Get ready...

This is part one of three to be written over the next few months. We are in the "get ready" stage of our move from Marion, IN to Sioux Falls, SD. This is the stage where we tell coworkers, friends, ministry volunteers and the church at large about the call that we feel to artists in Sioux Falls.

This is also the stage where we formulate the plan for the next few months as we "get set" and finally "go" and make the move. I really have no idea what the next few months hold. Do we step out our official staff roles right away, do we stay while the church searches for our successors, is there some overlap? I'm really at a point where I just want to do what's best for the church. We will do whatever the Administrative Council decides is the best course of action (we will be talking to them on the 13th).

The reality that I might be serving with some of my friends in ministry for the last time is just beginning to hit home for me. I'm hoping for a game plan that allows us to serve until at least June 1 so that we can celebrate and enjoy each other before we leave, but I recognize that it probably will not be left to me to decide.

In the meantime, I am going to occupy my extra time by looking for jobs, searching real estate listings and getting our house ready to sell (which I would anticipate will go on the market sometime this month). We know that selling our house here is a prerequisite to buying a house in South Dakota and with the housing market being what it is in Marion, it could be awhile before we have a place there that we can call our own.

I've been thankful for Erwin McManus's book "The Barbarian Way" as it continues to give me a boldness and confidence in pursuing the path that we're on. His language is very much like that of John Eldredge in "Wild at Heart" but applied to all Christ followers instead of just the male variety.

Amy, meanwhile, has been reading a biography of Oswald Chambers (author of "My Utmost for His Highest"). She read the other day how Chambers pursued artistic studies out of a desire to reclaim the arts for Christ. It definitely stirred up something within her. I think anytime you hear that you're not the only one with a burden like that it helps you to feel a little more normal.

It's going to be hard to get people to understand that we feel called to minister to artists, because we don't even know what that means right now. My hope is that as we are faithful to place ourselves in the right geography that God will then begin to open doors for the right ministry.

Well, I need to spend some time figuring out how to verbalize things for the first of our opportunities to share what's going on with us to a larger audience. We talk to the Senior Leadership Team tomorrow, staff Thursday, teams and Ad Council next week and the congregation probably on April 17. I need to make sure that what I share is consistent and as complete as I know how to make it. Get ready...