Watching the Sonrise.

Hillsboro, Oregon

I’m sitting here in my office at Sonrise Church in Hillsboro, Oregon with my first few minutes in six weeks to reflect on where I am and how I got here. This is also my first post from Hillsboro and my first post in a couple of months.

The decision to leave the road, we had been on for most of four years, was a hard one.  We loved the travel, the connections we had made with people from California to Kansas City and we loved the freedom to spend most of our time together enjoying a life of relative simplicity.

5 years ago the busy life we had known for 17 years came to an abrupt conclusion and, faced with an uncertain future, we decided to be the ones to control what we would do with our lives, not failure, fate or even finances.  So we sold everything we had, including our beautiful log home we had built ourselves, bought a fifth wheel and headed out to find ourselves, each other and a Father we knew had things to say to us, but Who was being drowned out by the system, our own fears and introspective self-doubt. 

Along the way we did find ears to hear, a new relationship with each other and a far greater sense of who we were as deeply loved children of a faithful, friendly and forgiving Father.  My other blog The View From the Juniper Tree chronicles both the travel and the revelation from those days on the road.

It wasn’t just a financial decision to leave the road, though that certainly was a big part of it.  Since we were not old enough to retire we were making our way on our savings, small jobs and the blessing of others and ultimately all were going to play out so we knew we needed to get back into the income producing world.

But if I was honest with myself, I was bored.  Don’t get me wrong, I had things to do and things that challenged me but I wasn’t growing, I wasn’t learning like I was when we first started the journey.  We had become part of several faith communities along the way, but even though we loved the people, there were things in some of them that left us wondering if there wasn’t yet more the Father had for us.

So, we decided to go back to Washington for the summer, hang with the kids and grandkids, work with Doug and see what the Father would do.  A few weeks earlier I had a contact from Sonrise Church in Hillsboro, Oregon about the potential of joining their staff, a contact that came because of a long ago meeting with a couple who currently were serving on the staff of Sonrise.  To be frank, I did not think it was viable for a whole lot of reasons, including no desire to be part of a big church in suburbia.  Then there was the reality that, if I could get over that hurdle, why would they be interested in a washed out, over the hill guy like me?

After a very unorthodox interviewing process and even more unorthodox hiring process that includes a 6 month dating period, against all odds the leadership of the church invited us to join them and in spite of a job description I felt inadequate to fulfill, a location where I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to live and a few other opportunities I thought could be “better” we just “knew” we were to accept their invitation and are now in the process of watching the Son rise in one of the most beautiful places you could ever land.

My position is Executive Pastor. Not sure where the title came from but my responsibilities are caring for everything that goes on at Sonrise except the weekend services.  I oversee the finances, the facilities and the staff, but thankfully there are really gifted and quality people who do the real work of the money and the buildings, and who join me in serving the staff.  I have spent a lot of time the last 6 weeks shoring up a wavering children’s ministry and plugging some leaks in the financial area of Sonrise and will begin to explore ways for us to stay in relational contact with a large and diverse group of people. In addition I get to speak some too.

My greatest joy, so far, is developing “fathering” relationships with the pastors who lead the various ministries of the church. I am the oldest and the most “seasoned” of the guys though they are all experienced and highly gifted as shepherds and creative leaders.  My challenge is to help them focus on relationships, not program management or number counting, to encourage them to be quality and quantity husbands and fathers and to spend the time necessary to craft a spiritual life with enough excess to flow over on to others.  But it is clearly not a one way mentoring relationship, they are already building a lot into me.  I like serving with all of the staff here and that makes all the changes worthwhile.

Since I really enjoy writing, I hope to blog a little more regularly than I have been, and continue updating my Facebook page throughout the day.  If you are ever in Oregon, we would love to see you. We are still in the 5er but will be moving to an apartment this fall.

Love having you with me on this new journey as we watch the Sonrise in our own hearts and in this community.

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