Newsletter April 9, 2008
From the Assistant Pastor . . .
Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.” Genesis 12:1 (ESV)
I grew up in Chattanooga. I know the area, I know the people and I know the culture. I’m constantly meeting people who know other people I went to school with or are friends with, because Chattanooga is a small town. I’m also used to people making the family connection with my name and that of my father, my grandfather or my grandmother. It’s a small world in Chattanooga, and that makes it easier to make connections. But that is all going to change.
The Lord has called us to ministry in the Atlanta area. It’s a different world down there. It is much harder to make connections. I know fewer people and places. Though I lived in Atlanta for two years, this is a different part of Atlanta and very new to me. So I can feel a little bit of Abram’s angst when the Lord called him to leave his hometown and extended family.
So why would we leave all that we know, the people I’ve grown up with and the familiarity and comfort of our hometown? Because the Lord has made it completely clear to both Tennyson and me that Christ Community Church PCA is where we need to be.
Christ Community Church has called us to their young and growing congregation of 75 families to minister to children and youth. It is a church with 80 children and 20 youth-aged children. Though Tennyson and I are saddened to leave our church family here at CPC, we are excited about the “pioneering spirit” of this 6-year-old church plant. Our passion is to be on the frontlines ministering to the next generation in the South’s largest city. As Tim Keller has written, “Cultural trends tend to be generated in the city and flow outward to the rest of society."
Not only do we look forward to the prospect of being part of what God is doing in the city of Atlanta, but I also look forward to the prospects of ministry development. It has already been arranged by the pastor that I will be mentored by one of our denomination’s foremost authorities on youth ministry and culture.
The greatest step of faith for us, however, is that for the first time, we must raise support. Because it is a “pioneering” situation (a young church, yet without a building), it will require a portion of my salary to be raised in support. Tennyson and I are willing to do this because we believe very much in what Christ Community is trying to do in Atlanta. Yet it is a step of faith for us.
We also would like to sell our home before the June 1st start date. So be in prayer for us as we are in the midst of “fixing it up” to put it on the market. All this comes at a time when I’m trying to make sure the Covenant Corp program is solid enough for me to leave, and Tennyson is getting ready for her ballet recital. So, though we are grateful for the call, we are a bit overwhelmed.
On a personal note, I want to thank you for your love for us and for our family over the last four (almost five) years. It has been a pleasure working with your children and young people. In working with them they have blessed me, perhaps, far more than I have blessed them.
If you would like to keep up with us and our progress, then you can go to our blog site at http://thecardens.blogspot.com. Again, thank you for all the ways you have ministered to us.
Pastor Carden