Faithful Leaders
When you read through Paul’s Pastoral Letters (1 & 2 Timothy and Titus), a clear theme emerges: ministry is hard, so you need to be faithful in training and releasing faithful leaders for the work of ministry. Sometimes, we can look back on the early church with rose-colored glasses and think that they never had any issues like we do today. But that just isn’t the case. Timothy and Titus found themselves in difficult churches. Both had to contend for sound doctrine and protect their flock from heretical teachers. Titus had an ongoing conflict with legalists, and Timothy needed encouragement not to quit because of opposition. Sounds fun, huh? Again, what’s Paul’s advice to them? Find faithful leaders. Over the years, our church has had many faithful leaders both on staff and in volunteer positions. These leaders have helped us stay the course with the mission and hold to God’s Word. We should praise God for providing those leaders for our local church. For the last 16 years, Jesus has provided for our church through Pastor Mark Henderson. Now, he is leading Pastor Mark into a new season and will provide for him, his family, and for us as a church. Right now, we have the opportunity to both celebrate Pastor Mark and praise the Lord for what he’s done. So, let’s celebrate!
Will you make sure to join us this Sunday, March 17th, to celebrate and thank Pastor Mark for his faithfulness in following God’s call on his life to serve our church? Here are the details for that morning.
Details about Pastor Mark’s celebration on March 17th.
During the 9 am service: Mark and Kari will join Pastor Kyle upfront for a chance to share a reflection on their 16 years of serving our church and to be prayed over.
10:15 am – Noon – Open house: We will host an open house for Mark and Kari in the gym beginning after first service and going till the end of second service at noon. We will end second service early that morning to give everyone a chance to greet Mark and Kari. This time is designed for you to come and go as you are able. You are also welcome to bring cards and notes of encouragement to the open house for Mark and Kari.
If you would like to help contribute to a financial thank-you gift for Mark, you can do so here. https://ccames.churchcenter.com/giving/to/pastor-mark-s-appreciation-gift
Mark has served the Lord and our church so well over the past 16 years. Let’s make sure we encourage him with stories of how God has worked through him. In case you haven’t seen it, here is the update that has been sent out.
Pastor Mark has accepted a role with GoServ Global as their next executive director. As you all know, he has been a crucial part of God’s work and the ministry here at CCC. For the last 16 years, he has served this church body in a variety of ways using the gifts God has blessed him with. Most recently, Mark served our body and staff team by leading well through the lead pastor transition process. Both helping Pastor David end well and helping me step into the role. I cannot express how grateful I am for his care, leadership, and friendship, personally and to all of us over the years. We have benefitted richly from Mark, and his lasting influence will be felt for years to come. We are, in many ways, a healthy church because of his willingness to serve and lead like Christ.
From Mark: “I have so many thoughts and feelings at a moment like this, but I will try to be brief. I have loved being on this staff team for the last 16 years and my family has been well loved here. In 2008, God clearly opened the door for our family to come and join the student ministry team. That was a great season of life and ministry getting to help transition a healthy student ministry alongside Brent Thomas into the next season as we prepared to move out to the Plex on Wednesday nights. Serving through several iterations of different adult discipleship roles and then stepping into the Executive Pastor role as Terry DeZonia finished his time here. That was another season of striving to bring stability through transition in leadership. I have been blessed to work with so many wonderful staff members and church leaders during those seasons.
Then, joining the process of serving this church through the lead pastor transition was another significant challenge and joy of my leadership here at Christ Community. A well-deserved thank you to Pastor David, Pastor Kyle, Brad Heemstra, Scott Beckwith and the Missional Leadership Board for guiding us through that healthy transition. It was an honor to get to walk alongside such faithful leaders as they humbly served each other and made much of Jesus and His church. This church family has graciously walked through a variety of challenging transition steps in my time here and the grace with which they handled each of them was reflected in the health of the lead pastor transition process.
I will be stepping into the role of the Executive Director of GoServ Global, soon to be located in Ankeny. God has opened the door wide for me to join this great organization at a time of significant transition as well. Their current Executive Director is retiring and moving to South Carolina and they are moving the offices from Eagle Grove to Ankeny this spring. Kari and I have some great relational history with this team and we are excited to see what God has for us there as we jump in. https://goservglobal.org/
Kari and I are planning to stay in Ames for the near future, but will take at least a 6-month break from Christ Community to allow room for others to step into leadership and for any new staff to transition well into new roles. We are so excited for the future that God has in store for Christ Community and to see how God uses Pastor Kyle and this great staff team and church leadership to accomplish the mission of connecting people to life-defining relationships in Christ.”