The Martin-Webers Farewell Sunday
The picture above is from the farewell at St. Mark yesterday. the girls are in their easter hats and dresses. it was a difficult morning, lots of people wanting to say goodbye, so very bittersweet. it proved to be too much for ophelia, she didn't understand why they would want us to leave (she thinks that means they don't like us... this is very difficult for her to understand... me too actually) and then give us cake with our names on it (to her you only do that for people you like!)not to mention all these people hugging us and saying how much they love us. too confusing for her and us leaving st. mark has already been difficult. we ended up with a full-blown melt down like we haven't seen in months. most of the people there were really wonderful and encouraging. i haven't hugged that many people in such a short amount of time since our wedding 8 years ago. it was beautiful to see how many people love and appreciate us and our ministry and very encouragine that we shouldn't give up on local church ministry (tempting thought that may be right now). we have made so many wonderful friends that are a part of the family of God during our time here. we will never forget them. there was much that was hard about our time there but some of the people made it a positive life changing experience in spite of all the challenges we faced. so even though i didn't really want to be there yesterday morning, i'm glad i got to go and say goodbye to those people, they mean so much to us.
we still have no idea what's next, we're looking but finding a ministry position in a church takes a VERY long time. the interview process alone usually takes months. continue praying for us, jeremy's last day is in a little over two weeks. this is all still so hard to believe and it's the first time we've found ourselves without any income as a family. we appreciate your prayers as we actively (read: work on resumes and job hunt) wait to see what God has for us next. it is a peace to know that God can take something like this and use it for His glory even though it seems like there could only be evil to come from it. we are trusting Him.
later,
jessica
posted by Jessica @ 9:55 AM
2 Comments:
Hey there,
I recently spoke with our church music minister (Moody Grad.) about how best to search out a new position. He didin't mention any specifics or tools but made one important comment. I wonder if the 2 of you should not take some time, prior to job-hunting, to clearly articulate for yourselves 2 things: church doctrine and worship philosphy.
In light of this last experience I would say that both play a part and you should know where you are willing to bend and not. Know in light of your understandings of scripture what body of beleivers you will best fit-in with.
If you could take some time to list the major doctrinal differences between church/denominations and decide which you align yourselves with, I think this would be greatly helpful to you.
Next, re-examine with guidance of the Holy Spirit exactly how you best envision appropriate church worship, in its varied styles.
These things should help you decide which churches to seek out and which doctrinal areas to be red-flags.
My 2 cents :)
Joel
Hey Joel,
Thanks for looking into this. I think your church music minister is wise in encouraging us to refocus. This is something that we have to do anyway as we revisit resumes, rewrite mission statements, and prepare to have interviews. We articulated what we believe in terms of church doctrine before we accepted the positions in Houston. We had the mistaken assumption that a grey area in Scripture wouldn't be a hang up for the church, thinking that as long as we hold the same core beliefs, we should be able to partner up in ministry even if we don't agree on secondary ones. That's not the way some of the church leadership saw it. So we have learned to be more cautious about how firm a stance the next ministry God leads us to has on particular aspects of church doctrine. Unfortunately for us, we haven't found a denominational affiliation that fits perfectly with our views on the church. We have not run across a perfect match.
As far as worship philosophy, we have had that firmly into place for the last 8 years. I say firmly, because it hasn't changed at its core, but it has also been evolving as we have grown in our faith.
Since ministry position hunting takes time (usually, a lot of it), we will be spending a lot of time seeking clarity and guidance.
I think you are absolutely right in saying that thinking through these issues is vital for us to have more effective ministry in the future. And we have plenty of time to do that now.
I just noticed what time it was when you wrote your comment. Why on earth were you up so early? I am such a night person...
Jeremy
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