MORE CHANGE
Yesterday the letters started arriving in the mailboxes around Turlock. Dan Whitmarsh, who has been our associate pastor with responsibilities for oversight of children's, youth, and music ministries -- and for covering my tail -- has accepted a call to become the senior pastor (!) at Lakebay Community Church, an Evangelical Covenant Church in Lakebay, Washington. He'll be at his new assignment by sometime in March.

Last week the church received a letter announcing that Cheryl and I have applied to become Covenant missionaries hoping to serve at PIBC in Guam and that if things all come together we would move to the island by the start of the fall semester.

I'm hoping that people don't take it personally that we're both in transition (well, at least I'm potentially in transition). I've been in Turlock nearly 11 years and Dan a bit over five. It's just that there's a lot of change going on at once. That makes some people uneasy but others recognize that God calls people to different ministries at different points in their lives. (We pastors are actually more stable than a good many of our people these days. Some have moved several times and changed jobs two or three or more times during my tenure in Turlock.)

Some will worry but others will see this as an opportunity to reevaluate and recalibrate. While change might be painful in the short-term it will open all kinds of new doors in the future. I'm optimistic that God is at work here in the great shuffle. I'm working on not stressing over it all.