Our New Adventure

Here is Jim's announcement to our church about our new adventure to Central America. It gives the details of what we will be doing.

Following God is seldom easy. At times He’s hard to figure out, and at other times He asks us to make difficult decisions. In the Spiritual Warfare series, the Practical Atheism Equipping Class, and now in Habakkuk, I’ve been teaching that we have a natural passion for comfort and predictability. The problem is that God doesn’t often cooperate with that. Comfort and predictability are not the fields in which trust takes root and flourishes.

Now, I get to swallow a dose of my own medicine and practice what I’ve been preaching. God has opened a door of opportunity for Melanie and I and we are confident He is leading us to walk through the door. My passion for Latin America has been obvious over the past five years and God is giving us an opportunity to have a strategic and hopefully significant ministry in Latin America. This opportunity involves a move to Central America where Melanie and I will live and serve.

This passion for cross-cultural ministry has been growing for more than a decade. I’ve seriously considered moving to Nicaragua in the past but the timing has never been right. Our daughters were finishing high school and then going through college. Now that they have both graduated from college and have married wonderful men and have established their own families, Melanie and I have a greater sense of freedom to follow God in this new adventure. It will be difficult to not live close to family and friends, but God’s call is clear.

God has blessed and equipped me with a good theological education, almost three decades of pastoral experience, and a good measure of cross-cultural involvement. I will be using all this to continue the Bible Institute ministry and expand it through establishing new Bible Institutes and mobilizing other churches to duplicate what we have been successful with. I will also write and teach in other theological education settings. I will also focus on Latin American pastors by investing in a mentoring and coaching relationship with them. Melanie will have opportunities to develop relationships with wives and explore a wide variety of opportunities to serve in her gifting.

This move will, of course, take time and money. We will be spending the next year to two years raising the necessary funds to make this ministry possible. Then we will go to Costa Rica for a year for Spanish language school. After that, we will decide just where we will live and serve.

God is not only not easy to follow, God also has a sense of humor. When I graduated from seminary, I thought there were two things I would never do: Plant Churches and Be A Missionary. Well, after seminary I planted two churches and now I’m going to be a missionary. Unpredictability and Irony make God fun to follow even if it’s not easy or comfortable. The first church I planted was in East Texas and they have recently experienced a couple of years of turmoil. I have maintained close relationships with three of the elders there and I have been a long-distance advisor as they have gone through this turmoil. God has laid it on their hearts and on mine and Melanie’s heart, that we can help them regain a sense of stability and growth. So, we will be making a move to Fellowship Bible Church in Jacksonville, Texas to serve that local church while we raise the funds for our journey to Central America. I will make that move in April after I complete my series on Habakkuk. Melanie will stay here until she finishes her teaching responsibilities at Sallie Cone.

As we move on to another setting, I want to give you some assurances. First, this move is taking place because passion and opportunity have finally converged. It is not taking place because I have a problem with Fellowship or that the elders have a problem with me. Second, I want to give you my assurance that in my judgment, the elders here are a great group of men who truly operate with the best of Fellowship in mind. They deserve your respect and they deserve to be followed according to Hebrews 13. Third, the staff here is loaded with skill and integrity. As Ken leads the staff, I want to encourage you to honor and respect the work they do among you.

We will remain involved in the ministry of Fellowship and Tommy will tell you about that. I want to tell you that the time we have spent in this great church has been a source of growth and development for Melanie and myself. We have learned so much from you. We will be better Christians and servants because of your impact on us. Your love, friendships, support, encouragement, challenges, have enriched our lives. We will deeply miss the regularity of contact, but know that we will take with us the good things you have built into us. Our prayer is and will continue to be that Fellowship continues to flourish.