A New Chapter.

(I’ve wanted to post about this since it was first mentioned as a possibility a few months ago, but I’m glad I’ve waited. Since the announcement at church has been made and the cat is now officially out of the bag, though . . .)

My days as a corporate IT monkey are coming to a close and are giving way to a new life in urban church planting. As of early this summer, I will be Director of Ministry for Grace Central Presbyterian Church (where my family and I will soon be members). My buddy Joe Haack, who’s currently doing a great job in that position, will be leaving for Covenant Seminary in the summer, and I’m stepping in. You might be wondering what a “Director of Ministry” is, exactly. Well, take an Assistant Pastor . . . but one without ordination and in need of training and discipleship (at least in my case), and there you have it (or something close). My overarching responsibility will be to take care of the church’s day-to-day ministry operations, so that Greg will be free to be a pastor (rather than just a preacher, or just a church administrator, etc) throughout the week. I’ll be planning the weekly liturgy (ie: selecting songs, confessions, calls to worship, etc), overseeing different areas of ministry and making sure we have the right people and resources to do them, taking direct responsibility for some ministries (eventually), and helping to cast and re-cast the church “vision”. There will (obviously) be training involved, and that training might include a seminary-level program called LAMP (Leadership and Ministry Preparation).

So, how exactly does a guy with a degree in computer networking and no seminary (or even Bible college) training end up on the pastoral staff of a Presbyterian church? Well, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I thought I might have sensed a call to ministry or one form or another. That was after God had rekindled my faith in during my senior year of high school, and without a crystal clear “call”, I was . . . err . . . strongly encouraged by my family to pursue an education and career that would keep the bills paid. (For the record, I’m now quite thankful that their encouragement worked.) The internal ministry call was chalked up to “youthful zeal”, and I had soon immersed myself in the IT education and career that I had chosen.

Fast-forward to a couple of months ago. I decided to finally, after months of putting it off, go to a small group meeting at Greg’s house. My time working at Ashland would soon be coming to an end, so I asked my brothers and sisters there to remember to pray for my then-upcoming job hunt. After we were done and people were socializing, Greg and I got to talking about vocations and such. Eventually the question was asked: “if you had the choice of any job, what would it be?” (I didn’t really have an answer then, but if posed again, I’d probably say “seminary professor”.) To my surprise, the next question was “don’t put any stock in this just yet, but have you ever given any thought to working at a church?” I felt as if the Lord was renewing the long-dormant call he’d given some ten years ago. Some good and edifying conversations followed in the next few weeks about gospel centrality, urban ministry, our vision as a church in this city, and my giftings and calling. A few outside candidates were considered . . . seminary grads who are no doubt more academically prepared than I . . . but I received the call last Wednesday with a job offer, and I promptly accepted. It goes against the conventional wisdom of American evanglicalism that says a church finds leaders by taking résumés from seminary grads who (usually) have no existing connection with your church, giving one a job, and then expecting him to assimilate to your church’s culture as he does his job. This will be something of a grand experiment in “indigenous ministry” . . . identifying potential leaders from within the congregation and training them from service. Grace Central values indigenous ministry, and my hiring is one way we’re living that out.

The announcement was made at church last night. When Greg said “. . . and we’ve hired a guy named Rae Whitlock” after talking about Joe’s upcoming departure, the reaction from some of the folks in the pews was priceless. It can be best summed up as “confused silence, then surprise or shock, then smiles and glances.” Guess they were expecting to hear a name they didn’t already know.

“Excited” might barely begin to describe my anticipation of this new chapter in my life. Keep me in prayer.