As many of you know, Bryce and I attended the PCA’s Church Planting Assessment Center in Atlanta back in February. After several days of working on church-planting exercises, sharing our sense of call to church planting, and realizing how utterly at a loss we are without Christ, our call to church planting was confirmed by the assessors. They did, however, recommend that before “letting us loose on society” that we complete a 1- to 2-year apprenticeship where we could work on some issues. Given the fact that Bryce’s position was due to be completed at the end of April, going directly into church planting and all that that entails (esp. fundraising to cover the first 3-5 years), would’ve been too much of a stress for us. So we were excited about having a transitional phase that would allow us to ease into church planting, find a location that fits us and work at developing financial and prayer support for the work ahead of us.
We had two options right after Assessment for our apprenticeship, both in California. Feeling pressed for time, we looked into both options. Both came crashing down. Being that both Bryce and I like to plan things out in advance, we had already been scoping out rental properties and condos to purchase on craigslist. Our dreams for a house with a yard (for our dog) and a dishwasher (to alleviate household tension and dishes-buildup) burst. The beginning of March found us again asking God what he was doing with us and even questioning if we were called to church planting, given things weren’t working out. We also felt like we were up against a wall as Bryce only had 2 pay checks left.
So we changed tactics. Bryce called a church in Oregon that he had heard great things about and was excited about how they were ministering to the city and basically asked for a job. We began corresponding with them in March and visited this last weekend. Although we had a single day full of hail, rain, snow and sunshine, we think we really like it! We’re still working out details. It’ll be a good fit and there is a network of church planters in the Pacific Northwest that should provide accountability and collegiality (perhaps more than we could have hoped for in CA). The problem is the church doesn’t have any money, so we’ll be raising support for our salary. We’re yet again in a spot where we’re forced to rely on God’s leading, which is good, stretching and immensely challenging.
I’ve put in my resignation at the college, full of tears when I made the announcement. I am very sad to leave, but excited about the next chapter — which will have me taking care of Ezra and writing my own chapters (on my PhD dissertation).
