By Didi Bacon
Earlier this year I was reading Psalm 98. It begins, “Sing to the Lord a new song…” I thought about that phrase, how do you sing to the Lord a new song? You sing a new song when you have new lyrics to add about the new things that you see God do in your life. You sing a new song when you discover new things about God. You sing a new song when God leads you into new chapters in your life story.
We are singing a new song as a church. God is leading us to new chapters in our faith journey. This is a year of new songs for us as a staff. We have long-time staff members retiring and new servants of God rising up to fill their places. With the new faces, we have a new team structure as we move into a new season of ministry.
This year we welcomed Rick Lowry as our Groups Minister, filling Aaron Adam’s former role. Rick has over 40 years of ministry experience. He has a passion for seeing Jesus followers learn and live scripture through small groups.
Aaron’s title for now is Discipleship Minister, he will be the ministry leader for all our efforts to grow adults in their faith. He steps into this new role as Arlan Howard moved into retirement.
After 24 years of serving with us on staff, Arlan has begun a new chapter in re-fire-ment. That’s right, I said it correctly – not retirement – re-fire-ment. That’s what it means to sing a new song to the Lord.
Leslie Benton, our long-time Office Administrator, served in that role for 14 years. Leslie also entered into her re-fire-ment season. The Lord raised up Jody Van Huss to fill her role. Jody and her family have been part of our church family since the early 90s. God was stirring in Jody a call to make a change in her career and that change was a new song working in ministry with us.
Darletta Martinez joins our team as Business Manager. Darletta and her family have been with our church for a number of years. She too was at a time where she sensed God’s call to pursue something different. That something different was to say yes to join our staff team.
Jeff Perrine, who had been serving as our Executive Minister, moves into a transition role and will retire in the Spring of 2025.
Instead of having an Executive Minister, we will now operate with an Executive Team. The Executive Team is made up of our five Ministry Leaders (Campus Manager, Worship Minister, Discipleship Minister, Family Minister, Business Manager) working with me to ensure the vision God has for our church is being carried out effectively and wisely.
“Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.”
