Transition Letter 07/20/09

On behalf of the Transition Committee, I am pleased to present our interim preaching plan for the next several months.  As the Transition Committee prayerfully approached its task, we sought to bring to the church excellent Bible preaching across the full life of the church in all worship services.  We all recognized that, just because we have a time of interim, the Lord's desire for us to know Him more fully and to fulfill our mission and vision does not take a break. 
           
Dr. Paul Sands and Dr. Reggie McNeal have agreed to come and serve as interim preachers. These two men, along with Pike Wisner, will serve as a wonderful interim preaching team during our time of interim.  

Dr. Sands will be preaching the majority of the time in the Sanctuary and will begin his ministry on Sunday August 23rd.  He has agreed to stay at least through January, if the Pastor Search Committee has not completed its work by that time. 

Dr. Sands preached here earlier this spring and we received many positive comments about him.  He is a professor at Truett Seminary at Baylor and has most recently also been serving as an interim pastor for Agape Baptist Church in Fort Worth for more than 2 years. 

God also provided us with an additional preacher we really did not think would be available to us on a regular basis: Dr. Reggie McNeal.  Although he is in high demand as a national speaker and consultant, Dr. McNeal has also agreed to preach for us from time to time both in the Sanctuary and in the Great Hall.  Dr. McNeal's addition to the team in the interim will also give Pike, who is integral to the overall preaching team, some necessary breaks. 

Dr. McNeal has preached here a couple of times in the last year.  He is a former pastor, an author and a consultant to churches, a state Baptist convention and to Leadership Network on the missional church.   Dr. McNeal brings great expertise and energy to the church at a strategic place in our Acts 1:8 initiative. 

In addition to Dr. Sands, Dr. McNeal and Pike, we also have arranged for some nationally-recognized speakers, Lee Strobel and Mark Mittleberg, to come at different times this Fall.  We will provide more information about them as the dates are closer.

We are so grateful to God for the way He has raised up all of these godly men to come and teach in our pulpit and be a part of the ministry here.  Our 5 services each Sunday will be greatly enhanced by their teaching and gifts. We appreciate your patience with us as we have worked out what we believe to be a God-led plan to bring excellent and godly preaching to the entire church during the interim. 

Please continue to pray for all the leaders of our church, especially the Search Committee, as they seek God's direction, strength and protection through a time of transition in the senior pastor position of the church.  I also urge us all to trust and wait on the Lord as He will lead us and provide for us throughout this time.  He has led us before and He is leading us now. 

In Christ's love,
David H. Harper
President, Board of Trustees