UNEXPECTED, Part 2

un·ex·pect·ed/ˌənəkˈspektəd/adjective

1. not expected or regarded as likely to happen.

In August of 2017 I began to fast and pray about the direction God had for my family and ministry. It was during that time that I knew God was leading me away from serving at the Illinois District office and back into local church ministry. It also became abundantly clear that my call was to Granite City, my home town. Actually, what God clearly spoke was that I would lead a grassroots effort to change the face of women in ministry in Granite City. When I finally accepted that, Donny and I began to pray specifically for where we would go to and we both agreed that God was leading us to Tri City, one of the few Assembly of God churches in our town. I have actually worked there before. I was a teacher in their day care program from 2002-2010. I reached out, met with the pastor and began my time serving there again on October 29, 2017.

In January of 2018, as had become my practice for a few years, I prayed and asked God to give me a word for the year, something I could fall back on or look forward to that would describe the year for me. The word he gave me is UNEXPECTED. How exactly does one move forward with that? We say it often but how do we “expect the unexpected?” Well, MUCH to my surprise, or I guess I could say unexpectedly, another aspect that God dropped in my heart last August became much stronger in 2018 and that is a willingness and desire to someday be the lead pastor of a church.

Those who know me well know that if anyone ever brought up being a lead pastor to me I would kick, stomp, scream, turn blue in the face saying that would not happen, that I was not "called" to do that. Also, if you know anything about God, then you know that, 1. Your "calling" is what you do. Your assignment is where you do that at. My calling is ministry. And 2. It's that the only time we should ever use the word "never" is to describe God's NEVER-failing love, never-ending grace and never-ceasing sense of humor. For the record, I never said I would NEVER serve as a lead pastor. But any other synonym for "no" was pretty much used so, do with that what you will. The fact that I not only accepted the idea of one day serving a church as their lead pastor but began looking forward to that day and daily asking God to strengthen my giftings and my call to better equip me for that "one day" is insane. Ask my husband his thoughts and he'll tell you he ALWAYS knew that I would be a lead pastor and he is glad that I "finally" see it for myself.

Do you watch Madam Secretary? I won't give any spoilers but, the last episode of season 4 where Elizabeth and Henry are sitting on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial looking out towards the Washington Monument talking about the future is pretty much what my conversations have been with Donny about being a lead pastor. He said, "I know," and she said, "I didn't even know." Yep. Sums it up. Now you want to go watch it don't you? It's such a great show.

A N Y W A Y...

A few weeks ago, I received a phone call. That phone call was an offer to do something that is a fairly new concept in the church world, at least in our area, and was certainly unexpected in its purpose and timing. That being said, after much prayer I have agreed and accepted the offer to return to my grassroots, my home church of GCFirst, as the Co-Pastor of that congregation in December 2018. Oh also, it's okay to say to NEVER doubt God's promise and his timing.

I am in awe and so extremely humbled at the confidence that a church board has in my call, my giftings, my leadership ability to bring me into a role such as this. I am also grateful that my first experience leading a church will be done alongside a mentor and friend in ministry. I am thankful for a family who loves me and trusts me to trust God to lead us where he wants us. I pray that as I step into this grassroots mission of my city, my home, that God would give me wisdom, strength, vision, grace, courage, and greater faith so that I may lead effectively and without wavering.

I know that to many this will seem ridiculous. It will seem crazy. It will not make sense. But God's ways are not our ways and his thoughts are so much higher than ours. One of my favorite quotes from Mark Batterson is, "To build God's reputation you have to be willing to risk yours." In other words, I am a passenger on the train and God is the engineer. I'll go where he wants me to go.

This is real life and it is a journey that we're all on. Let's keep doing it together! I am sure I have a lot more to learn and share about. Stay tuned!