My dear brothers and sisters, I joyfully greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! At our congregational meeting on November 29th, we experienced the powerful presence of God's Spirit leading us to become partners in God's mission to redeem this fallen world with the Gospel. This is our highest calling, to be God's missionaries, God's ambassadors, His chosen instruments to bring the light and the glory of Jesus Christ into our homes, our neighborhoods, our community, and our world. I am honored that you, the people of God responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit, called me to be your next senior pastor. It is a call that I humbly accept and on behalf of my wife and children, I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to God first and foremost but also to the faithful members of the pastoral search committee who poured themselves out for the sake of the future of our community. Their work was not easy and required a great deal of diligence and an investment of a significant number of hours over the past several months. If you haven't taken the opportunity to thank these folks personally, I encourage you to do so.
Furthermore, I want to thank the elders serving on Session, the staff of PEPC, the deacons, and any others who took on the monumental challenge of leading our congregation through the last year. Their faithfulness to God is surely worthy of honor and I hope you will take the time to express your appreciation to them as well. Kristi and I are enjoying getting to know y'all and trying like crazy to put names with faces! And yes, Kristi is much better at it than I! For those we haven't met or for those who may be new to Parker or to PEPC, the following is a short bio to help you get to know us better.
It’s been almost fifteen years since Jesus first ambushed me on the campus of the University of Colorado in a small group men’s Bible study on Romans. Thus began a whirlwind of a college journey that included meeting my future wife and partner in ministry, Kristi, leading Bible studies, interning at First Presbyterian Church in Boulder, and engaging in evangelism. From there God put us to work in the Boulder community, Kristi serving at an afterschool program and me serving in management at Boulder Community Hospital. It was also during this time that we were blessed with the birth of our daughter, Chloe. When Chloe was eight months old, we followed the call of God to Princeton, NJ to attend seminary.
During our three years there, we saw God at work not only in the deep friendships we built but also with the ministry at New Jersey State Prison where I served as a volunteer chaplain. Many of those men remain dear friends and brothers in Christ to this day. I graduated with distinction from Princeton Theological Seminary in 2002, winning the Mary Long Grier-Hugh Davies prize in preaching. By this time, our son Josiah had been born and God took our growing family of four to Mobile, AL, to serve Overlook Presbyterian Church. For six years, we labored there among God’s people, engaging them in mission around the community and watched the Lord bring spiritual renewal to both the congregation and the Mother’s Day Out program Kristi directed. We also experienced the miracle of our twins, Emma and Sophia, being born. They were born ten weeks premature but God surrounded us with incredible friends who prayed for us and supported us as they struggled and grew into the beautiful young girls they are today.
Because we didn’t have enough on our plates, I felt called to begin my doctoral studies at Columbia Theological Seminary! In the spring of 2008, God came calling again and we said goodbye to our dear friends in Mobile to move to Sun Prairie, WI, to plant a new church. In undertaking this new mission for the Lord, we knew we were taking a great risk, particularly since the model we were pursuing was based around a network of home groups. Over the last year, we have experienced a lot of ups and downs but God has been so faithful to continue to teach us what it means to be faithful and we are blessed by the tremendous number of relationships we have built.
Chloe is ten years old now and is in the fifth grade. She loves to read, write her own stories, and create art. She loves softball and being active outdoors. She is also a budding evangelist who loves nothing more than going door to door to meet neighbors!
Josiah is eight years old and in the third grade. His passion is just about any machine that goes fast, soccer, and reading. He also has a wonderfully generous heart. When our youth group in Mobile put on our World Famine Banquet to raise awareness for world hunger, Josiah was the first one to sign up and give the five dollar suggested donation out of his own savings!
Emma Grace and Sophie Jo are our delightful fraternal twins. They turned four this summer and are best friends. Each of them is developing their own personality and interests and we are blessed to see how far God has brought them.
My friends, I believe with all my heart that God is on a mission to reclaim this world for Himself and for His Kingdom. I believe that we as a church find our truest identity as we participate in that mission and it will be my prayer that God will equip us in such a way that we can continue the great work He has done in PEPC and through PEPC to reach Parker for Jesus Christ. Furthermore, we will continue to strive to be a church that is inwardly strong, growing deep in spiritual fellowship with God and with each other, and outwardly focused, drawing the least and the lost to Jesus Christ. In closing, I leave you with one of my favorite verses, "The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you." (Romans 8:11) Believe this! And live in His grace, love, and power!"