Lead Pastor Transition
Tom Shrader publicly announces his transition away from the lead teaching role at Redemption Church Gilbert after 22 years, framing the decision as a long-planned, Spirit-led act of faithful leadership rather than retirement. Elder Jerry Smith traces the church's history from its founding as East Valley Bible Fellowship through its growth to 5,000 attendees, and confirms that Tim Maughan has been unanimously selected as the incoming teaching pastor. Tim Maughan reflects on 2 Timothy 4:1-5 as the defining charge of his ministry and calls the congregation to embrace their shared role as shepherds in the mission of the church.
“Our past would be a solid foundation, but never an anchor — God's done great things, and He's done them in amazing ways, but He doesn't have to continue to do amazing things the same way.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: 1 Peter
Recorded: 2012 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 55 min
Themes: leadership, transition, shepherding, legacy, calling, faithfulness, succession, church mission, pastor, elder, mentor, navigating transition, new to a church, stepping into leadership, long-time member, new believer
Scripture: Acts 13:36, Acts 2:42, 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Timothy 4:1-5, John 10
Theological Themes: ecclesiology, church structure, pastoral calling, 2 timothy, biblical authority, expository preaching, elder plurality, congregational care
Full Transcript
A Planned Transition
If you're here with us for the first time, you've picked an interesting day to be here. There's probably once or twice a year where we take a Sunday to communicate something important. One of the criticisms we've heard over the years is that we don't communicate enough, and it really is difficult to do — in written form or any other way. But there are moments where we want to stop and bring something into the Sunday morning service, and this is one of them.
The challenge in these moments is not to speak just to be understood, but to speak so we can't possibly be misunderstood. You are all at different places. Some of you have been around from the very beginning; some have been here the last ten or fifteen years; some of you, maybe the last ten or fifteen weeks; and some of you are brand new. You have different levels of exposure to who we are and, honestly, different levels of interest in how things work. But this is one of those moments where it's a no-brainer — this needs to come into the Sunday service, and we need to have the opportunity to talk with you.
This morning you are going to hear from me, from Jerry Smith, and from Tim Maughn as well. What we are going to talk about today is the culmination of a five or six year process of deliberate, thoughtful planning — one that goes all the way back to the very beginnings of the church when we were East Valley Bible Church. Specifically, we are going to talk about the final phase of my transition from what was at one point the senior pastor role, and has more recently been the teaching pastor role. The announcement is this: beginning in January, I will no longer be the lead teaching pastor at Redemption Church Gilbert.
Looking Back to the Beginning
I will fill in all of those blanks for you now. Some of you are going to love this news. Some of you are going to think you could have stayed home watching the Ryder Cup — and I understand that. But if Gilbert is home for you, this is important to you.
My position historically has been that of senior pastor, and it has two components. One is internal and one is external. The external is obvious — that is what happens on Sunday, the presence here, and some sense of being a face to the community and to different organizations. The internal involves the staff, facilities, and oversight. That internal component started transitioning four or five years ago. So I want to take you through this: talk a little about the past, a little about the present, and whet your appetite for the future.
This may sound really odd, but our very first service was November 3rd, 1991. Even in those early days, when we were barely up and running, I was thinking about transition. It has been something big in my mind for a long time. Maybe that is because I have looked around — not just at churches, but at businesses, volunteer organizations, all kinds of organizations — and seen that the transition from that initial lead person often does not get made. I was determined not to let that happen.
Aaron Bauer — I think Aaron and Debbie's first service here was ten or eleven years ago — tells me that I was talking about transitioning even then. When the church began, I was the guy who was the teaching pastor, the lead pastor, the senior pastor, serving in a driving role. And the question you would always hear, of any new organization but especially in this case, was: what if Tom gets hit by a truck? I heard it so much, from certain people, that I was pretty convinced it was a prayer request at times. But I also had this sense that I am agile, I am not going to get hit by a truck, and I may actually ride this out — so how does this thing begin to change at the end of that time, and when is that time, and what does it look like? It sounds really silly to be thinking about it in those early months, but I was.
The Move That Changed Everything
We had a significant move in our organization. We knew change was important, but when the church moved onto this campus, everything began to change. Attendance exploded — Jerry is going to talk about some of that. Staff began to be hired and numbers began to change, and it was at that point that I knew we had to be really proactive.
I looked around and saw, candidly, other churches in the Valley and around the country that had this moment where they built a worship center seating two or three thousand people, and you would go in there and find two or three hundred people. I began to ask myself, is that inevitable? Does that have to happen to East Valley Bible Church? My answer was that it does not have to happen, but it will — unless we lead deliberately through it.
You have been in organizations — it could be a business, a volunteer group, a church — where as they age, and as the same leadership ages and stays in place, the organization begins to age with them, and almost inevitably a decline begins. There is just an inertia to it. So about five years ago we reexamined our mission statement and our values. We published a small card for you with a mission statement and eight or nine values on it. Seven of those values are what you would see at any church, but two of them were really important — really important to who we are and where we were going.
Willing to Change
These values were really important to us — they became part of our DNA. In some ways they already were, but they needed to be written out, codified. We needed to know: this is it. The first was that we were willing to change. The second was that we wanted to be an influence beyond the campus and beyond the generation.
I understood those values then, but I sit here now and see God's wisdom in taking them and putting them in the water all over this campus so that you began to get caught up in them. God used especially those two values to prepare us for this moment. Are we a place that's willing to change? I don't know that there's been a time when we haven't been in some sense of change. From the very beginning, we started to say, "This is what we'll do for now," knowing that things change.
Influence Beyond the Campus
The second value — to be an influence beyond the generation and beyond the campus — has certainly begun to speak beyond the campus in a formal way through our merger with Praxis and Redemption Church. I was talking to somebody the other day and they said, "We go to one of your Redemption Churches." I asked which one, and they said Flagstaff. So we're reaching beyond the campus — not just through Gateway, Arcadia, Tempe, Flagstaff, and all the other places I think God will open up, but also by saying to other churches that won't be part of Redemption Church, "How can we work together? What resources do we have that we can merge so we're stronger because of it?"
Tyler has really led that charge, and I think we're pretty well recognized as a church that serves with open hands. On Thursday morning I had breakfast with a young man who planted a church up north and just started out. He's so excited — his church has gone from 50 to 100 people. We talked about strategy: what can we do, how can we work together, how do we serve these people? He was very comfortable coming to us because he knows we want to be an influence beyond this campus and beyond the generation as well.
Investing in the Next Generation
That value became a key motivator even as we looked internally. Several years ago we had seven or eight pastors, and I think the oldest was 26 or 27. That age demographic pushed us ahead and pushed us to change. I think we've succeeded in that.
There's a group that humbly calls themselves pastors of influence, and I happen to be part of it. I take Tyler with me to these meetings, and there is one question they ask us every time — in the formal Q&A, at breaks, at lunch, someone is always asking, "How do you attract young men?" We understood that. We didn't always know what God was going to do here on this campus, but we knew this: we wanted to be a place where young men whom God would use as future leaders in the church — whether here in Arizona, across the country, or around the world — would be comfortable, welcome, and able to grow and develop. We wanted them to be given something meaningful and significant to do. That immersion of young leaders has allowed us to be part of Redemption, to do all that we do, and to allow transition to take place as well.
The Biggest Obstacle to Transition
When I sat back and began to look at this and started talking about transition, I tried to list the obstacles. Here is what I determined the biggest obstacle was: the biggest obstacle in the transition of most organizations is the guy sitting in my chair. He is the one who drags his feet. He is the one who wants to talk about the good old days. I was determined not to be the one resisting change, but to be the one leading transition.
We have led on two fronts. Originally, if you looked at an old organizational chart, there was a box with my name in it and every line went to it. I knew early on — it didn't matter that there wasn't much going on yet or that there weren't that many lines — that as the organization grew and as I grew older and wiser, that was not the best way to lead. So we took that central box and divided the responsibility up, putting it into a leadership team. Some of you don't even know what happened, but you've experienced that transition over the last four or five years. There has been stability, continuity, and strong leadership in the staff.
An Amazing Staff
The two men who have been all over this transition have been Neil and Tim. Neil works with the administrators, facilities, and budget. Tim works primarily with the staff. One thing that has become extraordinarily apparent — and there have been moments in these 22 years where you strip everything away and just see it clearly, and this is one of them — is that God has assembled an amazing staff of men and women here at Redemption Church Gilbert. They are awesome people who have experienced real change in their lives, and most of the time they've had to live with the answer, "We don't know right now." They have been extraordinary in the midst of all of that, and that transition has been very smooth and seamless.
The Final Step: The Pulpit
The pulpit is the last part of that transition. With the pulpit, I believe, comes the real position of visible leadership and driving vision. Over the last two or three years, I haven't done a very good job of that — I could give reasons, but it doesn't matter. I felt us getting close to the moment of change, and finally I went to the leadership team and the elders and said, "I just think it's time. It's time for you all to find the person who is going to take the
A Foundation, Not an Anchor
One of the things that has always been important to me is that I have always hated the answer, "We've always done it this way." I remember being in a meeting after we had been at the church for two or three years, and somebody came up with an idea for a new logo. I was absolutely ambivalent — and then somebody said, "But we've always had this other logo." All of a sudden I thought, it's time to change the logo. That idea of change is something you have to push. Along with it comes the idea of influence.
God has prepared us, and this has always been a desire of mine: that our past would be a solid foundation, but never an anchor. We would be willing to say God has done great things and done them in amazing ways, but He does not have to continue to do amazing things the same way. I think this transition is part of that.
Confidence in the Timing
I had an opportunity on Thursday to meet with the volunteer leadership teams. My daughters have been wonderful through this — I think they are a little concerned about their dad and what he is going to do. They called and texted Thursday a couple of times asking how I was doing, and several other people did as well. My answer is this: I am doing very well, and the reason is that I am totally confident this is what needs to happen. That confidence makes the whole process very easy for me.
It has been a time of reflection. I was telling the first-hour group about the day they brought a crane in when we were building this building and dropped some giant beams into place. There are two supporting walls at each end, and these massive beams are literally resting on a ledge about this wide. I half-expect every Sunday when I come in here for the whole thing to implode. But I remember building this building. I remember sitting at different services, at different times, when God would do special things here — the first person baptized in the building was my daughter Haley, sitting here at Easter, or Good Friday, or certain other moments, just seeing what God has done. I am confident that what He has done is prepare us for this moment.
There is a wonderful scene in the book of Acts where Paul is preaching and he addresses his audience: "Men of Israel, and you who fear God." He gives them a lesson on the nation of Israel and talks about David. Acts chapter 13, verse 36 says, "David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, and saw corruption." What Paul was saying is that David served his purpose. I really feel that is where I am.
What Is Driving the Transition
I do not know that those of you who have been around are entirely surprised by the idea that I would be transitioning — there have been a lot of things that have gone on. You might, however, be surprised by the timing, and I have asked myself that same question. All I can tell you is that I am comfortable this is the right time.
This is really important to me, and I want you to understand it clearly. The decision to transition is not driven by any external circumstance. It is not driven by Susan's illness, or being married to Sandy, or the health matters we talked about last week. Those things are not what drive the transition. The driving force is an absolute conviction that this transition needs to take place. The timing — the "now" of it — may be influenced by some of those factors; I honestly do not know. All I can tell you is that I know it is right, and I know it is time.
I went back this week and found a file containing my notes from the very first service we ever had at East Valley Bible Fellowship. I was teaching Acts 2:42. At the end of the notes I had written some bullet points, and one of them read: "I sense this is an important day — a unique time, place, and challenge." And then there was a little line underneath it: "All the pieces aren't in place yet." In a sense, this transition and its timing feels like everything I have ever done. It just feels right. I cannot totally explain it. I simply know now is the time.
Redeployment, Not Retirement
I also want to make sure I communicate this clearly, because several people have said, "Congratulations on your retirement." This is not a retirement. The word I would use is redeployment. I will not be here as the primary communicator on Sunday morning, but I will be here. When people ask you where I go to church, the answer is Redemption Gilbert. This is home.
I will be serving the leadership team here and the Redemption Elder Board. I hope to teach here periodically as I am invited back, and to be available to mentor, to coach, to learn, and to be part of what I believe is going to be an incredible future. Priority Living — the study I do during the week — I will continue that as well. Several people from the first hour asked about it specifically, so to be clear: I will continue teaching Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, and Thursday noon. This is home. I am not going anywhere. I will be here every Sunday, just like you.
A Constant Presence
Over the twenty-two years here, there has been a whole group of men and women who have played key roles — staff, elders, and volunteers. No one has been a more constant presence through all of it than Jerry Smith. Jerry was here from the very beginning. He has had a front-row seat to see what God has done. It has been one moment after another of seeing God's faithfulness.
A Legacy of Faithfulness
Jerry Smith has had a front row seat to what God has done in this church. He was on the original Elder Board, desperately loves this church, and has served faithfully — and at great personal expense. Jerry is a magnet, especially for hurting people. The tough cases and decisions land on his desk. Beyond loving the church, he loves Tom and his family, and has been a rock of support for almost 25 years.
The Vision That Started It All
More than twenty-two years ago, God put a vision into the heart of a group of people to plant a church in the East Valley, with Tom Schrader as lead pastor. They had zero background in church planting. They didn't have a clue where they were going. But they trusted the Lord with the vision, and that is the way this church got started — and God was very, very good to them.
Their goals were simple: teach the Word of God, honor God in all they did, and — admittedly a selfish ambition — create a church they actually wanted to attend. God honored that vision, and they stepped out in faith. What they didn't have was considerable: no money, no building, and not even a phone number. In the beginning, Tom insisted he wasn't going to take a salary, and the elders graciously accommodated him all the way on that one.
The Name, the Elders, and the Early Days
If you listened carefully to the early history, the church wasn't always called Redemption Church or even East Valley Bible Church. The original name was East Valley Bible Fellowship, and over the years it transitioned — first to East Valley Bible Church, and then to Redemption. Four elders were appointed at the start: Tom Schrader, Dave Moore, a man named Haskell Kynert, and Jerry Smith.
Their job was essentially to run the church, and they gave all the actual ministry work to volunteers. They rented a small building — now a charter school over on Dobson — from a church that met in the morning, and held services at four o'clock and six o'clock. Then, seemingly all at once, everyone thirty-five and younger with three or four kids started showing up on Sundays, and with them came a wave of needs: children's ministry, men's ministry, women's ministry, and all kinds of expectations that needed to be met.
God was so good. He brought in volunteers who stepped up, and the needs began to be filled. The word got out that this was a great church, and the secret behind it all was the Lord's blessing and those faithful volunteers. From day one, the volunteers have been exceptional — faithful, consistent, and eager to serve.
Building a Staff and a Facility
Eventually the church reached a point where employees had to be hired. The first was Gary Bloomquist, who took over the music ministry, followed not long after by Les Taylor, who came on as a full-time administrator. Along the way, additional elders were added: Roger Wallen, Mark Kronwald, Chuck Holmes, Tom Angstead, Jim Scorza, and Howard Morrison.
Rapid growth began to create real challenges. There simply wasn't enough room, and the need for a larger facility became urgent. So they decided to dream big and build a church — on the very site where the congregation now sits. A family from the church went out and purchased the twenty-one acres this campus sits on and gave it to the church. To put that in perspective: they had recently visited Jericho in Israel, where the walls came tumbling down — that site covers fourteen acres. This church sits on twenty-one. That family bought it and gave it away. What a blessing.
Building on Faith and Prayer
With the land secured, all they needed was a building, a chapel, and some facilities — with zero money. So the elders went to the people and asked whether they would loan funds to make it happen. The money came in, again and again, and they were able to build the main building and part of what has since been expanded. Construction began.
Before the money was even fully raised, a group of people from the church came to that very site every Sunday. They stood in the spot where the congregation now gathers, held hands, and prayed for about an hour. They walked the ground and prayed that God would raise the money and plant this church. The faithfulness of God is displayed all across this campus because of what those people did in prayer.
There was a pivotal moment during the building process. With around six hundred people in attendance, they were assuming —
A Growing Church and Its Growing Pains
On Sunday, over at the church on Dobbs, we assumed that everybody was going to come with us, but some of the people were not happy anymore. They had gotten into our church with the expectation of a nice, small church where they knew everybody — something like Cheers. It started to grow, and they did not want to be a part of that growth. Tom and I were at a restaurant, Coco's, years ago, and we were talking to a waitress. We asked her if she went to church, and she said she could not find one she wanted. Tom asked what that would look like, and she said she wanted a very, very small church with a very dynamic pastor. That is an oxymoron — it simply is not going to happen. So those people wanted a small church, and they left.
But remember Field of Dreams? If you build it, they will come. When we built it, they started to come. We left the Dobbs location at 600 people, and the second week we were in this very room, there were 1,200 people coming on campus. Before we started planting churches a few years back, we were up to an attendance on Sunday of about 5,000 people that the Lord had brought into this church. Then we started spreading them out and sharing them into other campuses.
Young Pastors and a Expanding Staff
The excitement at East Valley Bible Church started to bring in young pastors. They heard the word that things were happening and that the Lord was working here, and they came asking if they could be a part of it. Tim Mouin, who is sitting over here, fifteen years ago sat right down in those seats. He came in with two elders from Chicago after someone had called him and said he had to see this church. Tim was a youth pastor in Chicago at the time.
Tim came down, saw what we were doing, and expected a job. We did not have one. We needed a custodian, so we made him the colonel of the urinal — and he took the job. That was the best we could do. During that time, the elders ran the church and made the decisions. The staff came on, but none of the decisions were made by the staff. Tom was the lead pastor through all of it, but he was doing Priority Living two days a week, which meant decisions that had to be made daily often had no one there to make them.
The Question of Transition
From the very beginning, we knew we would have to hand this church over to the next group of leaders. Transition is inevitable — we are not going to live forever, and Tom mentioned that. Tom introduced to the elder board the need for an executive pastor, and there was some pushback on that. The role was meant to be someone who would lead the staff and mentor the pastors, but it represented a massive change in how the church would be run.
We opened up discussions in the elder board that went something like this: Should the pastors sit in on the elder meetings? What if we gave some of the pastors the title of elder? What about a leadership team — a mixture of staff elders and non-staff elders? Those conversations went on for a long time. We talked, we prayed, we discussed, and we argued.
Tom championed the idea of combining staff elders with non-staff elders to run the church and meet the needs of the staff. Ideally, this structure would allow the non-staff elders more time for prayer, more time to walk among the people, more time for vision, and more time to step back from day-to-day events they were not present for anyway. I knew without a doubt that was the right decision for this church, and I felt God's hand all over it. It was long overdue. It would bless the staff and help us move forward to the next step. Tim Maughan, Neal Pitchell, and Tyler Johnson became the staff elders, and they have done an excellent job.
Searching for the Next Teaching Pastor
When that transition was settled, Tom started to dialogue about his replacement. Who would take the pulpit? Who would be the next teaching pastor? Tom encouraged us to push forward and begin a search. Where do we start? Where do we go? What does that look like? Do we go outside the church? Would that person fit into the unique culture of this church? Would the current staff respond to them? How would you respond if someone moved in from Chicago or wherever they might come from?
We prayed and kept moving forward, but quite honestly, there was never any comfort within the elder board about going outside the church. It was unanimous — we were not comfortable looking externally before first looking internally. Those of you who have been here regularly know that the majority of our pastors have, at one Sunday or another, been up here and done an excellent job from the pulpit. God has blessed us with excellent teachers.
Tim Maughan: The Right Fit
Very quickly, Tim Maughan's name came right to the surface and to the top of the list. If you count his time as colonel, we have had fifteen years of knowing exactly what we were getting. Tim is the pastor who will take over as teaching pastor for Tom Schrader. He is an excellent teacher of God's Word, he loves the Lord, and he is a man of prayer. You see his sons up here every week — all four of them, at one time or another, are usually here in a given week leading worship alongside him.
He is the perfect fit for this church, and we know that because he has already been doing it. Tom was gone a couple of months this summer, and there Tim was.
A Season of Transition
He is honest, authentic, decisive, and straightforward. He is Bible-driven, he cares deeply about people, he is courageous, and he loves God. One of the things that struck me as I looked at that list is that those are all words I have heard used to describe East Valley Bible Church — now Redemption — for twenty-one or twenty-two years. That fit is perfect.
When Jerry talks about going outside to search, that is really significant. One of the things we have valued in all of our hirings, elders, and everything is fit — how does it fit? Tim is a perfect fit. His fingerprints are already all over this campus, and he is going to have the opportunity for the next decades to influence this church in a direct, real way.
I expressed it this way the other day: if Redemption Gilbert were a stock, I would be calling my broker tomorrow morning. This is a wonderful time. It is a rich time, and I am so grateful for the support and faithfulness you have given — not just to me, but to what God is doing here. God is doing something special, and I think it is going to get bigger — not numerically, but in terms of His influence and the Spirit working in our lives — and that will happen in a real way under Tim's leadership and direction.
Neil's Continuing Role
One thing that will not change is Neil's position. Neil has been an anchor and an important part of the team. If you tried to write a job description and say you were going to hire an administrator, that would be so inadequate, because Neil does that as well as anyone — but he is so much more than that. He serves with facilities, with his pastoral heart, with stage-of-life ministry, with newly married couples. I always say he is the guy you are most likely to see in a suit, which means a funeral or a wedding, and those are all pastoral in nature. In the midst of chairs getting moved around, I want to make sure that the importance Neil plays on this team and to this church is understood and recognized. He is going nowhere, and that is a really big deal.
Tim's Introduction
The team, when we were talking about this moment several months ago, were trying to figure out the best way to communicate, and they gave me a word: feelings. Talk about how you feel. I find it very difficult to put everything into a concise expression, but I jotted down words to help me describe what I am going through and how I feel.
The first word is *here*. I know Jerry talked about the journey to Arizona, but I was in a really sweet spot in Chicago. It was the beginning of my ministry life. I had done part-time work for about eight years, and then full-time work for another eight years, and God was just showing up. He was blessing, kids were getting saved, our ministry was growing, and I was learning. God was good, as He always is, but exceptionally so for me at that time. It was one of those places uniquely wired for me. God knew me. He knew exactly what I needed, and that was a perfect moment.
I was in a really solid Bible church — hardcore Bible church, not hardcore grace, but hardcore Bible, if you know the difference. I started in ministry idealistic beyond measure. I had a senior pastor who, when they hired me, said he was going to disciple me.
A Personal Journey Into Ministry
Every thought I have ever had about God, Jesus, and the grace of God, I worked out in this Bible right here. I worked really hard, and God just started doing things. As Chuck Holmes said in the video a couple of weeks ago, he was ignorance on fire — well, that was me times ten, because I had more fire than most people.
I was converted around age twenty out of a Christian home mindset. My dad was a pastor. I had been around it my whole life, and though I didn't know the words for it at the time, proximity was how I thought I was saved — it came with the birthright. Then in 1981, God put my sin on me to such a degree I couldn't breathe. Even though that was a very painful experience, the result was that I received salvation and God's grace, because I had to see my problem first.
As soon as the lights came on, as soon as I knew Jesus, I wanted it — whatever it was, I wanted it. I wanted to tell people about it. I wanted to teach people about it. I was too hyperactive for most people, so I thought ministry would let me run around and not hurt too much. I went off to Bible college, met my wife, started in ministry, and ended up in Chicago, where God used the whole thing in a wonderful way to give me opportunities and to see the Holy Spirit working in people's lives.
The Call to Arizona
Then I got a call from a friend who had moved to Arizona. He was talking about a church — it wasn't even in this building yet, it was over in Dobson — and about this Schrader guy, and how it was different. Both he and I had been in similar environments before, and he described how it wasn't as churchy as we were used to, that there was more freedom and more opportunity. He presented it in such a way that I was smitten over the phone.
I flew out with a couple of my elders in October of 1997, and I really wrestled with it, because my DNA is loyal. I die with people. I don't go anywhere. And I didn't want to leave. This is a true story I haven't told anyone else — I didn't even tell it at the other service. After the service, I went out to eat with the elders, and I simply said, "Tell me if you want me to stay and I'm committed." There was silence. I thought, "Okay, God, there's no clearer way to tell me where I'm supposed to go than that."
So I had no job and no home. I had one last camp to finish, so I took some high schoolers up to northern Wisconsin, came back on January 11th, got a U-Haul on January 12th, threw everything in the truck, and we drove off. I got to Gallup, New Mexico before I received a phone call from my friend, who had spoken to a pastor at Bethany named Neil Pitchell, who had a house I could rent. One day out of Phoenix, we found a place to live.
I moved in and came over to this church because they were looking for a custodian. I thought, "I just want to be around. I'll work hard and be around." So I took that role alongside doing student ministry on my own. That was fifteen years ago — this coming year will be the sixteenth — and God has done many amazing things. My family has grown up here. It has been a wonderful thing.
Choosing to Be Part of What God Was Doing
There was a phrase my friend said that I still think about. I was stuck between loyalty to the people I loved, the kids in my ministry, and the possibility of something new. He said, "Listen, there are going to be big things going on at this church. Do you want to experience it, or do you just want to read about it?" I was thirty-six and on fire, and I was in — from over two thousand miles away. We came that year, and it has been fifteen-plus years since.
Gratitude for This Church Family and Staff
Now, fast-forwarding those fifteen years, I want to talk about you — this congregation. I have the privilege of knowing some of you, some better than others. Many of you I see on Sundays, but you need to know this: I love you. I think about you. I pray for you. I have been praying faithfully for you — for things God would do in your life and through our lives together — for everyone at the 8:30 service, the 4:00, the 6:00, and the students at 7:10. I care deeply, and that is true. That is in my heart.
That care also includes the staff. Tom spoke about the healthy staff, and they are amazing people. We took a staff retreat a couple of weeks ago to go through this process together, and Jesus was there. The Holy Spirit was there — in our worship and our study. It was a wonderful time, and it reminded me that God is getting this thing ready.
I also have to say this: Neil and I are in the office together quite a bit. When I am frustrated, when I am excited, whatever is going on, I go to Neil and we talk. Neil is a great friend, but he is an amazing pastor, and you have no idea how privileged you are to have that man here. So please thank Neil Williams. I truly care about you folks more than I can fully express.
Confident Fear
Every time God has put something in front of me, I step into it scared to death because it is a big job. This is His bride. You are His people. This is a huge thing, and it is clearly bigger than me. But I have an unbelievable amount of confidence in Him. I am not afraid of it — I am afraid of Him.
That is part of the problem. I could get up and teach, and I think I have the routine. I have got enough church in me to keep you occupied forever. And that scares me, because you do not need me. You need Jesus. You need the Holy Spirit to show up and take these words, somehow mysteriously through a man, and have them transform lives so that we go out and live like Him.
When that happens, this will be incredible. I have written down a word, a phrase: confident fear. I am afraid of myself — afraid that I will just get comfortable and lay back and enjoy it. But if I march out every day saying, "God, this is really important. This is Your bride. You love them dearly. You gave Your life for them," then I have to keep trying. Not to be approved of — I do not struggle with that — but because it is so important.
So I do not look at this as a promotion. It is the next thing God has called me to do, and I am going to do it with all my heart. I want you to pray for me in that.
A Word from Alistair Begg
Part of the reason I am the way I am in ministry comes from a couple of conversations over a couple of days with a man named Alistair Begg. He came to visit our church about sixteen years ago. I was in a place where ministry was blowing up in the best way, and yet it was not being received in the best way. I was struggling, giving it every ounce of life I had, at the same time watching people not see what I believed the Holy Spirit was doing.
I had a friend who worked on Alistair's board, and I asked if I could get some time with him just to pick his brain. So we sat down for a couple of days to talk about ministry and how to feel about it. On the very last day, he was out on the golf course — we had given him a driver for speaking for us — and I said, "You have got to help me move on from here. What do I do?"
He grabbed my Bible — this one, which is why I brought it today. You can see some writing here: Alistair's name and a date, 1997. He said, "When you are in it, you just need to hang on to this. This is who you are as a pastor."
This letter, 2 Timothy, is written to a young pastor who is probably a little insecure, probably a little fearful of the task, probably a little over his head. He clearly gets through the power of the Scriptures that all Scripture is God-breathed and profitable and useful for developing righteousness in every man and woman of God. And then Paul begins chapter four with these words. We were standing out there on the practice tee, and Alistair read this to me:
*"In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage — with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."*
Then he took a pencil and circled verse five: *"But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry."*
Ever since then, that is all I go to. If you want to know who I am, that is who I am praying to be, all the time. I just want to be faithful to the truth, to the Word. I want to be faithful to people. I want to never quit.
Learning from a Normal Pastor
When I came out to visit, I spent a day with Tom and spent the next day scratching my head, because he is not like every other pastor I had spent time with. That was part of my struggle, to be honest, because the pastors I had been around were people I did not want to become. It was not that they did not love Jesus. It was just that they were so disconnected from real life and real people. I kept thinking, how can I be myself, do what I believe is the most important thing in the world, and not turn into someone who cannot relate — or does not care to?
Then I spent time with Tom, and I thought, he does not sound like a pastor, and he does not act like one. So it is my version, my phrase — I coined it. The highest form of compliment I can give Tom Schrader is that he is normal.
God has used that over fifteen years to grow me. My personality can really wear people down. I am driven. I see a target and nothing gets in my way — and I mean that in the best sense, but it can be damaging at times. I am intense. God has worked on me and worked on me, and much of that work has come through watching Tom react — or better said, not react — to the little mountains I wanted to go die on, and through watching him identify the big ones that are truly worth it. Do you know the difference? I watched how he would lead staff, how he would deal with his own life and his own pressures.