Welcome Home: Celebrating 15 Years of Soul Hospitality for Leaders
The 15th Anniversary of Leadership Transformations was July 1, 2018. It’s hard to believe it’s been a decade and a half since Ruth and I ventured into this new ministry terrain. It was a healthy mixture of faith and folly, totally uncertain about where it would lead. Today our ministry is flourishing, thanks be to God.
When we left our previous ministry assignment (Vision New England), we had a single donor check in one pocket, and a dream for a new ministry in the other. I’m sure many thought we were crazy to leave a prospering ministry and enter into a lonely place of unknown territory as we set out to serve the spiritual formation needs of leaders and teams.
As I reflect back on that first day of a new chapter of life and ministry, I am filled with gratitude to God for keeping the vision in front of me and not allowing doubts to descend and extinguish the dream. We didn’t know what was coming next…everything was new, different, and faith-stretching like never before. I had no idea where I would find office space, who would follow us into uncharted waters, and what we would actually do each day.
Our son Nate was heading into his first year of college and Bekah was entering Christian high school two months hence. I had no idea how I was going to pay for two tuitions. We live in an expensive community and I didn’t know if we would be there a year later…it all depended on how life and ministry would materialize in the coming weeks and months. We trusted God, held hands, prayed hard, and kept looking up and ahead.
Those early months were a test of our ability to fully trust God and the discernment process we had engaged in over the previous 10 months. God was in the center of the prayers, discussions and deliberations that led us to this decision. There was simply no doubt about it…this was our calling. There was no turning back.
Early on, Ruth would look at me cross-eyed in wonder…are we really about to take the biggest risk of our lives? Later on, the roles switched, and with utter panic in my heart, I kept asking her and those who surrounded us in prayerful discernment…are we crazy? If it were not for our closest companions, accompanying our abiding trust in God, we most likely would never have taken this step of faith.
But, looking back now fifteen years later, I can honestly say we made the right decision. It was brutal in so many ways, but it was confirmed over and over and over again. And, as I sit and write these brief reflections, I am amazed once more how right it really was. How could we have ever said no to God, who clearly called us into this most amazing journey?
As our board and ministry team looks back over the past 15 years, we are filled with awe, wonder and gratitude to God. He birthed LTI. He blessed LTI. He built LTI. We continue to trust him to sustain, protect, and multiply the work of our hands and the prayers of our hearts. This ministry belongs fully to God…I pray we don’t clutch it too tightly or we will squeeze the life out of it!
To all who have stood faithfully by our side since the beginning and every year since, I extend my hearfelt thanks. To all who have experienced us negatively for whatever reason, I hope you can forgive us. And to all who have been served by our team in the past and present, I promise you that our best is yet to come. Our team is prayerful, faithful, trustworthy, agile, and filled with joyful anticipation for all that lies ahead of us in the future. I hope you’ll join us as together we lean fully into all that God invites and intends for us.
Praise God from Whom all blessings flow…praise Him, all creatures here below…praise Him above, ye heavenly host…praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!
