The Real Scoop

Well, gang I've got some news! 

Some of you have known for a while that Mer and I have felt this huge pull to be more deeply involved in our community and be able to fully commit to the relationships we have in Spring Hill.  God has done some pretty amazing things with us in our neighborhood and it has been hard reconciling our conviction to make a difference there with me working in Franklin.  I have struggled with how to give more to the situations around me while not neglecting my family or ministry at The People's Church.  We have realized since being here that so much of the way we invest in people is through our home and God has once again used this pattern in our lives in Spring Hill.

Over the past few weeks I have been walking through exactly what this means with the leadership at TPC.  Mer and I have become thoroughly convinced that God wants us in Spring Hill and know that we must honor this. 

So on Tuesday we told our staff and friends that I will be leaving TPC to embrace pastoring a new church in Spring Hill.  To say that I am crazy excited would be an understatement. I am riding a huge buzz right now that has only been made stronger by the encouragement of friends. 

With a transition like this there is always a weird thing that happens.  People talk and want the "scoop".  Weird misinformed stories always start to form and I want to be the first to get the right info out there.  So here's the real scoop:

1) I have been so blessed by the leaders around me.  Pastor Rick White has been amazing! He has continued to meet me with big fatherly smiles and has in private and in public blessed this endeavor.  I am so lucky to have his blessing and know that our relationship will only grow from here.  We have similar passions for mobilizing people and I am so fortunate that he see's my vision for doing this in a different way as an opportunity to reach more people – a total kingdom perspective.  To borrow a fishing analogy, we are in essence putting another/different hook in the water.  Steve Helm has helped shepherd me through all the randomness in my head and heart and I will forever be grateful for his insight and advice.  Dick Wells, one of the most compassionate men I have ever met, has invested time in me that has been so rich.  He has helped bring balance to my crazy world.  I am so lucky to have had such Godly men in my life during this time.

2) I will be at TPC through the end of the Live Like You Were Dying campaign and know that God is going to do some huge things through it.  The adult team that I am working with is awesome awesome awesome and I can't imagine a better way to go out than working with them toward this divine task.

3) We will begin over the next few weeks to gather friends & families who have expressed interest in taking the journey with us – a journey to reach Spring Hill and the world one neighborhood, one house at a time.  We will look and pray toward a more public launch later this year.

4) I am so honored to have had two and half good years at The People's Church.  This will be a time that Meredith and I will always look on as a growing time for our family.  We got healthy, got to know each other better and fell more deeply in love with each other and our children.  God has used our time and friendships at TPC to shape us for what is to come.  We know it.  In this time God proved his love to me; He proved his desire to use me and proved that I can trust Him.

Thanks Rick and the TPC for believing in me and giving me the chance to follow my heart and what we believe God has put before us.  It's going to be a fun ride.

I'll post updates and info on this blog regularly so you can know what we are up to and for sure we will value your prayers.

Peace ~

WIlliam & Meredith
Arden, Aubrey & Abram