The call

Late in 2008, I had a feeling it was time to start looking for a call. The current ministry I was serving in (Christ Community Lutheran - Leesburg, VA) was a church plant using the Open Arms model. I was entering into my fourth year and had planted the church and successful Open Arms Childcare facility. However, the ministry was taking a new direction which I was not certain was one I could minister in. There was some conflict regarding ministry styles and approaches to ministry which caused some problems. My concerns were whether I was the right person to take it to the next level and could I minister in the direction the church was going.

I approached my district president and we decided to wait until the new year (2009) to address the situation. The new year came and I still felt the leaning to place my name for a call. It was just before I was going to see my district president that I received a document from the Texas District regarding my availablity for a call. I took this as the Holy Spirit comfiming my decision to place my name for a call. My district president and I met and I gave him a few districts I would like him to place my name with: Minnesota South (be near our parents), Illinois North (near Chicago), Texas, Missouri (St. Louis) and Pacific Southwest (Southern California).

Mid Febrary came and with it some frustrating decisions from my church council regarding our Open Arms ministry and I was not in a very good mood. I drove around Leesburg trying to calm down and ready myself for the council meeting that evening. After driving around for 45 minutes, I decided to pull into Home Depot and walk around the store. As I pulled into the parking lot I prayed a loud, "Lord, help me I can't take much more of this!" and the phone rang. It was Gary Faith from the Southern District wanting to know if I was interested in talking to him regarding a call to plant a new church! Thank you Jesus! Who says prayers are not answered! We talked for some 40 minutes and I was very frank and upfront regarding my current situation and what they were planning to do. We hit it off and this resulted in another phone call a week later.

Not much happened and then Gary called me back and said they would like to have Linda and me come an visit the area and have some face to face interviews. Off to Alabama we went. To be honest, when we left, we had no feelings on way or another about the plant and the area. But God had other plans for us!