Trusting in Him

"Lord, I want to trust you with all my heart. Show me what I need to do to trust in You."

"Quit your job."

"Really?"

"Yes."

That is how my conversation with God went on October 20, 2018. I was actually on the back of our motorcycle headed to a family reunion so I couldn't even tell Doug about it until much later that day. We talked and prayed and God continued to confirm that I had heard him correctly and it was time.

I am resigning in obedience to God. He has made it clear to me that I need to trust Him and step out in faith. I am NOT leaving in a bad place. It is great working here and I will truly miss it, but God has something new for Doug & me. He hasn't shown us what that is yet, but He will!! 

Now don't get me wrong, leaving here is very sad and hard for me. I am painfully aware of all that I am being asked to give up.

One day, as I was lamenting to the Lord and telling him all I was giving up, He gently reminded me that there is One who gave up a lot more than me to come down here to earth to save me from my sins.

Have you ever stopped to think about all that Jesus gave up when He came to earth as a baby?

In Philippians 2:7 it says that He emptied Himself, taking on the form of a servant - or slave, as it could be translated.

Now just stop and think about that: the Son of God, who is all powerful and has a close position with His Father, chose to give that up for you and me. I don't know about you, but that brings me to my knees.

And if He is able to give that up, can I not give up what He is asking me to give up? 

But there was one thing He did not give up - His close relationship with the Father. We have that same relationship available to us!

In John 17:21 Jesus prays "...that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us...

Jack, in his sermon on 11/18 said, "Jesus only did what His Father told Him, He was led by the Holy Spirit. Everything Jesus did was intentional....He was always 100% dependent upon the Holy Spirit."

I want that. I want that same relationship with my Father so bad.

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So this probably raises some questions in your mind. Here are some that I have been asked:

Are you retiring? 

No, I am resigning. I will still need to work.

Are you moving?

As of right now, the Lord has not told us that we are to move. But we are open to what He wants.  

What about your other involvements at Grace?

Doug & I serve as Extend Council co-chairs and we also serve once a month at the Connection Desk. For the time being, we will continue on with those areas of service unless the Lord directs otherwise. We will continue to attend Grace.

How can I be praying for you?

Pray that the last few weeks I have here I would finish well. (My last day is Dec 18 but I will be employed by Grace until Dec 31.) Pray the Lord provides an Office Administrator that will take over part of my responsibilities, as well as an executive pastor (XP) or executive director (XD). Above all, pray that I will trust the Lord even when it is hard. 

What are your next steps?

On December 19 our whole family leaves to go have Christmas with Abigail in Asia. After that, there are a couple of opportunities we are exploring but nothing firm for sure. 

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My 15 years working for Grace have been amazing. The pastors, staff, and elders I have worked with have all been wonderful and gracious to me.  I would like to say thank you to all of them. And thank you to each of you I have interacted with in the office. 

And now it is time to say goodbye. 

Trusting in Him,
Janelle Paden
Office Manager

Kitchen cabinets and clean hearts

Doug and I are finishing up a project we started in April of 2017: redoing the whole main floor of our home! We have learned a LOT about God, ourselves, and each other, as well as how to do DIY projects! We have accomplished things that I never thought we would ever do.

The last room we are redoing is the kitchen. 

My biggest part of the kitchen remodel was painting the kitchen cabinets. As I was removing the items from the cabinets I was amazed at how dirty and scuffed up the cabinets were. After putting on a new coat of paint they hardly looked the same. Then we added new hardware and they looked like brand new cabinets. As nice as the cabinets look now, I know that they will get dirty and scuffed up again and need washing and touch up paint.

It makes me think of my own life and how I want to be clean and fresh on both the inside and out. I want everything to look and be perfect. Over the past few weeks there have been a couple of quotes that Jack has said that have really stood out to me.

First, "we will be broken people until we see Jesus".

I think I literally sighed out loud when he said that. I don't want to be broken, it is hard being broken and harder to admit my brokenness. But just like the cabinets before I started on them, I thought they looked pretty good until I took a deeper look.

Am I willing to be broken and allow the Lord to meet me in my brokenness? Am I willing to be honest with myself and with the Lord about how broken I am?

Second, "reconciliation isn't perfection".

As a perfectionist I want everything to be perfect after the reconciliation. But again, like the cabinets, they will need to be cleaned and touched up again and again.

Am I willing to forgive over and over? Seven times seventy? Am I willing to forgive Doug again today for the same thing he did yesterday? Am I willing to forgive myself when I've done the same thing today that I did yesterday?

I'm looking forward to being back in Genesis this coming Sunday. Jack will be preaching out of chapter 14. May we all have open hearts to hear what God is speaking to us in our brokenness.

Ministering together,
Janelle

Random thoughts from Janelle

This week I have lots of random thoughts going through my head and heart!

First, this Sunday, 8/12, marks 15 years that I have worked for GCC. I can hardly believe it! A lot has happened in those 15 years; staff has changed, facility has changed, I have changed, but one thing hasn't changed: God. I'm so thankful that in the midst of changes we can trust in the immutability of God.

Second, last week six of the staff (Jack, Steve, Loren, Nathan, Juli, and myself; Kyle had a family commitment) attended the FEC Conference in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was a great week of hearing from pastors within the FEC, meeting others who minister in FEC, and bonding in the van! There were 4 FEC pastors that each spoke on a part of FEC's mission: Establishing Reproducing Churches Worldwide. I think my favorite was Nirup Alphonse (Lead Pastor LifeGate Church, Denver, CO), who spoke on Worldwide. He asked us "Who has eaten at your table that doesn't look like you, vote like you, or think like you?" Ouch, I don't know about you, but that is convicting to me. 

Lastly, we are busy here in the office getting ready for the start of Sunday school and other fall activities. I know that there are other ministries gearing up for the fall as well, such as Weekday Bible School, Norm's, International Students Inc. If you are interested in volunteering in any of these ministries either here at GCC or in the community, reply back to this email. You can find more information here.

Have a great week!

Janelle Paden
Office Manager

What do you put your hope in?

Hope: to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence (dictionary.com).

Have you ever truly stopped to think about what you put your hope in? To what you look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence?

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about what I put my hope in. I've realized that I have put my hope in hiring an XP. I know for most of you having an XP means nothing to you. For us in the office, it will greatly enhance our systems and development. If you read the first part of today's This Week at Grace email you saw that our latest candidate has declined the offer of being GCC's XP.

So now what? With it being summer time and staff taking vacations, the search team is going to take a break and talk about next steps in July. We don't know what the next steps are at this point. Please be praying for the search team and the Elders.

In the meantime, I will cling to Lamentations 3:19-23

"Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." (Italics mine)

I will choose to put my hope in God and not in a man or any other person.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

Ministering together,
Janelle Paden
Office Manager

Don't just talk about it... do it!

As our Bolivia church plant and the executive pastor search have on my heart, I have found myself praying for them, a LOT!!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the book Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. I listen to a podcast - Renovare - by Richard’s son, Nathan Foster, where he has been highlighting a different discipline each month to mark the anniversary. The month of April was focused on prayer. Nathan had on different guests to talk about prayer, but the last episode was a Q&A he did with his father.

I love this quote by Richard Foster on that episode: “....in dealing with the subject of prayer, one of the biggest dangers is to talk about it and not do it.”

I remember memorizing Ephesians 6, and verse 18 stood out to me: “praying at all times, in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (ESV). That seemed to be contradictory, “with all prayer and supplication”... isn’t that the same thing?

So I asked God to show me what was meant by that. God, in His gracious way, did! He showed me that sometimes my prayers are prayers of thankfulness, praise, gut wrenching honesty cries out to Him, lifting up a loved one that has a need, lifting up a loved one when He puts them on my heart, or not knowing what to pray so allowing the Spirit himself to intercede for me with groanings too deep for words (Rom 8:26).

Suffice to say, there are a LOT of ways to pray.

I used to try and emulate how someone else would pray or to use their method of praying. Now I realize that God, in His creativity, has lots of ways for us to communicate to Him in prayer and graciously allows me to use all of them.

Let’s take the words of Richard Foster and pray, not just talk about it. But not just today, every day, all day long.

Updates

I gave you updates on the Bolivia church plant and the executive pastor (XP) search in the last staff journal I wrote. Here’s another quick update on both, plus some office news.

Bolivia church plant: I am elated to tell you that GCC sponsored 109 children from our Bolivia church plant, and over 200 total together with all four Grace network churches! My heart swells up when I think of so many lives being affected by our helping to build the church and sponsor children.

Executive pastor search: And… we had our top XP candidate and his wife visit GCC last weekend! We are all very excited about the possibility of this couple coming to be on staff here. I can’t share details at this time, but we are continuing to talk with them and will keep you updated. Please keep praying with us for both them and the search team.

Office news: In an effort to be good stewards of money and staff, the office will now be closed on Fridays. The new office hours are Monday through Thursday, 8am-12pm and 1-5pm.

Ministering together,
Janelle Paden
Office Manager

Executive Pastor and Bolivia Updates

Welcome to my first edition of writing for This Week at Grace. We have developed a Directional Team consisting of Jack, Steve, Kyle, Loren, Juli, Nathan and myself. The purpose of the Staff Journal is that we take turns to give you a glimpse into our hearts. So I would like to share with you 2 things that are on my heart.

Executive Pastor

The first is filling the position of Executive Pastor (XP).

Today is the last day that we are receiving resumes; we have received 16. The Directional Team and Elder representative Audrun Siebert will meet on March 19 and narrow the resumes down to three candidates, then we will begin contacting them for more information. In reality, whoever we choose probably won't start before June 1.

Please pray for us as we make this important decision.

I'm excited to have the XP come on staff to help with policies and procedures, as well as other things. We have a great team working here in the office, so I'm eager to see how the XP will fit in. He will be part of the Directional Team; in fact, he will probably lead it!!

Bolivia

Bolivia is the second thing that is on my heart.

The trip I was able to take with the team down to Bolivia was amazing!!!

I learned so much about Compassion International, how they not only have child sponsorships but also a child survival program for pregnant moms and children up to 1 year old. They also have a GAP program for students after high school.

Compassion’s model for church planting is very unique and incredible.

A highlight of the trip was being able to see our church plant, which was awesome. They have purchased the land (thank you to all who bought a duplo(s) and contributed to the church plant) and have started construction. They already have about 200 children attending on Sunday mornings!

But the moment I will never forget is seeing an elderly lady singing and praising God. Below is a picture I took with her.

Please be praying for the Bolivia church plant and be praying and asking God if He is wanting you to sponsor a child from the plant. April 22 is our Compassion Sunday, when you will have the opportunity to choose a child to sponsor. GCC's goal is to sponsor 100 children.

Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the XP or Bolivia. They are both pretty big things that will be happening in 2018!!

Ministering Together,

Janelle Paden
Office Manager