In 2013, our previous church, Here's Hope underwent an upheaval in membership that hurt both emotionally as well as financially. I had to get a second job in order to continue in the pastorate. I felt strongly that we were not to "jump ship" but to be 'good shepherds" and to stay with the flock and nurse the church back to health. We doubled down on prayer, and the congregation responded...with 6-10 of us each Tuesday praying for renewal and for the leading of the Holy Spirit. A recent member approached me about taking worship to a new level and ended up bringing an entire band on board. We enlisted a worship leader who blossomed and became strongly anointed for the task at hand. The church regained its financial standing and in 2016 I was able to quit my second job and return to full time pastoring.
Then I heard a whisper. A subtle nudge to see if God was opening a place of service closer to our children. As we prayed about it, Jennifer and I covenanted to only look at evangelical churches in the mountain states within a few hour drive from one or the other of our children. We saw a number of them available, applied to a few, and heard back from some of them. But we weren't looking to change our place of serving just for the sake of change. We desired to find out what God was doing.
One church in Eastern Colorado struck a nerve, and I had a couple of email conversations with their head of their search committee. It sounded good, but very rural. I wasn't too sure about it. So on a visit to Denver, our daughter told us she couldn't meet with us until the next day, so we had a day to spare. On a mission of curiousity, we drove 3 hours east of Denver into the plains farming region to visit the little town of Idalia. There seemed to be nothing there but a tiny town, a restaurant and a gas station, and a very well maintained church and a parsonage. We ate at the restaurant and drove back to Denver and then returned home. We were unconvinced, but convicted. We felt drawn, but we didn't know why. The church was Congregational, which in many ways paralleled our Southern Baptist roots with minor exceptions. So we continued to pray about it and have discussions and video interviews with the search committee who themselves were growing on our hearts.
In January 2018, we finally flew out in view of a call. We had interviews, lunch, tours, heard the history and stories, and on Sunday attended a worship service that was also their annual meeting. The church voted on us and agreed to call us. They were offering to provide for our needs very generously, so much so, that Jennifer wouldn't need to work for quite awhile...and maybe even get a chance to open her own Counseling service.
We accepted by faith the calling. We still hadn't had what I like to call a "visual confirmation." I call it that because when God confirms something, He often waits for us to respond in faith and then He gives us a "told you so." We put our house on the market, sadly announced our departure to Here's Hope, (for which God had providently provided a very qualified interim pastor), and prepared for the move.
On moving day, the furniture is all in the moving van. We had left the old vacuum cleaner our to do our final cleaning. Jennifer is vacuuming the front bedroom and something metallic clogs the vacuum, so she stops it and inspects the clattering noise. It is a tiny golden/brass bar barely 3/4" long that has the words "ST JOHN" stamped on it. We can scarcely believe it. Here is our visual confirmation we had been seeking.
Now we have been at Saint John Church for 10 months and understand why God sent us here. God has used me repeated in the past to ground people in the basics of the faith so that people can grow into fully devoted followers of Christ. And this church is a wonderful, fertile field for exactly that! In addition, I am responsible for "confirmation group" which are eighth graders who are seeking to own their faith, as well as the Youth Group, who are hungry to know Jesus more. We thank God for His sending us into this field of dreams!
