 So most of my time at First Richardson so far has been in the development of creating a new space for new faces. We opened our new facility in January of 2016 and since that time we have seen many new faces come through. And the words that I continue to come back to as new faces come in, those doors is trust and truth. And the problem with that is that we often trust people that look like us and act like us. Yet the truth of the gospel is that we believe in the body of Christ and that metaphor and image means that we're not alike. We don't see things the same way and we don't act the same way. And for the body of Christ to be effective and functional, we can't all be alike. And so I continue to feel called to create space for those new faces because that's how we are functional as the body of Christ. Well I didn't grow up in church and I started going to church when I was a senior in high school and into my college years and I went on the invitation of friends just really on their elbows. And I remember all the questions that I had and how I felt at church and really what it is to be new. And so I think about that whenever I think about the congregation I serve and even when I get a phone call from a wife and a mother who says that her husband is an atheist but he's willing to come to church with them and so I think about the questions that he might have and how does it feel to him. And I even think about the young adult who came to me once in a day and said, I decided that it was time to come to church because whenever I became an adult I needed a church and now I'm an adult but I have no idea how this works, I don't know what the Bible is and what should I do. And so I think about those people when I think about new places and new spaces and new faces. I think the primary way I feel that God has prepared me to gather new faces in new spaces is by giving me the privilege of being the pastor of the Feast Community. For the past three years I've served as the pastor for the Feast Community which is a weekly worship service with the special needs community. About three years ago I felt inspired and convicted by the Holy Spirit to start this service and I've seen this idea of new faces and new spaces manifest itself in two ways of the Feast. First is individuals who for whatever reason were unable to attend regular church on Sunday morning now are able to come back into the local church or maybe even come to the church, local church for the first time with their families and friends and worship every week. The second way I've seen new faces be brought into new spaces is that the Feasts were all about empowerment. Individuals with special needs read scripture, pray, lead music, singing, signing, help with communion and offering and in all these ways I'm seeing that new faces are not only being brought into the local church for the first time or back into the local church again but they're being, new faces are being empowered in new ways, in new spaces within our worship service so it's really exciting to see that dynamic occurring. I think for me God has prepared me in two different ways. As I think about preparing new faces for new faces, the two things that I've been taught is to be patient and that if we really are intentional about building new spaces for new faces that we'll be patient enough to really do it right when we start to develop and start to make new spaces. The second thing is never accept failure and to always keep trying. Sometimes it's okay that we don't always get it right the first time but then we learn from that and we do it better the next time but we never stop trying, we never stop trying to change. So growing up I always felt really drawn to different age groups so I remember distinctly in high school I was really drawn to older people in fact I used to go to really cool scrapbooking conventions with people that were like 40 years older than Iowa so I was super cool and I've just always valued people older than I was but as I grew up I always really valued younger people and I was always drawn to student ministry and so I feel like in my lifetime I've always been looking around the table to figure out as everyone represented it and I would like to say that I had always been looking for new faces and I kind of got really content with who I knew who I was comfortable with and I think in the last couple years I have realized my privilege and I've been really challenged by different voices to make sure I am looking for the new faces and really make sure everyone's fully at the table I think we've kind of tricked ourselves thinking that everyone really is welcome and we haven't done a super good job of that and so I feel like God has been really preparing me and molding me to look outside my box, look outside my world into places, into people that maybe I wasn't always comfortable with or didn't feel like I had a lot in common with but realized that they very much need a seat at the table and how together we can do really great things and really start to look like the Kingdom of God Well I think that God has maybe by nature an Includer and so that means in any setting that I'm in I'm kind of always looking to the edges to see who's not there who's missing or who's not participating fully or who's not always kind of being included whether that's in a just a youth group setting or a church setting or in the neighborhood or society I'm kind of always, I'm just geared towards looking at the edges and seeing how God is leading me there I hope that God continues to use me despite myself to work for and to strive for full inclusion of those with special needs and disabilities into the life of the church we're doing really well on some levels but we have a ways to go I just hope that God continues to give me the insight and the courage and the clarity to work for inclusion and also just obedience to follow where God is leading me Well one of the things I love is to help people really discover who God has meant for them to be and that could be through a vision statement or it could be how it's expressed in their careers and really how they live out their faith I think so often that we just live life and we go from one decision to another and think about the boxes we need to check and I love when people really discover the vision that God has and the calling that God has for them and I think about when I do premarital counseling and I talk with the couples and say that your marriage is not just about you being happy but it's about you being a blessing to each other and a blessing to the world and how might you bless other people through that and I was even working with an older couple and they were coming to the end of their retirement and professional years and they were talking about all this extra time that they had and offered up to them well how might you bless other people as you come to the end of your careers you could be a mentor for a generation that's looking for mentors and you have opportunities and extra time to volunteer and I could just see in their eyes how excited they were as they begin to catch a vision for this new phase of their life and for me that's about helping people discover who they're meant to be so I learned really early on in ministry actually in children's ministry that God was not calling me to have all the answers that God was calling me to be faithful and I want that to continue to be lived out in different ways whether it is sitting at the hospital bed or talking to someone who is struggling in their faith or talking to someone who is even given up on church God doesn't call me to have all the answers God has called me to be present and to be faithful that's one of my hopes my other hope is to have a ministry that is about a resilient faith that's the story of resurrection we are all broken and we all will stumble and have those moments in our lives when we feel like everything is coming to an end yet the good news of our gospel in Jesus Christ is that we are called to have a resilient faith to get back up again and that death does not have the last word not in this life or the next I think it's tempting in ministry or in any career to want to be successful and for me it's tempting to want to have everything that I touch grow and be super vital and be the most important thing that's ever happened in that church but I don't know that I'm necessarily called to be successful and called to be faithful so my hope then is by being faithful to that gospel that people's lives will be transformed and that we will begin to realize that this family of God that is present in heaven can be made real on earth and that we can all be part of that no matter our age or race or creed or background or orientation whatever it might be we are all part of this family and meant to do this together I've realized in the last few years as I've been leading a congregation and spending more time with people is that people don't really want super flashy polished ministry or leaders that have it all together I think there's been a hunger not only in the church but just around the world to have leaders that don't separate themselves so much and so what I've realized is I've been able to offer myself as vulnerable and transparent and authentic and I think people really find that refreshing people really love when I share what I'm going through what challenges me what I have a hard time with what I don't understand and inviting them over into my home for dinner or calling them on a Saturday say hey let's get our kids together go on a play date or inviting them over to watch college football on a Saturday I think there's something about being accessible and realizing that as pastors yes we're set apart but how are we really with our people that we're leading and so showing that we are with them and we are for them and that we're grown alongside of them I think has been the biggest success I guess in my ministry and I hope that carries me that I never forget that I need to be with the people and not to be so confident and make sure that I'm not so set apart that I'm not accessible I think for me the way I hope for God to work through me is to help me to be a really great leader and pastor to every church that I go to as we celebrate this year 50 years of the Anatomythus Church that we work together to remain united as the Anatomythus Church and I hope that my hope is that God will continue to work through me as a leader no matter where I go to help maintain that unity