I've been wanting to make this happy announcement for quite some time! On January 5, 2014, in the midst of the big blizzard, Clint and I drove to Fremont, Indiana and were officially commissioned to the pastorate of Fremont Community Church! We are very excited to be serving and we look forward to what God will do as we minister there! The founding pastor and his wife, Greg and Ruth Chupp, have been so wonderful! They have worked to make our transition a blessing. Their love for the church is obvious and they have been our most dedicated cheerleaders and supporters as they transition out of the leadership role at FCC. Also, FCC has a wonderful group of people on the leadership team that have been so great during this time! We are blessed to have such couples working with us!
Our pastor and his wife, Pastor Ross and Jen Gerber, were in attendance to speak at the service and pray for us. Pastor Ross is standing with us while we explain why we have an old-fashioned plow up front for the event! His wife, Jen is in the front row. They just transitioned from the role of lead pastor to assistant pastor at our home church, Grace Christian Fellowship. For the past year our home church had been moving through a transition where the associate pastor and his wife would assume the lead role that Pastor Ross and Jen held for many years. It was a blessing to experience a healthy pastoral transition that went so smoothly. And we can say the same for our transition experience that began this fall. It's been a time of transition for many of us it seems! I guess January can be that way!
One day I awoke with verses running through my mind about "putting your hands to the plow." I knew we needed to get one of these old fashioned plows for an object lesson for this transition service. Amazingly, one of the congregation members had one and brought it for us to use. All of the leadership team "put their hands to the plow" along with us and we prayed for wisdom and guidance and committed to working together for the church's future!
January 2014 is three years since we finished our other pastorate and there were times when we wondered what the Lord had for our future. But through a series of very interesting events and prophetic words from people we trusted, we found ourselves being led to the ministry in this small Indiana town! At this point, we do not intend to move but rather we will make the commute. We are spending one day/week at the church in addition to Sundays and we both are still working at our other jobs. I am enjoying being involved at the church. I help my husband make phone calls, visit people, and help out however I can. I have also done some decorating in the foyer and the area where we meet for services! What a blessing to serve the Lord!
Just wanted to share our joy with all of you! Blessings, LORI
