2 Down and 1 to go!

Well, we heard from the church in Mass and - WOOHOO - So far so good! The deacons gave TJ the thumbs up. Our next step is for the church to fly us up to visit and officially "candidate" in mid January. The pastor will call us back with an official date and official invitation from the church leadership to come and "candidate" after their next meeting. Hooray!

TJ will preach that day and we'll probably do some sort of meet and greet (dog & pony show) with the congregation. As long as we behave ourselves, the church will vote and hopefully "extend a call" (aka make a job offer) to TJ.

Seeing as we have our own timing issue with this littler girl growing in my belly, we'd probably be moving after she shows up which is sort of nice and I can nest a little and set up some manner of nursery. Plus the thought of driving a uhaul to the Northeast in February just sounds brutal. Exciting, but brutal.

Please keep praying with us and praise GOD that so far things have worked out.

Reminder: please pray tonight!

My next phone interview with 2nd Congregational Church of Douglas, MA is tonight!

I'll be talking with the pastor, the deacons and one elder who wasn't able to make the previous interview. If this interview goes well the next step will be for us to fly up and visit the church for a formal interview.

By the way, to fill everybody in on the details of this position and why we're interested in it I explained all of that below. You can see it by clicking here... or you can just scroll down...

Thanks again for your prayers!

TJ

What's this all about?

Thanks so much for all of you who have been praying for us!

I wanted to post some more details about what exactly we're trying to do and why we're trying to do it so you can better understand what you're praying for.

Our Goal: We're trying to move to and minister in the NorthEast with the ultimate hope of planting a new church in one of the cities in the region.

Why: In the NorthEast and especially New England only about 2% of the population considers themselves to be Evangelical Christians while over 35% are atheists/agnostics. There are many churches in the region but very few of them preach the Gospel and most have long abandoned the Bible as anything more than mythology and nice stories. The NorthEast is also home to many of the largest and most important cities in the country and is the center of elite education in the country. It's also the wealthiest region of the country but still has pockets of staggering poverty. You could say that New England really is a mission field within the US. In spite of all of this almost nobody is interested in going to Minister in New England. The vast majority of graduates from various Reformed and Evangelical Seminaries in the US are hoping to minister in the SouthEast or the West and even many who are from the NorthEast are leaving for greener pastures. Long story short, the NorthEast desperately needs people to come and preach the Gospel and we believe God is calling us to be some of those people.

What: So what are we doing to get to our goal? I'm currently interviewing for the job of Assistant Pastor at Second Congregational Church in Douglas, MA. The biggest reason I'm really hoping this will work out is because of Bill Broderick, the Senior Pastor. Bill is looking for people who are willing to come minister in the NorthEast and wants to help prepare them for it. If it works out Bill's plan is to mentor/train me for two years in how to minister in the NorthEast and specifically how to revitalize dying or dead churches and restore the Gospel to the region. I'd also be meeting regularly with Al Baker from Christ Community PCA in West Hartford Connecticut and a group of guys who are trying to learn to preach and ultimately reach the region with the Gospel. At the end of two years I'd be free to search for a senior pastor position in the NorthEast or even plan for a church plant if the Lord is leading us in that direction at the time (personally I think I'll need a few more years to prepare for that).

Prayer needs: Here are a few specific needs that we would love you to pray for. Obviously my upcoming interviews need to go well and the congregation needs to like us when we go up to visit. In addition, the church needs to be willing and able to come up with enough money to pay a significant portion of what we'll need to live. Then (unless the Lord provides miraculously on that one) we'll still need to raise about 40-50% of the salary. This means our friends, family and supporting churches will need to be willing and able to support us monthly for the next 2 years minimum with a grand total somewhere around $20-$30K per year. We'll also need at least one new(er) car right away as the chances of mine making it through a NE winter are about zero (if it even makes the trip up) and we're really not sure how long the van will last either. We also need the timing to work out so that we're able to either move by the middle of February at the absolute latest or that we're able to wait until the end of April and still somehow pay our bills once the baby is born until we move.

So there you have it. Please keep praying for us as we wait and learn to trust the Lord to do what is best!

2nd phone interview - a week from Tuesday!

Since TJ's last interview was postponed due to a stomach virus sweeping through the Deacons, his next phone interview will be Tuesday, December 8. Please pray this will go well - as part of his responsibility would be to oversee the deacons, they may have a new batch of questions to discuss.

If this goes well, the next step would be for us to go up and meet the church (I better behave myself, huh?) and the church votes to extend a call or not. We really don't know how all the "timing" of this goes...the only "timing" issue we really have is our little girl who will show up sometime in late March. At our last OB appointment (which went fine) the doctor said he would not recommend moving past Valentine's Day. This week marks 23 weeks, and little "Ruth Elling" weighs about a pound and is 11 inches long. Kerstin feels her kick and is beginning to believe there's a future ninja in there.

So.........we'll continue to wait and see what God does, and watch His plan unfold; all the while acting like antsy kids on Christmas eve. Thank you for being on this journey with us and please please please continue to pray.

Interview part deux - tonight!

TJ has the phone interview with the deacons tonight. Please pray this whole process continues to go well and go smoothly.

Another exciting development to add in our family is we found out we're having a GIRL! Kerstin is 21 weeks along and things are going really well.

One more step in the right direction....

So I had part 1 of my interview last night...

Since there were scheduling problems with trying to get all of the elders and deacons together to talk to me I had a phone interview with the Pastor and the elders last night. I feel like it went really well! They seemed pleased with all of my answers to their questions and didn't raise any concerns. I'm talking to the pastor on Thursday and I'll know for sure how it went then.

The next step is for me to have the same basic interview with the deacons as soon as they can get together. If that goes well the next step will be the whole congregation and before that happens it will be time to start figuring out all of the specifics. I should find out when my interview with the Deacons will be on Thursday as well.

So please pray that the interviews continue to go well and that all of the details will fall into place! If everything works out I'll still need to raise somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of my salary so feel free to start praying for that too!

UPDATE!

Quick update and prayer request:

My phone interview has been moved up from next week to tonight! I'll be talking with the pastor and elders tonight at 8pm; please pray that it goes well!!! I'll still need to talk with the deacons sometime in the next couple weeks but they weren't able to get everybody in one place at one time so Bill, the pastor, bumped up the interview with the elders so that the process won't get delayed.