Recently, one of my favorite Cleveland Ind…Guardians baseball players retired. During an interview in the press box at the home opener, he was asked, "What is that one thing that has sunk in since retiring from baseball?" His response was a saying I had heard many times before, "The days are long, but the years are short."
I have had numerous conversations with many of you over the last couple of months, including you saying things like, "Hey, it seems like God is really speaking to you right now" or "Something has been different with you lately." I haven't been able to speak to the internal wrestling match my wife and I have been having with God. You see, we LOVE this place. We LOVE our church family. We LOVE what God is doing right now in this season and know that God is up to even more at Believers in the days, months, and years to come.
Which is why this next part is so very difficult. After months of prayer and seeking counsel, my wife, Jaimee, and I have chosen to be obedient to God's call on our lives, and we will be moving our family back to Northeast Ohio in June. The call on our hearts is very simple - we are to go and serve our families over this next season of life. While the call is just as clear as it was for us to move here (a random Virginia area we had never even heard of) almost 14 years ago, committing and submitting is complex.
The past 14 years have been an amazing, wild ride. I have had the opportunity to have a front-row seat to some incredible moments. I once witnessed Pastor Doug drink an entire gallon of milk in under 30 seconds…incredible. I saw Pastor Jamey consume more McRibs than a human should ever consider eating, all while I serenaded him with my guitar on a McDonald's dining room floor…incredible. I have participated in singing more cover songs from NSYNC to ACDC than you would hear at a local karaoke night…incredible.
I have also seen God use this church and His people in it in ways I could not have even imagined. You have helped raise my children to know Jesus. You have seen me fail, oh so many times, and then built me right back up. You ordained me into pastoral ministry. You have surround us in times of tragedy and celebrated big in family milestones. You grew my faith from a kid who wanted to cancel Easter service because we had no power to a man who is taking another huge leap of faith!
I have tried to change my life verse throughout the years to better suit whatever season I am currently in, but I believe the official rules state that you cannot do that. Lucky for me, Proverbs 3:5-6 is the perfect fit for this season. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight." Yes, some of these ministry days have been so very long, but as I look back now, the years were so short, and I will cherish them for the rest of my life.
Pastor Sam
PS A Word from Pastor Jamey
I know you are probably as surprised to read this, as I was when Sam first asked to talk to me about that internal wrestling match more than a month ago. Everything in me wanted to try to talk him out of making a decision to leave here, but as his friend, pastor, and boss…the right thing was to help him lean in and hear from God. A month later, he came back to me and said that he and Jaimee had decided to head back to Ohio.
I will say more in the days to come about Sam’s impact at Believers. For now I just want to mention a few things. One, I am incredibly grateful for Sam’s ministry to our church family over the last 13+ years and we have much to celebrate, including that one of our leaders is feeling called and is following God’s call in his life. That’s a win for him, his family, and ultimately for our church family. Secondly, Sam isn’t leaving until the end of June. We get to enjoy some more time together and we will have a more formal send off as the time of their departure approaches. We will be communicating this to both of our services this coming Sunday.
What’s next? Sam’s done a great job raising up a great team that makes everything happen around here on Sundays. For the most part, services will go on as normal with the authenticity and excellence that we’ve come to appreciate so much. The Directional Team and the Elders plan to begin a process of evaluating our current staffing and to ensure that we have the right staff to accomplish our current mission and strategy, and to identify any gaps that we may have and how we could best fill those. We plan to take our time, pray, talk to other churches within the Irresistible Church Network (our church tribe), and move forward with our next steps after we have some clarity on what will best serve our church family moving forward. We certainly appreciate your prayers in this process and we will be communicating with you along the way.
In the meantime, I do believe…the best is yet to come and we will keep making Jesus #1, one person at a time!
Pastor Jamey
