Personal Update in June

Personal Drury Update in June

The news on our upcoming move

Perhaps you’ve been wondering about our upcoming transition since I posted my “parting thoughts” about leaving Spring Lake Wesleyan Church. I don’t usually post much on the “personal” side of things, but if you’ll permit me a bit of an update here you’ll know what’s up with us.

I have been offered and have accepted the Executive Pastor role with Pastor Steve DeNeff at College Wesleyan Church in my home-state of Indiana. We are elated to be joining this team and I’m gearing up for a role shift I feel wired up to engage in as my “sweet spot” in this season of ministry. CWC is an exciting church with unique opportunities and challenges… and Pastor Steve is the kind of point leader I was looking for if an Executive Pastor role emerged as the best option for us.

I hate it when people go on and on about how busy they are… but (like everyone else) we’re anticipating a busy summer. Here’s what’s up during the transition:

I just returned from the Doctrinal Symposium in Indianapolis to hear from several Wesleyan scholars including my brilliant brother talk about ecclesiology.
I’ll am out of town for ten days in June for early church site visits in Turkey with the aforementioned brother and our Dad.
There are three birthdays and one anniversary in the family to celebrate.
I don’t plan to write much for my web-site (for free L) this summer because I have two writing jobs and one research contract to finish (for money J)
And of course there are housing issues to figure out:

Packing up the house (L)
Selling the house (interested?)
Finding a new house (not necessarily in this order)

College Wesleyan Church is moving just like we are to new facilities in the fall—which will be a key preparation item for me in the new role in the first 90 days to keep me busy.

I suppose the good thing with this busy summer is that I’m currently “unemployed” (or when I am self-conscious, I say, I’m “in transition.”) One interesting feature in this transition is that I resigned from my current job before having another one already in hand. That was a bit of an old school move, but one that we’ve done every time we’ve left a church (four times now). For some reason I’ve felt compelled to express our “release” from a church before searching for another. Even in this situation where we have felt so very at home and were not being pushed out in any way we stepped out and I resigned before contacting anyone. On the one hand, I don’t think everyone needs to do that and wouldn’t suggest it. On the other hand, in each and every situation we’ve seen the Lord provide and many of our friends and family are now expressing thanks to God in his reward for our faith step. In fact, I received the offer from College Wesleyan the day following my last day at Spring Lake Wesleyan (which meant we could literally “turn our heads from north to south” in one 24 hour period, meaning no long “check out” phase with my heart in two places nor any season of “limbo” with no church to call home. Financially the Lord provided through these two churches so that we won’t be missing even one week of our usual income. Unbelievable! And CWC was not just “where we ended up” out of what was available to us—it was our preferred option. The first Senior Pastor I e-mailed after resigning to inquire about possible Executive Pastor jobs was Steve DeNeff.

The Lord will provide… indeed!

Thanks for your patience during this foray into personal updates and reflections. I may be posting some articles including observations about ministry transitions, interviewing at a church, how to leave a church honorably & how to send off a staff member sometime this summer but I’m guessing I’ll be pretty well absent from this site until the Fall. Come back then and join me in my new leg of the ministry leadership journey. I’m sure I’ll have as much or more to say then!

Comments or questions? Go to the comment blog here