You Will Be My Witnesses
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I am truly bless to serve on a church staff that provides me with so many opportunities to grow as a pastor. We're presently in a sermon series titled, "As We Reach" because about a year ago we added the word 'Reach' to our mission and it's our hope that a lifestyle of evangelism becomes a part of our DNA in the coming years. At Risen Life Church we seek to experience real life transformation and we do that through our mission: "connect, grow, serve, and reach." This week I was able to step into the pulpit and preach a message titled "You Will Be My Witnesses."
In addition, we've had some video testimonies that open each sermon. Nathan Sweet, a gifted photographer and film maker, has been helping us create these videos. (They've been really great. Here's a sample, and another, and even another.) However, we didn't have anybody lined up for this recent week so we didn't shoot an interview. Nathan is a busy student so when Pastors Kevin and Robert asked if we could still have a video, I stepped up to the director/editor plate. It's certainly not of the same quality as the videos Nathan produces for us and there's one really bad edit (oops!), but I feel like we were still able to tell a story, thanks to a willing participant, some construction lights, the help of Sean Patrick on the sound board in our worship center, and a couple video cameras (one of which uses video tapes--remember those!). Because of our sound limitations, we were also limited to the worship center backdrop. Here's Tina Pelton in the video that ran just before I preached the message:
It's not often you find a pastor so willing to raise up future leaders and even share the pulpit. I get to work with two! We serve in a team ministry model so our senior pastor, Kevin, works closely with Pastor Robert and they rotate each week in the pulpit. And even with this arrangement, they allow me and another pastor (Jared Jenkins) to preach from time to time--even more in 2013.
Like I said, I am blessed and couldn't ask for a better place to serve and learn after completing seminary!