For us, this new year will bring a few big transitions. They will bring some change to our lives, but for the better. This month we will be moving into our first home and welcoming our baby daughter into our family. We have been renting an apartment downtown since we have been married, but with the upcoming addition to the family, we needed a little more space. Our new home will be located in New Philadelphia, about a block a way from one of the girls discipleship houses. Whitney is really excited to be in walking distance to the girls house, making it easier to spend time with them. Whitney is due on February 6th, and we are planning to move in to our house by mid January. So, not much time in between, but just enough.
I have spent the last year interning at my church with our pastoral staff. Our church is about 25 minutes away from our town, out in the country. It has been growing over the past few years and this fall reached a point where we are maxing out space on Sunday mornings. Our staff really believes in developing leaders from within the church, which is why they asked me to do an internship with the pastoral staff. So, the opportunity arose for the church to branch out to a new location. Conveniently enough, there are quite a few people that commute from New Philadelphia to Countryside Chapel. So the staff decided to locate the branch in New Philly. Our church model is a little different from the typical church plant. Think of it this way. Instead of going to 2 services in one building on a Sunday morning, we are adding a second service, but it will be in a different location. Same leadership. Same Elders. Same pastors. Same church.
Ministry Updates
As Off The Wall grows, so will our roles. During our staff retreat we talked a lot about how we disciple and how we teach classes. We will be changing to a different model in the fall. We are finding that this younger generation likes much more mobile environments. Shorter time periods, different faces, less duration. So instead of having all classes every week for 9 months, we will have a variety of topics that are taught for weeks at a time by different members of the staff, with a few foundational classes that go throughout the year. Whitney and I will add a few more responsibilities to our roles later this year, helping Don recruit and fundraise for the ministry.
We are really looking forward to these new transitions. Being a pastor at the church will add more to my week, but I have been spending a lot of that time training and learning from the pastoral staff already. It is a privilege to work for the Lord and we are grateful to be able to be used by Him. God has blessed us greatly with a home, a baby, and a community that wants to follow Christ and we are thankful for His goodness in our lives.
