Monday, February 02, 2004

ez on by

Yesterday Graceway, the emerging/ent church I planted and then pastored until late last year, welcomed it’s new minister, Mark Barnard.

Mark B Commissioning 009.jpg

Mark is 26 years old and is married to Bridget. He has a background in social work and community development, a love for the poor and was the lead singer of a band. Bridget works in promotion for a Christia n Aid agency and is really good value. They have both been part of Graceway for the last 3 years.

I flew up to Auckland for the day to share in the celebration and occasion. It was a day of a huge range of emotions for me. I gave the best of 9 years of my life to Graceway. I developed an internship scheme to train leaders and Mark was one of the 6 emerging leaders I directly worked with. I am very proud of him.

The transition from founding pastor to new pastor is a fragile time for a church and a number of church plants in New Zealand have not made the transition. So there is huge relief for me to see a very competent leadership team at Graceway welcome Mark and Bridget on board.

I sat at the back, marvelling at the goodness of God. Half way through last year God ezed me out of Graceway. It was a hugely traumatic decision. 8 months later God is ezing a new leader into Graceway and I have become a cheering bystander.

A toast:
to the Graceway leadership team, who ezed in a new pastor
to Mark and Bridget, may they ez Graceway into a new season
to God, whom I love.

Posted by steve at 09:34 AM

1 Comment

  1. Thanks Steve for all that you & Lynne have given over the years to the Graceway community. Its very hard to let your baby go, but wonderful to see the baby blossom. The new relationship with Mark will be like that. We toast you and Lynne!

    Comment by Kelvyn — February 2, 2004 @ 10:46 am

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