I am so excited to have a new job and not be moving! For the past 4 years I have served as the Family Pastor here at Grace Community and I have loved every minute of the journey. When I joined the team here my goal was to set up a structure that would allow us to invest in the lives of the next generation and partner with families. I also had the joy of linking arms with some amazing volunteers to found Relevant Student Ministry. Over the past few months I worked with my pastors to figure out what God wanted me to do next. Was I supposed to leave family ministry and student ministry? Was it time to plant another campus…or a church? Was it time to focus on creative elements here at GCC? At the end of much prayer and processing God made it clear that I was supposed to focus. This year my role here is changing to Student and Family Pastor. Yes I have been leading our student ministry but for the first time in four years I have the chance to focus most of my attention on student ministry. I will still be leading our family ministry team but we are adding a new part time Systems Coordinator to help take our team to the next level organizationally. (I will blog about that addition another day) I can’t wait to dive back into student ministry with focus and clarity. God used several mentors this past year to show me that I can grow older and still have influence with this generation of teenagers. God also revealed to me several new ways to think about systems and structures that will help our team take steps forward this year. So here we go…year five and GCC and a new job. Thankful for the team I work with, thankful for the chance to start over.