“I don’t know why you guys come here,” a prison inmate told the visitor. His was not an expression of complaint but one of amazement. What would compel a group of men to give of their time every month to visit inmates in a prison facility? You might say, “it was time.”
When I was still a rookie in ministry, every year as Easter approached, I found myself intrigued by a local United Methodist Church’s newspaper ad for their Maundy Thursday service. “What is Maundy Thursday?” I would mutter to myself. The name sounded odd to me and, for no reason at all, strangely sad. Each year, I purposed to investigate, but never did. Fast forward nearly three decades and I’m finally getting around to it. I recently sat down with two ministry friends, pastors of local United Methodist churches, to ask the question, “What is Maundy Thursday?”
Those who have read about his life and ministry know that the Apostle Paul, not wanting to be a burden on the congregations he was establishing, took a job making tents in order to provide for his own needs. The term “tentmaker” has since come to describe any minister who does not make their living from ministry. Larry Plank and Tanya Fernandes are lay ministers serving Navarre Presbyterian Church, both are tentmakers. Fernandes has a full-time job, and Plank is retired and was available to represent the ministry of Navarre Presbyterian and to describe his own call to ministry.
Lance Whorton, a licensed physical therapist with years of professional experience in the field, is the senior pastor of Encompass Church in Navarre. So, what would motivate a successful physical therapist to leave his career to start a church? If you answered “God, of course!” you would be correct.
Every newly-hired pastor knows that not everyone in the congregation will be pleased with him because everyone has their own opinion of what a pastor should be. Some will expect him to be a gifted preacher, others want a compassionate shepherd, and still others expect him to be a competent administrator or a visionary leader. No pastor is capable of being all of these. Live Oak Church has taken a different approach. The congregation is led by a team of five qualified leaders called elders, both vocational and non-vocational, each serving in their area of giftedness.
Home. The word evokes memories, good memories for some as the place where family gathered and shared life, where children were nurtured and grew, where the benchmarks of life were celebrated. For some, home evokes different memories, difficult memories of conflict and loss, the catalysts for leaving home. Even still, home is the place to which many return – eventually.
It’s 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning as, one-by-one, a team of people converges on Navarre High School to begin transforming the school’s auditorium into an inspiring, worship space for Momentum Church’s Navarre Campus. Campus Leader, Tyler McNeely, gathers the team members, reminds them of how important they are to the church’s ministry, they pray, and the work of transformation begins.
Dr. Jensen Petersen, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Navarre, is the son of a Marine. His heart’s desire was to become a Marine like his father and even to become the first officer in the family leading men into battle. Raised by godly parents, Pastor Petersen describes his childhood in Missouri as a “Leave It to Beaver” upbringing. Following his conversion as a young boy (see the video at http://www.fbcnavarre.org/a-message-from-the-pastor.html), he experienced a sense of calling to ministry but was too young to recognize what it was. Apparently, his pastor recognized God’s hand on his life for when Jensen spoke with him about it at around age twelve, his pastor said, “I knew this day would come.”
As the broader church culture in America chases after the latest trends in a desperate bid to stay “relevant,” some church leaders have chosen instead to build on the firm foundation of the past; Rev. Craig T. Born, pastor of Risen Savior Lutheran Church (www.risensaviorchurch.org) is one of those leaders. Schooled as an architect, Pastor Born knows well the benefit of building on a good foundation. After one year working as an architect, he describes a worship service where he was moved by seeing that “light bulb moment” people have as their eyes are opened to the gospel and they put their trust in Jesus Christ. This was the impetus for him to act on a call to ministry he had sensed while growing up in a Lutheran church. He left his burgeoning career as an architect and launched into six years of theological training at a Lutheran college and seminary. Interestingly, his wife, Jennifer, is a local architect; she and Craig met while working at the same architectural firm in Milwaukee.
The sleek, stretch limousine glides silently out of the velvet night to a gentle stop and an elegantly dressed couple emerges to enthusiastic cheers breaking out from the eager crowd lining the long, red carpet. As the couple passed through the crowd in regal fashion the celebration swells to a roar bringing appreciative smiles to the couple’s face as the flashes of paparazzi cameras highlight their sequined and satin attire. Attentive doormen escort the pair past security and into a festive foyer alive with a hundred conversations.
