Friday, February 03, 2006

God's divine wisdom

God showed up on Thursday in Mike's conversation with Brian from OH (the contact from the church). Well, really He is always there and its a matter of us seeing Him - but this works well for our story. We have been praying about where we will be going and where our next ministry will be. We really felt good about the church in OH. They had many things we are looking for in a congregation, the leadership seems healthy and passionate about people, we felt like we made a connection with the leaders we met while we were there. Overall, we left with a different feeling than the other interviews. All of this was for good reason - it was different from the other interviews, we did connect with them.

In the conversation Mike was told that the elders had decided to go with one of the other candidates. And that sounds pretty bad, but there is more to it. Out of the last three, it came down to Mike and the one who was offered the job. The two of us have one major difference - he grew up in the church (and I mean that particular congregation. That was the main reason the job was offered to him and not Mike (and that is not a bad thing - the elders had set in their vision that whenever they had opportunity they would try to hire "Timothy's" of the church). The decision was not an easy one even with this factor. There were about 1/2 dozen meetings about it. They even began to try to figure out how to hire both of us. (if anyone has some extra $ laying around and could pass it along to be salary, please let me know) :)

For me (Mike) it was not a typical "no" conversation. And I actually felt a little encouraged afterward. Obviously, we don't know where we are going and we feel a little "lost, unsure..." Brian made it clear that the elders did not want to end all contact with us, they are wanting to stay informed with how we are doing. He also let me know that during the meetings when they were trying to hire both of us they decided they might start working on hiring a 4th staff person (when funds and things would make that possible). This 4th staff would be a breakoff from the one that was just filled and would be ms/hs (and they would like to keep my resume and if possible contact us about the position). Amy and I are not going to wait around for this to happen (it could be a few months or a year - that all depends on God), but we would consider it if it would work out.

So, God showed us because we were willing to see past the smokescreen of human disapointment and see the bigger picture. This picture is still not complete, but we are trusting God to fill it in as needed. His wisdom is divine and we would much rather trust it then ours (even though it is tough to follow when we are not completely sure where we are going)

(we will keep you updated and please continue to pray for us and our move)

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