As of last night I am free to let everyone know that Micah and I are moving to Colorado in a few weeks. I've accepted a call from Vista Grande Baptist Church in Colorado Springs to become their Minister to Singles. As we make the transition I want to comment a bit about what this means.
The place we are leaving
We are walking away from a wonderful church, which is a hard thing to do. There is nothing about Sand Spring that makes us want to leave it. We have been constantly encouraged by the members, pastor, and staff. The greatest blessing has been the students we have worked with as we have seen so many of them go from unbelief to salvation to maturity. My goal all along has been to help them stand on Christ as their foundation. As I remove myself from the structure of their faith, I am praying that they will rest solidly on Him as the cornerstone and not be moved. I am also praying that they will understand the value of their church and remain dedicated to it during the time between leaders. I know that God has someone in mind to take over in my place, and there is untold potential for what can happen when that person comes.
The place where we are going
Micah and I have felt the Lord leading us out of the South for quite some time. We know that the Gospel is needed everywhere, but the needs are much greater outside the "Bible Belt". Despite being home to a number of large Christian organizations like Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs has a very different spiritual landscape than Kentucky. The Colorado Springs metro area has three times fewer churches per capita than were we live now and nine times fewer Baptist churches. Fewer than 20% of the people there have a church background. Also, there are more than 200,000 single adults in the area but only a handful of churches with ministries targeting them. Single adults are perhaps the most commonly neglected group of people in churches today, and the Lord has laid their needs heavily on our hearts.
Not only are we going to fertile ground for the Gospel, we are also getting to serve in a phenomenal church. In our two visits we have been extremely impressed with the pastor, the staff, the lay leaders, and the members. We can tell that Vista Grande is a church that loves the Lord with heart, soul, mind, and strength. We couldn't be more excited to get to be a part of what God is doing there.
We are confident of the Lord's leading as we go. Whether you are someone we are having to say goodbye to, someone that we will soon serve alongside, or someone else, I hope that you will join us in praying for both of these churches and communities.
