The start of a new transition...
An important post (letter) to read from your pastor.
Isaiah 46:9 - “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.”
1 Timothy 6:18, 19 - “Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
We have had the privilege of raising 4 children. That first one got a lot of our love. We poured our lives into her through time and instruction and love. Anna grew and with that our responsibilities and instruction changed and we watched her flourish in that environment. We were amazed. But there came a time when she said “I want to go to college and the college is 1200 miles away.” When we dropped her off, I was a wreck. I was struggling with letting her go. I hoped she would call every hour as we drove the 2 days home but that didn’t happen. We got one short call just before arriving home. She was diving into life head first as she had done under our care. I was a helicopter parent, hovering however I could through the internet, and one day it bit me hard. Anna was playing college soccer and I had figured out a way to keep up with the games through internet radio and college websites and though I could not go to the games, I was able to know what happened, the results almost instantaneously. I got a call from her after one game and before she could tell me the result, I told her. She got mad and I stopped that activity because I would rather have her tell me than learn it on my own. My hands had to come off some more. I walked her down the aisle to another man one day and my hands released more. But now I understand it. We will go down to see Benjamin (our third) graduate in December and we will stay the extra day so we can be in church with Anna leading the worship and I will realize again that letting go let her flourish all the more. We learn a lot from raising children.
This morning I want to take a breather from our study of the book of Matthew and take time for a looking back that has helped me look ahead for the future.
Our church actually started out of a sermon I heard back in August of 1986 by one of our Free Methodist bishops named David Foster. He talked about “church planting,” starting a new church in a new area and it fascinated me. I had never thought about it. I grew up very sheltered and my world was very small. The idea of starting something from nothing got me to purchase that cassette tape and play it for Stephanie and I wore it out going over the excitement that was in his voice over these “new plants” full of “new people.”
During the next 10 years that marinated in my mind and heart as I served established churches in northern Michigan. Our conference started talking about “new works” and an assessment was offered for anyone interested. I was nudged by the Holy Spirit and some good friends to go and that led to an exercise that said Stephanie and I had the marriage stability and gifts and abilities to pull this off. From there we went to a “boot camp” to flesh out our plan and to have it ripped to shreds by those who had gone this road before us so we could rethink it again. Coming out of “boot camp” through a series of events and people we settled on Gaylord, MI as a possibility. In August of 1996, we sat with 2 other couples and made the decision to “give it a go.” For the next year I drove on Tuesday mornings to Gaylord for basketball at the school and then staying in town to pray and get to know as many people as I could. I would then drive back and get Stephanie and my parents would travel up 90 miles to watch the kids and then travel back the next day. We would come for an evening Bible study. 280 miles every Tuesday for a year while pastoring the church in Alpena. In July of 1997 we made the move to Gaylord, bought our first home, and secured work to make it all financially work.
One thing has survived that came out of that “boot camp” experience and it is our mission.
“Gaylord Family Fellowship is a safe place to investigate Jesus’ words ‘to have life at its fullest’ through celebrative worship, small group fellowships, and family-focused activities.”
We lived by this. “A safe place” where you could come as you are but for what purpose? “To investigate Jesus’ words” was what we were going to talk about and study and apply. “To have life at its fullest” meaning that we realized that Jesus wants to transform our lives. And our 3 areas of focus were “celebrative worship” which we did in a variety of places, “small group fellowships” which have happened throughout the years, and “family-focus activities” hence our church name and the atmosphere we wanted to see happen.
The early years had us on the move in 7 places in 5 years. It started in our home on Oak Avenue. We moved to the Board of Education room on Elm Street. Then the Otsego Christian School let us use their multi-purpose room. Remodeling there pushed us to the Intermediate school cafeteria for a summer and then back to OCS. Then the Blockbuster closed and that space opened in the Alpine Plaza, the first place we could stop loading and unloading the trailer full of our “stuff.” After 6 to 8 months there and the start of our teen ministry we headed to Mt. Hope church for the use of their gymnasium. 2 churches meeting in the same building at the same time and they allowed us to stay until our building was completed.
The church lived out of our gray minivan and then a trailer for those early years and part of Sundays was setting up and tearing down. We were so excited. We didn’t have a building but we packed out the E. Free Church Gym to capacity for a concert that we sponsored. Stereo Deluxx, Code of Ethics, and Scarecrow and the Tinmen. One thing we did that we thought would make the church explode was a 13,000 direct mail piece to all of Otsego county. Statistics said that 1% should walk through the door, so 130! One family walked through but it was the family that we needed and they needed us and the Lord. These were the lean years with a Sunday before Christmas with just 8 in attendance and times when the “core” was thinking about packing up and calling it quits. We pushed on and I continued to work 2 jobs and we all gave sacrificially to see if God would bless.
Early in 2002, the search for land or a building to call our own resulted in 12 acres that we sit on now (later to be 17 acres). The possibility looked grime as the trustee of the land was willing to listen but did not want to sell even if we had the money in our hands. A few of us walked into that office with the mighty Stephanie praying at home and we came out with a promise that if we could come up with the financing, the land was ours. That promise was tested the very next day as a big developer came to that trustee about the land. I am sure they could have paid more but the trustee held to his word and I am so thankful we were able to recognize him at our grand opening.
On the radar was acquiring the land and just before a meeting to call for pledges of support I got a call saying the land was covered. $245,000.00 I couldn’t wait to tell our leadership team after the service and just before the meeting. We went into the meeting with fuel for the flame and the building came into existence by September of that year. A $1.25 million dollar project with land included that we financed through our church building program for $690,000.00 and now sits at $267,000.00.
The fat years had begun and we had times when the house would swell over 200 on a Sunday morning. We opened with Sonic Flood. This place was hopping and I was able to quit working outside the church and just focus here. We had been here already for 6 years but we were the church with the new building and it was working.
But all was not rosy. 7 years in I became another person at home and covered it as much as I could at church but depression hit me. I got so bad that I had to receive medication for 3 months to handle the low. I am so thankful for a wife that loves me so dearly and a God who pulled me through that in a short time and never to go back.
We had what I call “the exodus” when 30 some people left our congregation in a short period of time and along with them was about $40,000.00 in church offerings.
But then came “the awakening.” God was doing something behind the scenes that started to make us go deeper in our relationship with Him personally and as a church. I can’t think of how we would have handled the accident that my wife and 2 sons were in and later the cancer bout I had if we had not changed our focus at the church to hang on that phrase “to investigate Jesus’ words.” Another analogy came up to describe what we should say when someone asked about our church. We were not going to talk about the comfy chairs or the worship band, we were going to talk about a house.
Our foundation that we stand upon is Jesus Christ.
One wall is our book, the Bible, our authority of the truth.
One wall is prayer, our communication with God.
The front wall is our worship of Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.
The back wall is the gospel, what we know and share.
The roof is to love God more and more and to love others.
Our church was more than just an exciting place or maybe a new building or comfy chairs. This is what our church was about and we started to live it.
Last November there came an unrest over me. I started to realize that we didn’t have 4 children to raise but 5. It was time to let number 5 go. It was time to start to take my hands off. It was time for number 5 and I to go through one more transition. I shared this with Stephanie and it was met with great resistance and so I didn’t approach the subject again. I was thinking “if this is of God...” Stephanie will start talking to me and that happened after 3 or 4 months. We started talking and praying about God’s timing. It wasn’t something we were pursuing hard because we knew there would be a lot of pain and change involved.
But then came the never ending summer of 2013. Our numbers dropped down to 50 at times. The finances dropped right off. We were just holding on until September got here and the people came back but it didn’t happen. I was looking at picking up some more work when it hit me. “If this is of God...” if I were to make this decision and it was right, God would start to turn things around.
4 weeks ago I officially asked to start the transition. For 2 weeks, Stephanie and I were the only ones who knew other than our conference superintendent (my boss). Attendance jumped by 30 and increased the next Sunday. Worship services came alive and 6 people stood for the Lord. Sunday night Bible study increased and it was no surprise that the Marriage Day had 55 in attendance. My counsel load increased with progress in many areas and I watched people starting to take initiative to serve God by serving others without the push of the pastor.
So a week ago Tuesday I shared the news with our leadership team. There was shock and questions but they asked me to wait a week before sharing it with the congregation. It was an opportunity for them to go through a Sunday “knowing” and looking at the congregation with new eyes. Our next meeting last Tuesday brought great peace to the idea of working together to see a new pastoral family take our place.
So what is next? The Free Methodist Church is a connectional church. I pastor this church but I am a minister of the Free Methodist Church nationally. To be a pastor of a Free Methodist Church you have to go through their ordination process. So our leadership team will be working with a committee on the conference level called the MEG board (Ministerial Education and Guidance) to start the process of searching for a new leader. Our leadership team will pull together a “picture” of our church and a “picture” of what we feel is important in a new leader to present to the MEG board. As the MEG searches nationally, they will come up with names of pastors who they feel would be a good fit. That person will be presented to our leadership team for their approval. I was thankful that I got to sit down with MEG board and share my heart with them about this church. I am actually jealous that someone gets to come in to this body of believers. Someone on the MEG board, after speaking about the church said, “Man, I want to go there.”
I will continue to pastor but also will be searching for God’s call for Stephanie and I. There will be a coordinating of schedules between myself, this congregation, the new pastor, his congregation (if pastoring at the time) and possibly the congregation I will be going to. So what if there is a gap, Adam goes but no one is here? The MEG board will work with our leadership team to provide local and interim pastoral care until all are in place. “If God is in this...” we will see His hand in the timing.
So after we get over the shock we need to get ready. We need to be running on all 8 cylinders.
Fear will crop up and maybe temptation to go but we need to ask ourselves the question - “Why do I go here?” I would ask you to see God’s hand work in all of this.
First - ministry wise. The leadership team will be going through possible “holes” that will need to be looked at. Our goal will be to have more people serving so that when the new pastor comes he will not have to do everything but find his place with his gifts and abilities. That the pastor and family will drop in on a church function on its own.
Second - financially. With the hit over the summer we need to focus on re-tooling our budget but also being committed to becoming a financially strong church for the Lord. God gives and provides through the people that God has collected together here. All of us giving will make a big difference.
Third - anticipation. When the shock wears off, we need to shift our focus to the coming of a new family to the fellowship. Someone we can welcome into the fold as you have done on a different level so many times. I have had a couple of conversations this last week with people who needed to get back here. Why? They didn’t say anything about the “great” preaching or the “comfy chairs. They needed to be with their “church” family and that happens when we take seriously what the Bible says about how we are to treat one another.
So a look back - Isaiah 46:9 - “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.”
This church is here because of God. All that past that you heard this morning was because of God and God lead us on.
And I hope I have worked toward this - 1 Timothy 6:18, 19 - “Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
We will end our time this morning with prayer for our leadership team as we go through this process together and allowing them to share a few words with the you.
I am starting to say “goodbye” as your pastor but not as your friend.
Pastor Adam and Stephanie
Isaiah 46:9 - “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.”
1 Timothy 6:18, 19 - “Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
We have had the privilege of raising 4 children. That first one got a lot of our love. We poured our lives into her through time and instruction and love. Anna grew and with that our responsibilities and instruction changed and we watched her flourish in that environment. We were amazed. But there came a time when she said “I want to go to college and the college is 1200 miles away.” When we dropped her off, I was a wreck. I was struggling with letting her go. I hoped she would call every hour as we drove the 2 days home but that didn’t happen. We got one short call just before arriving home. She was diving into life head first as she had done under our care. I was a helicopter parent, hovering however I could through the internet, and one day it bit me hard. Anna was playing college soccer and I had figured out a way to keep up with the games through internet radio and college websites and though I could not go to the games, I was able to know what happened, the results almost instantaneously. I got a call from her after one game and before she could tell me the result, I told her. She got mad and I stopped that activity because I would rather have her tell me than learn it on my own. My hands had to come off some more. I walked her down the aisle to another man one day and my hands released more. But now I understand it. We will go down to see Benjamin (our third) graduate in December and we will stay the extra day so we can be in church with Anna leading the worship and I will realize again that letting go let her flourish all the more. We learn a lot from raising children.
This morning I want to take a breather from our study of the book of Matthew and take time for a looking back that has helped me look ahead for the future.
Our church actually started out of a sermon I heard back in August of 1986 by one of our Free Methodist bishops named David Foster. He talked about “church planting,” starting a new church in a new area and it fascinated me. I had never thought about it. I grew up very sheltered and my world was very small. The idea of starting something from nothing got me to purchase that cassette tape and play it for Stephanie and I wore it out going over the excitement that was in his voice over these “new plants” full of “new people.”
During the next 10 years that marinated in my mind and heart as I served established churches in northern Michigan. Our conference started talking about “new works” and an assessment was offered for anyone interested. I was nudged by the Holy Spirit and some good friends to go and that led to an exercise that said Stephanie and I had the marriage stability and gifts and abilities to pull this off. From there we went to a “boot camp” to flesh out our plan and to have it ripped to shreds by those who had gone this road before us so we could rethink it again. Coming out of “boot camp” through a series of events and people we settled on Gaylord, MI as a possibility. In August of 1996, we sat with 2 other couples and made the decision to “give it a go.” For the next year I drove on Tuesday mornings to Gaylord for basketball at the school and then staying in town to pray and get to know as many people as I could. I would then drive back and get Stephanie and my parents would travel up 90 miles to watch the kids and then travel back the next day. We would come for an evening Bible study. 280 miles every Tuesday for a year while pastoring the church in Alpena. In July of 1997 we made the move to Gaylord, bought our first home, and secured work to make it all financially work.
One thing has survived that came out of that “boot camp” experience and it is our mission.
“Gaylord Family Fellowship is a safe place to investigate Jesus’ words ‘to have life at its fullest’ through celebrative worship, small group fellowships, and family-focused activities.”
We lived by this. “A safe place” where you could come as you are but for what purpose? “To investigate Jesus’ words” was what we were going to talk about and study and apply. “To have life at its fullest” meaning that we realized that Jesus wants to transform our lives. And our 3 areas of focus were “celebrative worship” which we did in a variety of places, “small group fellowships” which have happened throughout the years, and “family-focus activities” hence our church name and the atmosphere we wanted to see happen.
The early years had us on the move in 7 places in 5 years. It started in our home on Oak Avenue. We moved to the Board of Education room on Elm Street. Then the Otsego Christian School let us use their multi-purpose room. Remodeling there pushed us to the Intermediate school cafeteria for a summer and then back to OCS. Then the Blockbuster closed and that space opened in the Alpine Plaza, the first place we could stop loading and unloading the trailer full of our “stuff.” After 6 to 8 months there and the start of our teen ministry we headed to Mt. Hope church for the use of their gymnasium. 2 churches meeting in the same building at the same time and they allowed us to stay until our building was completed.
The church lived out of our gray minivan and then a trailer for those early years and part of Sundays was setting up and tearing down. We were so excited. We didn’t have a building but we packed out the E. Free Church Gym to capacity for a concert that we sponsored. Stereo Deluxx, Code of Ethics, and Scarecrow and the Tinmen. One thing we did that we thought would make the church explode was a 13,000 direct mail piece to all of Otsego county. Statistics said that 1% should walk through the door, so 130! One family walked through but it was the family that we needed and they needed us and the Lord. These were the lean years with a Sunday before Christmas with just 8 in attendance and times when the “core” was thinking about packing up and calling it quits. We pushed on and I continued to work 2 jobs and we all gave sacrificially to see if God would bless.
Early in 2002, the search for land or a building to call our own resulted in 12 acres that we sit on now (later to be 17 acres). The possibility looked grime as the trustee of the land was willing to listen but did not want to sell even if we had the money in our hands. A few of us walked into that office with the mighty Stephanie praying at home and we came out with a promise that if we could come up with the financing, the land was ours. That promise was tested the very next day as a big developer came to that trustee about the land. I am sure they could have paid more but the trustee held to his word and I am so thankful we were able to recognize him at our grand opening.
On the radar was acquiring the land and just before a meeting to call for pledges of support I got a call saying the land was covered. $245,000.00 I couldn’t wait to tell our leadership team after the service and just before the meeting. We went into the meeting with fuel for the flame and the building came into existence by September of that year. A $1.25 million dollar project with land included that we financed through our church building program for $690,000.00 and now sits at $267,000.00.
The fat years had begun and we had times when the house would swell over 200 on a Sunday morning. We opened with Sonic Flood. This place was hopping and I was able to quit working outside the church and just focus here. We had been here already for 6 years but we were the church with the new building and it was working.
But all was not rosy. 7 years in I became another person at home and covered it as much as I could at church but depression hit me. I got so bad that I had to receive medication for 3 months to handle the low. I am so thankful for a wife that loves me so dearly and a God who pulled me through that in a short time and never to go back.
We had what I call “the exodus” when 30 some people left our congregation in a short period of time and along with them was about $40,000.00 in church offerings.
But then came “the awakening.” God was doing something behind the scenes that started to make us go deeper in our relationship with Him personally and as a church. I can’t think of how we would have handled the accident that my wife and 2 sons were in and later the cancer bout I had if we had not changed our focus at the church to hang on that phrase “to investigate Jesus’ words.” Another analogy came up to describe what we should say when someone asked about our church. We were not going to talk about the comfy chairs or the worship band, we were going to talk about a house.
Our foundation that we stand upon is Jesus Christ.
One wall is our book, the Bible, our authority of the truth.
One wall is prayer, our communication with God.
The front wall is our worship of Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.
The back wall is the gospel, what we know and share.
The roof is to love God more and more and to love others.
Our church was more than just an exciting place or maybe a new building or comfy chairs. This is what our church was about and we started to live it.
Last November there came an unrest over me. I started to realize that we didn’t have 4 children to raise but 5. It was time to let number 5 go. It was time to start to take my hands off. It was time for number 5 and I to go through one more transition. I shared this with Stephanie and it was met with great resistance and so I didn’t approach the subject again. I was thinking “if this is of God...” Stephanie will start talking to me and that happened after 3 or 4 months. We started talking and praying about God’s timing. It wasn’t something we were pursuing hard because we knew there would be a lot of pain and change involved.
But then came the never ending summer of 2013. Our numbers dropped down to 50 at times. The finances dropped right off. We were just holding on until September got here and the people came back but it didn’t happen. I was looking at picking up some more work when it hit me. “If this is of God...” if I were to make this decision and it was right, God would start to turn things around.
4 weeks ago I officially asked to start the transition. For 2 weeks, Stephanie and I were the only ones who knew other than our conference superintendent (my boss). Attendance jumped by 30 and increased the next Sunday. Worship services came alive and 6 people stood for the Lord. Sunday night Bible study increased and it was no surprise that the Marriage Day had 55 in attendance. My counsel load increased with progress in many areas and I watched people starting to take initiative to serve God by serving others without the push of the pastor.
So a week ago Tuesday I shared the news with our leadership team. There was shock and questions but they asked me to wait a week before sharing it with the congregation. It was an opportunity for them to go through a Sunday “knowing” and looking at the congregation with new eyes. Our next meeting last Tuesday brought great peace to the idea of working together to see a new pastoral family take our place.
So what is next? The Free Methodist Church is a connectional church. I pastor this church but I am a minister of the Free Methodist Church nationally. To be a pastor of a Free Methodist Church you have to go through their ordination process. So our leadership team will be working with a committee on the conference level called the MEG board (Ministerial Education and Guidance) to start the process of searching for a new leader. Our leadership team will pull together a “picture” of our church and a “picture” of what we feel is important in a new leader to present to the MEG board. As the MEG searches nationally, they will come up with names of pastors who they feel would be a good fit. That person will be presented to our leadership team for their approval. I was thankful that I got to sit down with MEG board and share my heart with them about this church. I am actually jealous that someone gets to come in to this body of believers. Someone on the MEG board, after speaking about the church said, “Man, I want to go there.”
I will continue to pastor but also will be searching for God’s call for Stephanie and I. There will be a coordinating of schedules between myself, this congregation, the new pastor, his congregation (if pastoring at the time) and possibly the congregation I will be going to. So what if there is a gap, Adam goes but no one is here? The MEG board will work with our leadership team to provide local and interim pastoral care until all are in place. “If God is in this...” we will see His hand in the timing.
So after we get over the shock we need to get ready. We need to be running on all 8 cylinders.
Fear will crop up and maybe temptation to go but we need to ask ourselves the question - “Why do I go here?” I would ask you to see God’s hand work in all of this.
First - ministry wise. The leadership team will be going through possible “holes” that will need to be looked at. Our goal will be to have more people serving so that when the new pastor comes he will not have to do everything but find his place with his gifts and abilities. That the pastor and family will drop in on a church function on its own.
Second - financially. With the hit over the summer we need to focus on re-tooling our budget but also being committed to becoming a financially strong church for the Lord. God gives and provides through the people that God has collected together here. All of us giving will make a big difference.
Third - anticipation. When the shock wears off, we need to shift our focus to the coming of a new family to the fellowship. Someone we can welcome into the fold as you have done on a different level so many times. I have had a couple of conversations this last week with people who needed to get back here. Why? They didn’t say anything about the “great” preaching or the “comfy chairs. They needed to be with their “church” family and that happens when we take seriously what the Bible says about how we are to treat one another.
So a look back - Isaiah 46:9 - “Remember the former things long past, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me.”
This church is here because of God. All that past that you heard this morning was because of God and God lead us on.
And I hope I have worked toward this - 1 Timothy 6:18, 19 - “Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”
We will end our time this morning with prayer for our leadership team as we go through this process together and allowing them to share a few words with the you.
I am starting to say “goodbye” as your pastor but not as your friend.
Pastor Adam and Stephanie
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