The last five months I've done far poorer at giving these updates than I would have liked to...although I'm looking forward to doing better at that in the future! Here is the latest on a few different areas:

My Interim Assignment

My last update mentioned how much of my time and energy have been given to the interim assignment that I've had at The Chapel Hinsdale. The last five months have continued a really unexpected journey there. At the end of last year we were working to pull together a replanting team and usher in a new season with the church. The goal was to build momentum while lining up the next campus pastor so that I could transition out by Easter. Well, unfortunately the Lord had other plans! After searching for the next campus pastor for about six months, we began to face the option that perhaps God wasn't bringing that campus into another season but was winding it down instead. Through many cycles of prayerful discernment with the staff and replanting team, Scott Chapman (the senior pastor) and I concluded this was indeed what God was doing.

So...rather than having the journey of transitioning to a new campus pastor, I got to have the experience of closing the church instead. Our final celebration and sending-off service was May 28th. Honestly, it was so hard. I really hope I never have to be at the helm of closing a church again! Pastoring and walking with people who are having all sorts of different levels of responses and reactions was really tough, and all the more so having been worn out by trying to build momentum in a church replanting process during the timeframe I was expecting to be transitioning the load to someone else.

I'm sure I learned a lot, but at this point my head is spinning from the last few months too much to be able to see what that is yet.

UK Tour

During late February and early March, I took a team of seven (plus a few that joined for various sub-parts of the trip) on a ministry tour of the UK through Birmingham, Ashford, London, and Cardiff.

We did a lot of ministry while we were there - I think I counted 28 speaking slots the 15 or so days we were there, so when we got back I was pretty beat! It was really a fruitful trip though: the Spirit showed up everywhere we went! We saw tremendous amounts of empowering and deliverance everywhere we went and it was a powerful trip both in terms of the churches we ministered to, as well as the team members we brought along. I counted this trip as a confirmation that I need to keep doing this type of ministry trip in the future: they're catalytic for all involved.

Looking Ahead

The final thing that we're really celebrating is the sense of clarity that we have on our next longer-term adventure: we are going to head to Phoenix and start something new! For the last number of years the Lord has been talking with me a lot about the expiration date that our current form of church is hitting and how we need to begin to try to work with some different models. After a lot of wrestling to hear the Lord, we've decided to jump in and give it a shot! I'm sure I'll be writing a lot more about what we're doing to come, but for now just know that we're heading towards something new and begin to pray for us as you're willing and able to :)

Thank you so much for your prayers and your financial generosity my friends - it's made all this possible and it makes the next things around the corner possible as well. I'm excited to partner with you this way!