We're moving to Delaware!

dgbc
Originally uploaded by wailer2000.

Word out of Akron, Ohio has it that the Underwoods are moving to Delaware, Ohio, as Gary has been called to be the Senior Pastor at Delaware Grace Brethren Church!

It's all true - just one week ago today, the people of Delaware GBC voted to invite Gary to be their Senior Pastor.

(I don't know why I'm writing this entry in 3rd-person, so I'll switch to 1st-person for the rest of the time.)

I'll post a detailed timeline of how this all came together in an upcoming blogger entry, but here's the "gist" of it.

Over a year ago, this church got my name from Dr. Ken Bickel, a mentor, professor and friend of mine from my time at Grace Theological Seminary. At the time, serving The Chapel's new Green Campus, we weren't ready to consider another opportunity.

In the months that followed, both Dr. Bickel, Danny Wright, and a couple of others repeatedly encouraged us to "at least visit the church and get to know the people in Delaware..."

This past May, Pastor Brian Blackburn from Delaware GBC began emailing us to see if we might be interested in visiting. He came with a group of leaders from their church to hear me preach at The Chapel in early August.

A few days later, Jennie and I were in Delaware to visit the church, interview for the position, and also interview the church for ourselves.

We were overwhelmed with the love, mood, and mindset of the people we met there. Jennie and I began to talk, wonder, and pray about this opportunity. The church was very serious about hiring me. They had even read our website (garyandjennie.com) and were still interested!

Anyhow, they invited me down to "candidate" for a week, with preaching both on Sundays September 12 and 19. Jennie, Allie, and I were there all week - meeting as many people as possible, attending meetings and going out to dinner with people. It was an exciting and exhausting week, but it really helped us feel that this would be a great place to be.

On September 19th, after the two morning worship services, the church was to vote on whether or not they really wanted us to be there, and for me to be their senior pastor. While I wondered how this would turn out, I went with Jennie and my parents to eat at a Mexican Restaurant (where else?)... As we pulled into the parking lot at Vaquero's (very authentic), my cell rang.

It was Bill Moore and the other elders of the church, calling to tell me that, with greater than a 95% approval vote, they want to ask me to be the Senior Pastor at Delaware Grace Brethren Church.

(It is great to finally be able to announce this in detail on our website - we wanted to wait until we had announced it to our Mosaic young marrieds group at The Chapel. It is still much better to tell people in person, but I couldn't wait to blog about it here.)

As far as The Chapel goes, Pastor Larson has been a great encouragement to me and is helping me think through different issues as I move into a position of senior leadership. This is definitely an exciting opportunity. The church has an attendance of 400-500 people, and is in a growing community with many new people. Delaware county is the fastest growing county in Ohio, and one of the fastest growing places in the country. The people, the church, the location, the community - all are at an exciting time of growth, openness, and desire to follow a new good leader.

I crave your prayers and friendships as we approach this challenge. I will definitely have more thoughts and updates. This post has been more of a "newsflash" than my personal thoughts about all that has happened. I'll get personal on my next post, but just let you know that we are filled with emotion (both sad to leave Akron and excited for what lies ahead).