Ch-ch-ch-changes

At this time of writing I am making some drastic changes within our church community. Some of the changes are around structure, some around leadership but some are to get back a few things that I see we have let slide, which are vital to the life of our church.

It feels like the last five years have flown by, going from a small connect group in Starbucks of nine people to two campuses in the north east with about 500 people. It felt like everything we had been doing was right, even in times of immense frustration, we were still on track and doing the right things. BUT in the last six months it has changed from doing everything right, to doing everything wrong. We hadn't changed anything. We had reached a level where what we had been doing was right to get there but was wrong to take us further. My choice was to stay with the familiar or head into the unknown. I decided to choose the later.

The unknown is the path of faith. That's the only thing that pleases God. It is the path that we have followed to get here and the one we choose to take us into our future.
Follow us on the journey.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

The SUDDENLY increase

Well the news is out, we are now one church in two locations- Tyneside and Teesside. What started as a "What if..." conversation nearly two months ago has now become a reality. Now that the announcement has been made the hard work actually begins. The euphoria will die away fairly soon and the practicalities will settle in. We are adopting a child into our church family. How will the older child react when it doesn't have it's parents' full attention anymore? How will the new child react to the new structure, new name and new parents? Sometimes it is not even the big changes that can cause the most discomfort, it can be the little things that we hold on to the most dearly. I love the quote by Catherine Booth that states "There is no improving the future without disturbing the present".

We want to take people on this incredible journey with us and will do our best to help people but the journey is going to happen and some people may choose another journey or settling place for themselves. I still struggle with people doing that, but am learning that if my heart really is to build people then sometimes we are not the ones that are best suited to do it for them. We can get so distracted by people leaving when it maybe the best thing for them to help their lives grow.

I can tell you honestly that we, as the new parents, are trusting God because we definitely don't feel confident in our own strength. So far, as a church and as pastors, we have kept steady and fairly constant growth. So we have been able to increase our capacity as leaders to accommodate what God has brought our way. Suddenly we have added about another 90 people to our care. That is responsibility from God and it scares me. I'm so glad I don't have to do it in my strength. I am learning more & more to trust God as He places me out of my depth.