My Story, His Glory: Chapter Two
Chapter 2- From Atlanta to Macungie to NYC/Jersey City to the Lehigh Valley.
After I graduated college, Amy and I got married in January of 2004. We didn’t have a lot of money, so we were living on love, as they say. I started working at the Chick-fil-A in the Lehigh Valley Mall as I waited for an opening in youth ministry.
Working at Chick-fil-A gave me a sense of familiarity, as it is where I worked throughout high school and college while in Atlanta. Living in the Lehigh Valley was difficult. It was the coldest temperatures that I had experienced, along with very long winters. I did, to the best of my ability, lead, serve and give with a Christ-like attitude. Truthfully, the challenge was that the Lehigh Valley wasn't where I wanted or planned to be. I was battling a bit of depression and sadness, which made this a hard and confusing time.
I would call Russ Butcher frequently and tell him how hard it was working at the Chick-fil-A after all the work I had put in to work in ministry. His response was this: “Now that you are married, you have to do whatever it takes to help provide for your family.” He would pray with me and be a source of comfort.
Despite all that I was going through, Jesus was calling to me to trust Him deeper. I plugged into Amy’s home church, Northern Valley Evangelical Free Church. I served under Norm Walker, who had recently become the pastor. He encouraged me to be faithful and gave me opportunities to serve. During this time, I worked with young adults and helped teach in different ministries.
In 2004, as I was working at Chick-fil-A, one of the customers I struck up a conversation with asked me what I had gone to school for. When I told her that I felt God had called me to be a youth pastor, she told me that her church was hiring. Through this conversation, I applied for and became the youth pastor at Salem Bible Church. This woman’s name is Wendy Shubert and her nephew is Chris Dean, who would go on to plant Riverbend Community Church with me. He is currently serving as a pastor alongside me, and his family has been such a gift to me over the years.
I remember being so excited to get started and the people were so kind. They loved Amy and me well. This place would give me a taste of the people and the place of the Valley. It was, in many ways, my Nazareth experience that Jesus had as He was growing into His public ministry. To this day, I have an affection for the people of Salem. I highly respect Pastor Rick Goodman, John Hutteman and Kevin Shultz, as these men faithfully served and walked with me while l learned the Valley and the Pennsylvania Dutch culture.
At 23 years old, working at Salem was an eye opening experience for me, learning what it meant to be a part of church leadership. I sat in many leadership team meetings that would go into the early morning, sometimes starting at 7pm and continue until 2am at times. It helped to have good friends in those meetings with me: Chris Zang and Blake Morgan come to mind. Blake and I would get into so much trouble in the meeting because we would be joking. I am grateful for the friendship I forged with them that remains till this day.
During that time, I realized how much my heart cared for those who are far from God. Amy would often comment how the people in the Valley would open themselves up to me. Over time, a shift started to occur in my heart and, though I loved students, I believed one of the ways to push back the darkness was through church planting.
I started to pray and explore what that would look like. I talked to my mentor, Russ Butcher, and asked if I was crazy… his answer was yes! I also wondered if I was too young to take on a church plant, and he encouraged me that I was not. Amy wanted to make sure this wasn’t part of the latest trends we were chasing, as in 2007 church planting started to become more of an emphasis throughout North America. She wisely suggested we work in a church plant to further discern the call.
Roscoe told me that the Journey Church in NYC was hiring; this church was a church plant and held in high regard by many. So I became a Campus Pastor in Jersey City. The Journey was led by Pastor Nelson Searcy, Kerrick Thomas and Jason Hatley.
When I began to drive over from PA to NJ, I realized how much I was going to miss the Lehigh Valley. Ironically, the place that I really hadn’t want to be in God had given me a heart for. I prayed and listened to God’s voice and clearly heard Him impress on my heart the following: You will be back here, and as you come back you can choose to be a missionary like Jonah or Jesus. The choice is yours.
Part of my role at Journey was to help manage systems, take part in daily meetings, adhere to office hours, and everyone including me focused on administrative tasks in order to help get people connected into the life of the church. This was very different from what I was accustomed to before that time. It was helpful, as it made me proficient in those areas… though no one would confuse me for an office manager or Executive Pastor :-). It was a reminder to grow in areas you are weak, feed your strengths, and surround yourself with people who compliment areas you are weaker in. It is important to value Entrepreneurship Visionaries, Process Visionaries and People Visionaries. You need all three to be around you to be effective as a leader.
As I worked in NYC and Jersey City, God taught me so many valuable lessons and developed what my philosophy of ministry was, and over the years I have refined it. These two stops helped me to understand what I was called to and built for.
Living in NYC was a totally different way of life in the city, and it drew Amy and I closer together. We even discovered one of our favorite dishes in Hoboken, coconut shrimp from Satay, as well as enjoyed the city skyline. Taking the subway and path train into the city every day and using that time to listen to our iPods and read through the commute.
November of 2007 I asked Amy, while we were in the Valley for Thanksgiving, what she thought was in our future. We both sensed it was church planting. Amy’s next question was, “Where?” To her surprise my answer was, “The Lehigh Valley.”
It became clear to me in the New Year that our time was coming to an end at The Journey. I started to explore with friends about planting in the Valley. One of those was Joe Hensler, and we entered a season of prayer and discerned that Joe was built to stay at Faith Church where he served as a youth pastor. Just over a year after that conversation, he would become the Lead Pastor of Faith Church, a church I respect and we partner with.
Through our conversations, he mentioned another youth pastor friend, Shad Gilbert, who was looking at planting in the Valley. This would be the starting point of the foundation that would become Riverbend Community Church. Many of those from the early days of Riverbend were friends of mine or friends of friends. Like Ryan Kneep, Chris and Sam Dean, Robbin Hunsberger, Adam Pinto and many others who are still supporters of Riverbend today.
As I close out this chapter, I would like to say working in pastoral ministry and life in general doesn’t come without hurt, pain and trauma… that just is not true. I have imperfectly struggled with this area of ministry and life. Part of the reality of ministry and life is that every church and person, including myself, is imperfect, flawed, broken and treasured. What I have learned over the years is the importance of processing those pain points, taking care of your holistic health, and letting safe and trusted people in. It took me a long time to learn these lessons, but God has been gracious to show me the path forward is available even though it will cause you to slow down.
Lots has been shared about this in other resources, so I won’t take too much time here to explore this. I will say it is vital to identify what has happened, to seek out a counselor, coach and/or mentor. Evaluate how you may be coping in a harmful way through a variety of substances. It’s scary to share with others what has happened or is happening, but the sooner the better. Another part of this process is being careful not to live in shame, blame, fear and pride. These are often coverings we tend to use to address our brokenness, those in our lives, and the world around us. A good place to start from is to receive forgiveness and to give forgiveness to others, including yourself. Find healthy coping strategies in order to experience your Heavenly Father as a true stronghold in the storm of life.
In chapter 3, I will explore how Riverbend took shape, the power of forgiveness, reconciliation and grieving loss in a deep and profound way