When It's Time to Move On...

This Sunday, Dec. 30th will be my last Sunday at BranchCreek Community Church.

I can’t tell you how excited I am excited about what God is doing at BranchCreek as they join the LCBC family! I have been honored to interact with some amazing people through this journey, especially Matt Goss and Phil Schwartz.  In getting to know them and listening to them share their hearts, it is clear that the music ministry at LCBC is strong and vibrant with gifted leaders that care deeply about their teams.

As I thought about where I might fit in the new landscape, God began revealing that my leadership gifts are desperately needed in other local churches.  So I faced a really difficult decision:  I really wanted to be a part of LCBC and all that God is doing.  The leadership, staff and vision are exactly what I’m all about!  But there are no opportunities for me to use my gifts and calling leading and facilitating worship–now or in the future.  In fact, taking a technical director or producer position at LCBC would mean that I might never sing in the church again!  

That didn’t feel like God’s plan for my life.  What made more sense was pursuing my gifts and calling as a Worship Pastor; stepping out in faith knowing that God has something for me in the future . . . even if I don’t yet know what that looks like.

The decision was hard.  I mean really hard.  But just like Saul and Barnbaus in Acts 13,  God sometimes calls us out of a really good situation to further His work and fulfill His purposes.  While leaving is painful, I cling to the hope that God has work for me to do, and I’m honored to be His instrument.

I’ve been leading worship at BranchCreek for over 9 years.  I have learned so much under Dave Detwiler’s gracious leadership.  He’s been a true friend and mentor.  He has watched  me grow from a self-centered, hot-headed worship leader into a someone that strives to die to himself every day and simply live in obedience to God. 

I love my BranchCreek and LCBC family! I will miss them so much!  From the very beginning, they have been warm and welcoming.  I've enjoyed the interactions around the table at staff meeting, the friendly and encouraging e-mail exchanges and all the great relationships I've made along the way.  It has been a joy, honor and privilege to serve alongside them!

I can’t wait to share all that I’ve learned at BranchCreek wherever God leads me next!

“Beginning empty-handed and alone frightens the best of men. It also speaks volumes of just how sure they are that God is with them.”  Gene Edwards, "Tale of Three Kings"

perspective

I have three kids.  It's a fact that I take for granted sometimes, but tonight as they were in the bathtub together, laughing and playing, it hit me that I have three kids!  How in the world did I get here?  How did I become that guy?

Without question, the last 5 years have been life-changing.  Having two kids in 2008. Another in 2010.  Each one unexpected.  Amazing. Traumatic. Overwhelming. And utterly euphoric!   Spending the last few years at home with them has been one of the great joys of my life.  The connection that I have with each one of them is unlike anything that I can express.  The best illustration I've heard is that parenthood is like watching your heart walk around outside of your body.

I have three kids.  And I wasn't responsible for bringing them into the world.  I wasn't in control at all.  We didn't plan to have three kids; they just arrived–miraculously–one by one!  In fact, we never really had a chance to catch our breath and adjust, we had to get ready for the next one.

As I watched my kids play in the bathtub tonight, I realized that this wasn't what I had planned for my life.  It was so much better!  God was in control of my life.  He knew what I needed even though I had no idea what I wanted from life.  

It's no surprise that God is reminding me of this as I'm dealing transitions at church.  As a result of the merge with LCBC, I'll soon be laying down my worship pastor role to step into a new season of ministry.  It's been unbelievably difficult, but as I was reminded tonight, I don't have the bigger picture in view.  God sees what's in store for me, and while I love my current role, He's got something immeasurably more that I could ever ask or imagine!  I enjoyed what I was doing before I had kids, but I honestly can't even remember that life . . . everything before kids is fuzzy and inconsequential.  My life began when my children were born.  In the same way, I feel that I'm about to come alive in this next season that God has in store for me.  While I don't yet know exactly what that looks like, if it's anything like my kids, I know I'm never looking back!

Open Hand

We recently had a message at church where they played a clip from the movie "Titanic."  I hadn't seen the movie in years, and while the film is based on a tragedy, it never really affected me.

But things are different now.  I have kids.

Watching the images of the passengers' panic to find room in the lifeboats, I found myself gripped with terror.  In that moment, I felt their helplessness and fear as I thought, "What would I do?  How would I protect my kids?"

While I'm not planning any trips across the Arctic sea, the fear is one that every parent faces daily.  We bear the responsibility of protecting our kids from harm at any cost, and the thought of being helpless is unimaginable.  Even worse are the stories of parents who have lost their children, like Steven Curtis Chapman whose daughter Maria was killed by a freak accident in the family's driveway.  Or the couple from our church that have buried two sons in the last 2 years.  While Amy & I have experienced the pain of miscarriage, my heart cannot begin to comprehend the agony that those couples have faced.

And yet we're called to hold our children with open hands.

It's hard to trust God with our kids.  It's hard to let them go out and play and trust that God will protect them.  But as followers of Christ, we have to believe that He is in control.  Our children are His, given to us in trust; we are to protect and care for them until He asks for their return.  

All three of our kids were miracles.  All three were completely unexpected.  We were not in control of their arrival, and it was clear that they were sent to us directly from God.  They came suddenly and unexpectedly and we had to acknowledge that they could be taken away just as unexpectedly.

Parents are called to great faith.  We must believe that God is both sovereign and good.  He is ultimately in control of everything, and we have to trust that He sees the fuller picture.  At the same time, we have to believe that He is working for our best interest; to give us not that which we desire but that which we require.  We must trust Him with everything, and hold back nothing.  We have to be willing to have the faith of Abraham, dagger raised above his son Isaac, and hold our children with open hands.

Control

Asher has discovered light switches.  He'll stand on a stool and flip them on and off over an over again giggling with delight.  I'll say, "on" and "off" and have him say it along with me.  I can't help laughing along with him when I see the pure joy that it brings.  (Well, actually now that we've been without power for 2 days, I can relate...)

What made the experience so magical for Asher?  How could something so simple make him so happy?  I think it's the fact that he's exercising a fundamental desire to control his environment.  In his little world, there so much over which he has no control.  He's totally dependent on me to get him food, place him in his crib and change his diaper.  Sure, he can cry and stimulate action on my part, but having direct control over something . . . now that's power!

If I'm honest, this is an area of my life where I struggle.  Like Asher, I want desperately to control the chaos that is my life.  I want things done on my timetable; done my way.  I want to know what God is doing and where He is taking me.  And I'd like some say in the matter.  But over and over again, God tells us to "fear not"; to "be anxious about nothing."  He tells us that He has a plan for us, and that it will be exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ever imagine!  Yes, the destination is a wonderful and magical place.  

The journey there, however, is fraught with peril.

In an effort to purge our character from the wickedness of arrogance and selfishness, God winds us through briar patches and through dense forests.  We are often bruised and scratched by the obstacled that thwart us, but through faith, we are assured that we will overcome.  The challenge is to trust God amidst the struggle.  To fear no evil as we walk through the valleys in life.  To know that however difficult, God's perfect plan will suffice.

Lord, help me to trust that You alone are in control.

Affirmation

Sometimes it’s difficult to discern God’s direction during challenging times.  Yet other times, God’s will is so crystal clear that it’s like a clarion call for those who are listening.  The week after LCBC and BranchCreek announced that the churches would be merging, God spoke through my devotionals so clearly and in such a specific, timely manner that it could have only been His voice!

I’ve been using Rick Warren’s Daily Devotional found in the YouVersion Bible app on my iPhone.  Even though I know the topics and scripture passages were chosen well in advance, I was amazed at how specific they were–each and every day–to my situation on that particular day.

One of the biggest changes for BranchCreek during this transition in the area of music.  To accomplish this, it was determined early on that LCBC would provide a worship leader for the launch and moving forward.  I’ll admit that I was shocked and hurt when I first heard the news.  I didn’t understand why I couldn’t do it.  What would happen to me?  What would happen to my job?

The next day, I was encouraged by the scripture text in Warren’s devotional from Philippians 2:1-4 which reads,

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ² then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. ³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. 

I was immediately convicted.  Here I was worried about losing my position or a job that I love.  But God reminded me that it wasn’t about me.  It wasn’t about my position or my preference.  It was about what God wanted to accomplish.  It’s about the 6 million people in the greater Philadelphia area that don’t yet have a church home.  It was clear that I would need to trust Him, His will and His timing and have faith that God is in control .

The following day (Aug 30) Warren focused on dreams.  He writes,

“When God wants to work in your life, He’ll always gives you a dream – about yourself, about what he wants you to do, about how he’s going to use your life to impact the world.”

Amazingly–and I kid you not–the scripture text for the day was Ephesians 3:20; the very same passage that we have identified as the theme to our Exponential announcement and series!  I was floored!  He continues,

“In other words, if a dream comes from God, it will be so big in your life that you can’t do it on your own. It also will never contradict His Word!”

At this point, it was clear that God was speaking directly to me.  To my circumstances.  But He didn’t stop there . . .

The following day, (Aug 31) Warren offered a brilliant analogy that perfectly captures the way I was feeling:

“A great illustration of God’s plan is a trapeze artist. They swing out holding onto a trapeze bar, and then they let go in order to grab hold of another trapeze bar that swings them to the other side. But, at one point, they’re not holding on to any bar. They’re suspended in air for a split second.”

I’m living in that split second right now.  I know that God is in control; that He’ll never let me fall.  But He affirmed and acknowledged the terror of living in that split second.

The day after, (Sept. 2) Warren writes,

“In Habakkuk 2, God says, These things I plan won’t happen right away. Slowly, steadily, surely, the time approaches when the vision will be fulfilled.”

That Sunday, (Sep 2) Warren writes,

“The truth is you’ll have difficulties as you’re pursuing your God-given dream. This isn’t because he doesn’t care about you. It’s one of the ways he pushes you toward the deep end of faith.”

On Monday, I was reading Jim Tomberlin’s book “Better Together” in preparation for our joint staff meeting.  It was then that God hit me with the most shocking .  On page 6, Tomberlin writes,

 “In the pages ahead, we’ll identify many theological reasons why church mergers make sense, why they are increasing, and why the results are increasingly positive.  But those explanations are all secondary to our sense that God is clearly behind the momentum.  In Biblical terms, we believe mergers are another example of God doing a “new thing” (Isa 43:19), helping existing congregations to reach new levels of unity, maturity, and fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).  We believe this is contingent with God’s desire for “divine makeovers” as expressed through the prophet Isaiah, “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will rise against the age-old foundations; you will be called the Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings” (Isa. 58:12)

Here’s why that is so incredible:  Fifteen years ago, on September 10, 1997, Amy and I were at a Bible study in Dayton, TN where we I was serving as the Minister of Music at a small home church.  The pastor felt that God was giving him a prophetic word for Amy and I, and he shared it with us.  He turned to Isaiah 58:11-12 which reads:

11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. 12 Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

He said to us, “this verse is for you guys.  You two are going to raise up age-old foundations.  You’ll be called the repairers of the breech!”  To be honest, we never really understood what that meant.  Then I read that excerpt from Tomberlin’s book and nearly fell out of my chair. God had prepared my heart for this transition fifteen years ago!  He let me know that this was coming that that I would be a part of the process!  It’s absolutely unbelievable, and yet so totally God!

So I’m all in!!  While my exact role is uncertain at this point, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God has ordained and affirmed this union and that I have a role to play at some level.  None of us are privy to the details of God’s timing at this point, but I can tell you with a grateful heart that I’m fully content to be where God wants me to be; doing what God wants me to do.  God’s best has never failed to exceed my wildest expectations, and I want to be faithful and obedient in this historic season for LCBC and BranchCreek.