After taking a month off for the holidays the Pastors' Conference is back. Write it down: Noon, January 9 in the Piper Great Hall at Truett Seminary. The speaker will be Dr. Ian McCaw, Director of Athletics at Baylor University. Remember it costs $5 to eat now. Make your reservations by Friday, January 4th (that's this Friday) with Rachael (753-2408). I made mine early.

Just got the mailer today! I did not get to go last year to the retreat due to responsibilities that week at our church which was without a pastor. I hope we have a pastor by this coming April, but I am saving up to go whether we have a pastor or not.

Daryl Eldridge (Co-founder & President of Rockbridge Seminary) and David Butler will be there this year as the retreat personalities with Julie O'Teter, Boyd Pelly and Keith Parks slated as Breakout Conference Leaders.

The retreat will focus on Discipleship this year with Daryl Eldridge leading us through "being broken, shaped and serving others."  There is also a spouses' conference, golf, food, and fellowship/networking.

FBC Salado and Tenroc Ranch will be the main locations again this year. I hope to see you there.

INFO

I had lunch with two new guys at Waco churches. We met at Uncle Dan's for some bar-b-q. It's a good place. We have used them a few times for catering and Dan showed up with the food. Anyway, I ate with Rick Julian of Highland Baptist Church and David Cozart of Meadowbrook Baptist Church. Both seem to be really good men. Rick moved here from South Carolina 3 months ago. David was in Waco at Truett before he went to Frisco for church planting. He has since come back to Waco. He was actually a member at Highland during seminary and a few months after Frisco before going to Meadowbrook.

 

Both men are working with small groups in their churches. We are going to be calling ours home groups at Park Lake, but they are the same concept. I enjoyed eating with them and talking with them about small groups. They both "walked into" the small groups at their churches. We have yet to jump into homegroups.

Put it on your calendar:

 

The Center for Ministry Effectiveness and Educational Leadership is sponsoring a conference titled Conflict Resolution in Baptist Churches.  The conference will be on June 12 from 10 AM to 2:30 PM.  Lunch will be provided during a break.  It will be held at Baylor University on the 2nd floor of Carroll Library in room 201.

 

The main speaker for the conference will be Sonny Spurger of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. 

Other speakers include:

Dr. David Hardage, Director of Missions, Waco Reginal Baptist Network

     and

Donald D. Schmeltekopf, Provost Emeritus and Director, The Center for Ministry Effectiveness and Educational Leadership

 

 

For more information, call Julie Covington at the Center for Ministry Effectiveness, 254-701-4677

Just got the word:

 

The Center for Ministry Effectiveness and Educational Leadership is sponsoring a symposium on congregational renewal on Friday, May 11 from 8:30 AM - Noon at the SBC Theater - Mayborn Museum in Waco, Texas.  Details are:

 

I will not be going to the retreat this year.  Being without a pastor is not keeping me from it, but it is a factor.  We are in a transition period.  Currently we are looking for two other staff members in addition to starting the process of looking for an interim pastor and putting together a transition team and a pastor search committee. I'll see you guys next year.

Yesterday I attended an informational meeting about True Course Ministries. The organization was founded by Dr. Michael Godfrey of Waco, Texas. I won't take time to restate what their website says better about their purpose and vision. I was impressed and I recommend the ministry.

I was introduced to Dr. Godfrey by my former pastor and know him through Truett Seminary students here in our church. Dr. Godfrey also supply preached for us last Sunday morning.  If you click on the picture above you will open a window to their website.  (The graphic is the header on their website which I copied and shrank for use on this blog so this post would stand out.)

I have not posted in a while.  I have sat down several times and tried, but circumstances have prevented it.  As I posted earlier this is not an online diary for me to just scratch events and feelings into.  It is online and available for anyone to read.  I have to moderate myself and what information is posted.  This is meant to reveal who I am and support my professional life.  I can write private things on a piece of paper and then burn it.

 

This past Sunday my pastor announced his resignation from his position here at Park Lake.  His last Sunday will be March 4.  As can be expected there are those who are sad that he will not be with us and there are those who are not so sad that he is resigning.  I have seen, heard, and read the whole spectrum: support-don't support and blame him-blame the church.  I have also heard the spectrum of whether I am am equiped to "hold the church together" until we have a interim pastor or pastor. 

 

I am anxious about the next few months.  We are going to be running with an interim youth minister, a guest music leader, and myself as far as ministerial staff.  And our interim youth minister is only slated to be here 'til the end of May.  We have a list of names for a youth search committee, but will not be able to vote on them until March 11.  Our music search committee has recently gone back to "square one" and does not know where to start looking for a person who fits the position we are able to offer.  We were able to get most of our committees functioning again this past January and the support staff here are ready to do what needs to be done.  I am hoping to breathe some life back into our deacon body to help minister to our homebound and nursing home members.  Pastor Drew was very good about making sure he visited homebound and nursing home members and I hope we can continue that.

 

Now for a little revealing...

 

Yes, I had been looking for another place of ministry also.  Denise and Mina, your intuition and resourcefulness are uncanny and sometimes spooky.  Park Lake, I have been careful to conceal my search not because I don't trust you, but because it is neither right nor profitable that I ask you to ride the emotional roller coaster with me by making known my search.  I only tell you now because God has made clear my place is here and I don't want suspicions to hamper the work ahead of us.

 

It seemed clear to me that finances, staff needs, and vision dictated that moving and allowing the church to reorganize staff positions was what was best for me and the church.  Both of our part-time positions have been vacant.  One specifically has been vacant for quite a while and it seemed obvious that combining it with the education position would enable to church to fill to position with the kind of person the church needed.  And it seemed the Lord was leading that way when a call was extended to a candidate for the part-time position and he declined. 

 

The Lord also seemed to be moving in the area of a new position for me.  That trip to West Texas Beth Ann and I took was not just to see a friend, but also to meet with the staff and a search committee of a church and to tour the town there.  It was the perfect place for Beth Ann and I at this time.  The church is located in a growing area of good people, the church has a plan and is following it, they are ready to begin another phase of buildings, and different ministers are leading church members on mission trips outside the USA throughout the year.  The staff is a growing group of people, they are of one mind and vision, and work well with each other.  There is not only an available pastor's wife, but a handful of ministers wives who have bonded and are supportive of each other: my hope for Beth Ann as she is beginning to find out what it is to be a minister's wife.  The position would stretch and challenge me in the areas I desire most.  Offerings were way over the budget.  And although the salary was not ready to be revealed, each staff member volunteered on their own that the church took very good care of its ministers.  (That may seem a worldly thought, but as a minister who has never seen a pay raise that even met the rise in the cost of living and who is now married it is important.)

 

We; the search committee, Beth Ann, and I; prayed for God's will.  They prayed for discernment, I prayed the same and to be transparent so they could see what makes me tick, we all prayed to hear from God.  He did speak and the search committee needed to look in a different direction.  It didn't help much that we had heard from God, I was dissapointed and a little mad.  In a way God said "stay."  Despite how well I seemed to fit with the staff and the situation, despite it being a good place for us to be God said "stay."  I know He is with Beth Ann and me always (Matt.28:20) and He will not give us more than we can handle (1 Cor. 10:13).  We will go forward and do the work He has given regardless of how we might feel because God promises a good result.

 

As it turns out He was working in our pastor's life to move him to a place his family needs to be and has opened for us (Park Lake) opportunities.  This can be a anxious time for any staff after a pastor leaves.  The leadership role that has been vacated must be filled in some way until a new pastor comes onboard.  And once a new pastor has come there is no guarantee current ministerial and support staff will fit into his style of leadership and vision for the church.  But, we will go forward and do the work He has given regardless of how we might feel because God promises a good result.

Whatever you do it is important to stay informed and up to date with your professional area.  The BGCT is sponsoring the Texas Baptist Ministers of Education Retreat in April.  I have been more than a few times and have enjoyed the break, comaradarie, and training seminars.  I am looking forward to it this year.  Hope to see you there!

Run Dickie, Run!