Here is the news I promised: My family is transitioning away from funding and being clergy. We will continue the mission in Los Angeles, but I’m going to find a job in the community to meet our basic income needs. To help us make this transition, the Westside Church of Christ (Bakersfield, CA) and the Highland Oaks Church of Christ (Dallas, TX) will continue to provide us with full-time financial support for the first half of this year. Beginning in July they will pay us half-time support, so that by 2010 we will no longer be hired as paid missionaries.
This decision has come after much prayer and fasting, and seeking advice from others. This is NOT a situation where supporting churches cut us from their missions budget. My family is doing this to be more effective missionaries. We’ve found our clergy identity has been getting in the way when sharing Christ with people who distrust religion. By getting a “regular” job we can remove this obstacle. Also, like our kingdom friends Ed, Katie, and Wendy who have regular jobs, Meredith and I will get to model for new believers what we are asking them to do – that is, to be missionaries as a way of life. In East Hollywood most if not all of the leaders who emerge from the harvest will not go to seminary or leave their jobs to be a leader in Christ’s church.
Pray for us, this is both scary and exciting. I don’t have another job lined up yet, but we know this is what God wants us to do. He will provide. Also pray for our ministry. It will slow down at first, but we believe in the long run this will be an even more fruitful work because of this decision. At least it’s something we’re going to try out and see what happens.
We are grateful to our supporting churches for the financial support they provided these past two years. Many of you have made it possible for Meredith and me to devote ourselves full-time and lay the groundwork for a church planting movement. We will build on this foundation as we engage the community on a deeper level. To those of you who are supporting us financially, our relationship with you is not ending, just morphing. There are many ways we can continue to partner.
Please keep us on your prayer list as we continue this mission. Thank you for caring so deeply for us and for helping us reach the nations God is bringing to our country to be introduced to Jesus Christ.
Categories: stuff to pray for, the how
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