I rang our friend Costa in Cape Town on our return from the Vineyard family conference in Nova Scotia.
"Looks like God's calling us to Africa, mate".
He paused and said, "Interesting timing! I've got just the job for you. I was talking to one of our guys this very day, who told me that they need a pastor for the Arusha Vineyard ... Tanzania".
"Not interested...I really don't think I'm supposed to pastor again. My heart is to invest in development and training, not being stuck in a church". We had been in ministry 25 years, 17 of which were in the role of Senior Pastor.
"Where is it anyhow?"
"North of the country in Maasai territory, near Mt Kilimanjaro".
"oh... really?... still not interested".
Over the next month we met 3 separate people in Vancouver who had previously lived in, or just been to Arusha, (just an interesting coincidence, thought I).
Then, just as my daughter and I were getting ready to do a one month recon trip to Africa, our friend Paul emails us from Australia and says, "Heard you're going to Africa. Our new church is supporting this girl in a place called Arusha... not sure where it is, but suggest you check it out!"
To cut a longer story shorter, we did end up in Arusha but still wanting nothing to do with church leadership.
However, we did begin to attend the Arusha Vineyard and ended up falling in love with the people there.
Over the next year or so, we were asked to join the leadership team, after which a number of people approached us, independent of each other, to consider taking on a pastoral role.
We agreed to pray about it, which began a process (though initially very tentative on our part) that ended up with us accepting the role, no, still not of Senior Pastor but of Team Leader, because much of what is expected of "Senior Pastors" is neither in my gift mix nor interest.
What does that mean? Well, not only am I going to stay involved with initiatives of leadership training and development, I have the privilege to work alongside the many exciting and varied ventures our church family are involved with, from development in remote areas to film-making!
Our proposal (now job description) can be seen on arushavineyard.blogspot.com, if you are interested (scroll down 5 or 6 posts).
Holding the baton (otherwise known as a Maasai stick)
"Looks like God's calling us to Africa, mate".
He paused and said, "Interesting timing! I've got just the job for you. I was talking to one of our guys this very day, who told me that they need a pastor for the Arusha Vineyard ... Tanzania".
"Not interested...I really don't think I'm supposed to pastor again. My heart is to invest in development and training, not being stuck in a church". We had been in ministry 25 years, 17 of which were in the role of Senior Pastor.
"Where is it anyhow?"
"North of the country in Maasai territory, near Mt Kilimanjaro".
"oh... really?... still not interested".
Over the next month we met 3 separate people in Vancouver who had previously lived in, or just been to Arusha, (just an interesting coincidence, thought I).
Then, just as my daughter and I were getting ready to do a one month recon trip to Africa, our friend Paul emails us from Australia and says, "Heard you're going to Africa. Our new church is supporting this girl in a place called Arusha... not sure where it is, but suggest you check it out!"
To cut a longer story shorter, we did end up in Arusha but still wanting nothing to do with church leadership.
However, we did begin to attend the Arusha Vineyard and ended up falling in love with the people there.
Over the next year or so, we were asked to join the leadership team, after which a number of people approached us, independent of each other, to consider taking on a pastoral role.
We agreed to pray about it, which began a process (though initially very tentative on our part) that ended up with us accepting the role, no, still not of Senior Pastor but of Team Leader, because much of what is expected of "Senior Pastors" is neither in my gift mix nor interest.
What does that mean? Well, not only am I going to stay involved with initiatives of leadership training and development, I have the privilege to work alongside the many exciting and varied ventures our church family are involved with, from development in remote areas to film-making!
Our proposal (now job description) can be seen on arushavineyard.blogspot.com, if you are interested (scroll down 5 or 6 posts).
Holding the baton (otherwise known as a Maasai stick)
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Susan