This was a year of transition for me and the family. I felt it was time to move on from Randolph Heights and was looking for an opportunity to serve as an Associate Pastor in a larger congregation. I believed it would allow me to broaden my understanding and appreciation of what it means to be a pastor.
So I circulated my resume and received three calls at the same time, we did back to back weekend interviews and loved all three churches. One was local, big attraction and I knew the staff and was very comfortable with the culture, the other was on the East coast and had a wonderful Senior Pastor with a very clear vision and defined leadership style, it was clear that the church and the staff of 30+ had the utmost respect for him. Then there was the third, Centreville Presbyterian Church, where we ended up but only just.
I turned down the East coast option, accepted the local option (no denominational pun intended) and called Centreville to tell them the news. After a phone conversation it all changed again and I called Don to change the no to a maybe! This was Thursday. Friday and Saturday (July 4) Jenny and I prayed, I talked with Senior Pastors, I talked with PNC's we further defined job descriptions and we ended up in Centreville!
We moved out in September, the girls flew and I drove... the wrong way! Coming out of Chicago I took the wrong Interstate and as I knew there wouldn't be another turn for 300 miles I just kept on going. It wasn't until I saw the signs for the tunnel to Canada that I knew something was up and I was sure I was on the wrong road as I passed Detroit Internation Airport! My seventeen hour drive just became 21.
The fall was an exciting time as I began a new job and we settled into a new community. Our only miscalculation would be the cost of living. Especially as we hadn't figured in the cost of a third child who would grace our lives in September of 2005! Over the next nine months we would work our way through our entire savings as we struggled to figure out God's call on our lives. The church continued to affirm our call to ministry with them and we were able to secure an equity share agreement with the congregation. A very common arrangement in the DC area.
2004 saw man new people come into our lives, to name them all would be impossible but the Centrevile Pastor Nominating Committee will always hold a special place in our lives.
