Open Letter to the Austin Stone Northwest Elders
This week I had my final meeting with the Austin Stone Northwest Elders. Here is the letter I sent prior to resigning my role as Congregational Elder and my wife resigning her role as a NW Congregation Deacon. I hope this letter is a blessing to you as you walk the journey of ministry that God has for you.
As discussed, we feel called away from Austin Stone. There are many unknowns in relation to a move, however we have felt a stirring about this possibility for some time. Now, after a prayerful 3 months, we plan to pursue partnership at Redeemer Round Rock.
We feel led by the Holy Spirit to join Redeemer with a desire to be like a spiritual mother and father to the local body. We find the simpler, more intentional church family environment more suitable to our age and season of life. We understand that people will ask why? All we can say is that there are no negative reasons for this move. We feel called to do something different with our remaining time in ministry. “Gospel good-byes” are often not easy, but we believe that God is initiating this move and that is confirmed by us being unified in the timing.
We are now in our mid-to-late sixties. We want to continue to remain faithful in our roles as biblical counselors, as well as nurture deeper relationships with our immediate family and our church family. We hope this will afford us the opportunity to travel and function at a slower pace. Amidst all of this, we feel that God is doing what God does. He has, for the last 8.5 years, trained us up well at Austin Stone. We hope to continue to give away to others all that we have received. And for that we are grateful.
So what has changed over the last 8.5 years.
Character: All good: we feel we have a deeper understanding of the need for the gospel in our daily lives and more of our hope is found in Jesus.
Capacity: Reduced: Donna’s mom is needing more time to just visit, for various appointments and food preparation. We just can’t do the things we once did in our 40’s & 50’s.
Consistency: More fragmented: it takes longer to do the simple things. Also, we don’t multi-task as well as we once did. Additionally, we have added more things to our plate since COVID (i.e., Burke Care and ABC).
Chemistry: Definite shift: we feel the need to be more “priestly (heart)”. We do not have the energy or capacity for “Prophet (head)” or “Kingly (hands)” roles that we once did.
Competence: Definite shift: with the reduced capacity, the fragmented consistency, and the shift in chemistry, we do not feel as competent in the areas we once valued in our 40’s & 50’s. Therefore, we do feel a reduced competency.
Thanks for your patience and understanding as we attempted to shepherd well our time on sabbatical. Jim
