For the past 6 months (some would argue 3 years) I've been part of a re-birth and re-imagining of the local church that I'm a part of.

The church started as a bible study lead by Buddy Walker. This was 26 or so years ago, and Buddy, up until very recently was still the lead or senior pastor of the local church.

After lots of prayer, conversations, and soul searching, the leadership in the church agreed that it would be good to release Buddy to work full time on his trans-local opportunities (including his work as with Master Builders Fellowhip & as International Director of Missions Without Borders)

Gratefully, we've got two other staff pastors, and a supportive congregation behind us as we travel down a new road and direction. It became clear early on that we should re-evaluate everything about how we were doing the work of the church, starting from the name (we've changed our name to Engaging Life).

One of the most significant changes was making Shawn McCracken the lead or visionary pastor of the church. It's been a really enlightening time watching Shawn as he begins to move from delivering and supporting Buddy's vision to discovering what sort of leader God wants him to be.

I've learned a lot about myself in all of this. I've learned lots of bad things (I'm manipulative, condescending, quick to judge, a liar) and I'm also starting to see a few good things (I'm most excited about supporting and amplifying someone else's ideas and strategy). Most of all, I'm excited about being a part of a community that is faithfully chasing after making things significantly better for the people around them.

We're still learning exactly what God has made us to be, and I'm starting to realize that we may be in constant transition for the next... forever. But I'm ok with that.