Today at Estevan Alliance Church a letter (read
it here) was read to the congregation that announced my resignation from
the position of Lead Pastor so that I could pursue what for me has been the
unmistakable call of God on my life. The last few months have been a time of
deep searching and testing the will of God not only for our congregation but
for Joanna and me as well. We have been asking God to revitalize and renew our
church and as we have been doing that we have been asking God to reveal his
plan and purpose for us in that season of renewal.
Along the way the Spirit of God has gotten a hold of us,
and began telling us – that Joanna, the kids and I are supposed to leave our
comfortable life, our exciting ministry, and all of our friends and surrogate
family behind and follow him east. As we have journeyed through this season of
discernment He has put in our paths friends and colleagues, prayer-warriors and
prophets, scriptures and circumstances that again and again that have confirmed
this calling. We even invited our board of elders to join us in praying for
wisdom and guidance as we tried to separate emotion from ordinance and comfort
from calling. This was not a decision that was made in a vacuum, but one that
was done with the certainty that comes from the unity of the Spirit within the
people of God. He has led me in my study of his word and my ministry of
preaching to entreat to our congregation to submit everything to the Lordship
of Jesus Christ and in doing so I have specifically called for your to place your
families, your careers, and your futures on the altar – giving God permission
to disrupt, displace and redirect those things in ways that will bring him
glory. I knew in my heart that asking you for these things was a burden put on me
by God himself, but what I didn’t know when I started preaching these things
was that God wanted to start with me.
Jesus knew though; and as Joanna and I have strained to
hear and discern his voice it has been clear that God has been asking us to do
a most unexpected thing – to leave this congregation and go somewhere new. And so it is with mixed emotions that we
embark on this new chapter of life and ministry; we go with a heaviness of
heart because we love this church and we
had hoped that we would be the ones that God allowed to lead you into this
amazing calling that he has put upon you, but also with an excitement and
anticipation – both for the new ministry and family that has called us to walk
alongside them as their pastor, but also for you as God, I believe is stirring
up this congregation in anticipation of a great work that he wants to do among
you; perhaps even a work that my continued presence would have been a hindrance
to – that last part is only speculation but it’s a logical conclusion
nonetheless.
I’m sure that in the days and weeks ahead there will be
many questions, and I will endeavour to answer as many of them as I can. For
the office week beginning Tuesday April 30, open office hours will be extended
to all-day Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and I would warmly invite
you to drop in and talk about your feelings, concerns or questions. My desire
is not to run away from the difficulty of this decision but to be as open and
transparent as possible with you about it. Some questions I will be unable to
answer because God has not given me the answers myself – some aspects of this
process have been an exercise of faith for me and Joanna – but what we are
certain of we would certainly be willing to share with you. You can feel free to ask us anything, but
there are a few questions that I want to deal with here and now before anyone
has a chance to speculate about things that would be hurtful and untrue.
1.
We are
not leaving because of conflict in the church. Every church has
conflict, and every church has disunity. The fact that I have been preaching
about the unity of the fellowship from the book of 1 Corinthians lately should
not be taken as evidence that we have been fighting a losing battle with any
person or group within the church and were finally driven out. I have heard
these concerns and they are untrue. We are leaving because God has called us to
an amazing opportunity to walk in his will by joining with another congregation
that we seem uniquely suited to be a part of.
2.
We are
not trading up. It is true that we are very excited about the people
and the opportunities that await us in our new congregation. We fully expect to
be blessed and to be a blessing in this next chapter of life and we are
joyfully embracing that call – but that is by no means an indication that the
experience we have had over the last 9 years in Estevan has been insufficient
or unfulfilling in any way. For the past 9 years we believe that we have been
in the centre of God’s will among our friends and family in Estevan, we have
been well cared for and abundantly blessed and no amount of joy for what lies
ahead can fully dull the sadness of what we leave behind.
3.
This
is not the end of the fresh movement of the spirit that we have been
experiencing at EAC. In fact I believe that this is only the beginning.
I pray with all my heart that in our example of obedience and submission that
some of you may be further inspired to follow in my footsteps – not necessarily
by leaving the church and community – but by sacrificing your dreams, desires
and self-determination on the altar and holding nothing back that he would call
you to surrender. God may be calling you to do something that would be equally
(or even) more frightening than the step that Joanna and I are taking and my
prayer is that our story would give you confidence to allow God to direct
yours. More than that, your real senior pastor is Jesus Christ – and he isn’t
going anywhere, so how possibly could our departure derail what he wants to
accomplish in you.
Please in these days and weeks and months to come
remember your board of elders in prayer. They are the ones to whom the burden
of leadership has fallen. Ask the Lord fervently that they would hear from the
Spirit and know how to lead. Also pray for Pastor Waylon and Lisa as Joanna and
I know from experience that this is a difficult season for a staff pastor to
navigate. But pray most of all that God would continue to speak directly to his
people; pray that the sheep would know the shepherds voice and that they would
joyfully obey. It is that prayer that will make the most difference in the days
and weeks and months ahead and it’s the prayer that I will commit to praying
for you.
With sincere love and gratitude,
Pastor Chris
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