Always Changin'

It's amazing to see how fast things change here at Willow...in fact change happens so often that it's sort of become a daily rhythm here. Tying that to the fact that Willow is a pretty big sized church, when leadership leaves or changes it is often more of a rumbling than an earthquake as news of the change reaches Promiseland.

On Tuesday, however, an earthquake really did hit home more as Dave Staal, the director of Promiseland announced to the staff that he had resigned. His testimony to the change was tied to the scripture that speaks about fishing on the other side. He said in his own life he had become willing to fish all over the lake, but wasn't sure if the man who he once was, who was willing to jump out of the boat and follow Christ anywhere, was still in him. God posed the question to him, 'What happened to the man who was willing to leave the business world and follow me into ministry? Does that man still exist?'

This is a great learning point in our own daily lives...are we willing to jump out of the boat, leave it behind and follow Christ when we are asked to? Or have we become comfortable in the way things are, so much so that we can't be sure that willingness is still there?

At the end of August Dave will be moving on from Promiseland to become a director at the headquarters for Kids Hope. This is an amazing program that connects at risk kids to mentors, who may be one of the few stable adults in their life who really care about them and pour into them.

It's still funny to me to see how different people have reacted to the news of Dave's departure. For some it's hard to process and they wonder what the times that are coming will be like. Others simply shrug their shoulders and say, 'Well, that's Willow...things are always changing.' So what's my reaction? Well, my home church went through a ton of leadership change last summer and I can honestly say that God works through those unsure, shaky moments. Besides it's great to know that God already knows how things work out...and it'll all work out for the good.