transition to pass.
Since completing the Storehouse transition, we launched our first Seminary Extension class in Greeneville. We have three faithful students who are learning and growing, and I think the class has been a blessing to everyone involved. They take their final exam Monday! This first class was rules for interpreting Scripture. Our next class will be a walk through of James, where we will apply the things we learned this semester to real world Bible study! With the holiday season looming, we will start back our next Seminary Extension class in January.
If you've followed the blog for any length of time, you know that I have a passion for helping churches BE the Church. As a part of SERVE, we believe that well equipped church leaders is one of the keys to seeing this happen. Lots of churches in East Tennessee lack pastors with formal training, or lack pastors altogether because they were built around a bi-vocational model, and bi-vocational guys are getting harder and harder to find. These churches are usually either stagnant or declining, and desperately in need of revitalization.
Seminaries generally don't prepare men for bi-vocational ministry. Let's be honest. Most guys who go invest years of their life in a Masters level program preparing for ministry do not feel called to do ministry as their secondary occupation. The solution for this seems to be to identify and train local men to pastor these churches, and this precisely what I have been investing time to do. I work with Seminary Extension training church leaders and future pastors. We try to teach volunteers at the Storehouse about working with the materially poor. I've invested time in helping men develop their abilities to prepare and deliver biblical messages. However, for the past four years, a question that has been regularly posed to me by everyone from strangers to supporters to potential local partners is "What makes you qualified to train pastors if you've never been one?" I usually answer that question, "giftedness and excellent training", but to be honest, that rarely satisfies people. It's a valid question, and one I've prayed over a lot the last two years.
At the end of August as I was preparing to launch our Fall Seminary Extension class, Ben Proffitt, the Director of Missions with our local Baptist Association, asked me if I was interested in helping to revitalize a tiny little church on the west end of Jonesborough, about fifteen minutes from our house. Ben and I met with Gene, the church's only remaining deacon, and James Harrison, the pastor of First Baptist Church Jonesborough, a potential partner in this endeavor. Gene invited me to come and preach for a few weeks, so I began to spend Sundays preaching at West Hills and beginning to get to know the people. One of the blessings of the Storehouse transition is that we have had more volunteers serving day to day, and more of my time has been freed up to prepare to preach and teach and potentially pastor.
West Hills embodies much of what I've written about in the past in terms of churches that need revitalization. A paid for building. No debt. A core group of faithful believers. Gene functions as an elder, but they lack a pastor with vision for the future and the ability to help them connect with the community that has changed around them dramatically over the last 50 years. Change will be difficult, but if the church fails to change its current trajectory, it will die in the next decade or so as the last of the members go to be with Jesus. We have been praying about how we should help, and if this is the Lord opening a door for me to gain some pastoral ministry experience and develop a platform for growing our leadership training ministry. We've sought counsel from the DBC guys in Texas, and they're supportive me taking on the responsibility of guiding this church as a part of my regular ministry activities with the Storehouse and Seminary Extension.
Nothing is formal yet. I've tried to be very clear about the types of changes that are going to need to happen in order for the church to bring the gospel back to the center of all our activities, and ultimately to grow and add families. I think the church members are a little overwhelmed (I did that on purpose), and there is some uncertainty about whether or not they want to go forward (that's good). On Sunday the 25th, they will need to decide whether or not to call me as their next pastor, and in the meantime we will be seeking the Lord's will in this as well. The task is daunting, especially for Meredith and the kids. We covet your prayers. We want to be faithful to the Lord's call even when it's challenging, but we also want to be wise and back away from this if the Lord has reason for that as well.
Things you can be praying for this week:
1. Please pray for wisdom regarding the potential pastorate as West Hills.
2. Please pray for our Seminary Extension students to finish their first class strong in the coming week.
3. Please pray for Meredith as she homeschools Lily. Starting school has been a huge adjustment for them! She's doing an amazing job and Lily loves it, but it's taken far for more energy than she anticipated!
Here are few family highlights from the last month!
 |
| Family selfie on Hosea's second birthday! |
The new Storehouse location is fantastic, so one last huge Thank You to everyone who the Lord used to bring this transition to pass.
 |
| In only our second month at our new location, our food distribution has already grown from 50 families to 76. |
 |
| The vast majority of people we serve through our food distribution are senior adults living on a fixed income. |
Since completing the Storehouse transition, we launched our first Seminary Extension class in Greeneville. We have three faithful students who are learning and growing, and I think the class has been a blessing to everyone involved. They take their final exam Monday! This first class was rules for interpreting Scripture. Our next class will be a walk through of James, where we will apply the things we learned this semester to real world Bible study! With the holiday season looming, we will start back our next Seminary Extension class in January.
If you've followed the blog for any length of time, you know that I have a passion for helping churches BE the Church. As a part of SERVE, we believe that well equipped church leaders is one of the keys to seeing this happen. Lots of churches in East Tennessee lack pastors with formal training, or lack pastors altogether because they were built around a bi-vocational model, and bi-vocational guys are getting harder and harder to find. These churches are usually either stagnant or declining, and desperately in need of revitalization.
Seminaries generally don't prepare men for bi-vocational ministry. Let's be honest. Most guys who go invest years of their life in a Masters level program preparing for ministry do not feel called to do ministry as their secondary occupation. The solution for this seems to be to identify and train local men to pastor these churches, and this precisely what I have been investing time to do. I work with Seminary Extension training church leaders and future pastors. We try to teach volunteers at the Storehouse about working with the materially poor. I've invested time in helping men develop their abilities to prepare and deliver biblical messages. However, for the past four years, a question that has been regularly posed to me by everyone from strangers to supporters to potential local partners is "What makes you qualified to train pastors if you've never been one?" I usually answer that question, "giftedness and excellent training", but to be honest, that rarely satisfies people. It's a valid question, and one I've prayed over a lot the last two years.
At the end of August as I was preparing to launch our Fall Seminary Extension class, Ben Proffitt, the Director of Missions with our local Baptist Association, asked me if I was interested in helping to revitalize a tiny little church on the west end of Jonesborough, about fifteen minutes from our house. Ben and I met with Gene, the church's only remaining deacon, and James Harrison, the pastor of First Baptist Church Jonesborough, a potential partner in this endeavor. Gene invited me to come and preach for a few weeks, so I began to spend Sundays preaching at West Hills and beginning to get to know the people. One of the blessings of the Storehouse transition is that we have had more volunteers serving day to day, and more of my time has been freed up to prepare to preach and teach and potentially pastor.
West Hills embodies much of what I've written about in the past in terms of churches that need revitalization. A paid for building. No debt. A core group of faithful believers. Gene functions as an elder, but they lack a pastor with vision for the future and the ability to help them connect with the community that has changed around them dramatically over the last 50 years. Change will be difficult, but if the church fails to change its current trajectory, it will die in the next decade or so as the last of the members go to be with Jesus. We have been praying about how we should help, and if this is the Lord opening a door for me to gain some pastoral ministry experience and develop a platform for growing our leadership training ministry. We've sought counsel from the DBC guys in Texas, and they're supportive me taking on the responsibility of guiding this church as a part of my regular ministry activities with the Storehouse and Seminary Extension.
Nothing is formal yet. I've tried to be very clear about the types of changes that are going to need to happen in order for the church to bring the gospel back to the center of all our activities, and ultimately to grow and add families. I think the church members are a little overwhelmed (I did that on purpose), and there is some uncertainty about whether or not they want to go forward (that's good). On Sunday the 25th, they will need to decide whether or not to call me as their next pastor, and in the meantime we will be seeking the Lord's will in this as well. The task is daunting, especially for Meredith and the kids. We covet your prayers. We want to be faithful to the Lord's call even when it's challenging, but we also want to be wise and back away from this if the Lord has reason for that as well.
Things you can be praying for this week:
1. Please pray for wisdom regarding the potential pastorate as West Hills.
2. Please pray for our Seminary Extension students to finish their first class strong in the coming week.
3. Please pray for Meredith as she homeschools Lily. Starting school has been a huge adjustment for them! She's doing an amazing job and Lily loves it, but it's taken far for more energy than she anticipated!
Here are few family highlights from the last month!
 |
| "I'm a REAL princess!" Mommy and Lily went on a field trip to see the Biltmore Estate. |
 |
| Ice cream at the Biltmore Creamery. |
 |
| Petting the rabbit on a field trip the Rural Resources farm. |
 |
| Playing with worms and learning about vermicomposting. |
 |
| One of her stacks of birthday cards! Thank you for helping me make her birthday special! |
 |
| How birthday's change after you add small children...Lily won't eat icing because it's too sweet, so mommy's cake has and icing-less corner. |
 |
| This big boy celebrated his second birthday! He's a ham and a delight, and he loves tractors. In fact, if you were to tell him happy birthday, he would probably enthusiastically respond, "I like tractors, too!" |
 |
| One of our favorite family outings is to pick our own pumpkins out at Buffalo Trail Orchard! |
 |
| We love the hayride out to the pumpkin patch! |
 |
| Hosea loves hay bales! |
 |
| But not always having his picture taken.... |
 |
| Sister gave him a hug to help him feel better! |
 |
| Thank you for all your love and support for our family and ministry in East Tennessee! |
