Our Beloved NAPC Family and Friends,

On Sunday, I announced in all three worship services that the Holy Spirit is prompting Cynthia and me to release my call as Senior Pastor of NAPC, as of May 19. Our sense of the Spirit’s leading comes from a deep place within us, after much prayer and the quiet confirmation from family, friends, and trusted colleagues. We have also been in conversation with the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, of which I am a member. We have all discerned that this is a time of peace, calm, vitality, and strength for North Avenue Presbyterian Church, and that this is a healthy time that I be released from my call. As of now, we are not being called to something new, though we trust that God will continue to use us in the years ahead for the sake of Jesus Christ. 

While we are confident of God’s timing in these decisions, Cynthia and I acknowledge that the releasing of my call is bittersweet. Even as we have peace about leaving, it is not all easy, because we love and admire you all so very much. We have sought to give our very best effort for you, with God’s help; and you have given your very best effort for us. Together by God’s grace, we have done remarkable ministry and mission. We consider our relationships with you to be forever sealed in our hearts and souls.

Our ministry among you these past 22 years has been, and still is, beyond anything we could have ever imagined or hoped for when we first said yes to ordained ministry nearly 40 years ago. In so many ways, you have taught and led us as much or more than we have taught and led you. I often say that you raised me up into a much greater degree of maturity as a pastoral leader, preacher, and mission-focused follower of Jesus Christ. You have deepened our understanding of God’s call upon us to be “inwardly strong in the things of God; so that we can be outwardly focused on the world God loves.” You have loved us and our family incredibly well and we are forever grateful.

We want you to know that we are truly excited for the future of this congregation. So many wonderful signs of the Holy Spirit are all around us. NAPC is especially vibrant in its growth of new members, a majority of which are under the age of 35 and are 43 percent multi-ethnic and multi-national. Very few congregations anywhere, especially in main-line denominations, are growing younger and more diverse. 

When grand adults, middle adults, young adults, youth, and children from diverse backgrounds engage in ministry and mission for the sake of Jesus Christ, something transformational happens to everyone. We grow in greater understanding and wisdom from our collective prayers and decision-making; our ministry and mission are deeper, richer, more creative, and better focused. We are led to be all-the-more reconciled to one another and thus better equipped to work for the reconciliation of the world, in and through our Lord.

The church’s financial condition that enables the ministry and mission of the church to flourish is solid and strong. We are learning that when you, our members and friends, clearly understand what resources of time, talent, and treasure are required to fulfill Christ’s call among us, you respond with extravagant generosity. The Shine Building Project is complete, and the incredible beauty and benefits of it will continue to impact generations to come. We can see the end in sight of paying down the remaining balance, prayerfully by the time we leave at the end of May. Let us all pray for that, since being debt-free truly frees up the church’s financial resources to be directed solely toward ministry and mission.

The NAPC staff is as gifted, committed, and united as at any time in my years of ministry. While the church will be calling an interim Senior Pastor to share in preaching and leading until the next pastor is called, we are all completely confident that the church’s staff leadership is rock solid. Please continue to affirm them, thank them, and come alongside them. At the same time, you can be assured that the deacons and elders of the church are also as gifted and unified. They are engaging their ministries of serving and leading with deep faith and superb operational excellence. They are already leading us in the appropriate next steps in our journey forward. 

Over the next four months, Cynthia and I invite you to join us in viewing this final season of our ministry among you, as a time of fully expressing our love and gratitude for one another - through our laughter, our grief, and our joy. We invite you to reflect on what God has done, and is doing, in and through us, by God’s unfathomable grace, mercy, forgiveness and love.

One of Cynthia’s and my life verses is Philippians 1:6 - “I am confident of this one thing (above all things) - that the One who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus our Lord.”

We do believe and affirm that it is God who began the good work within us and within you; and we claim the promise that Christ’s work within us will indeed be perfected by the Holy Spirit until the day our Lord returns. Let us be assured by these words. God is in control.  

With the deepest expression of love and gratitude for each of you, and for our beloved church family, we remain faithfully and joyfully yours. God bless you all.