Moving on, or “why I am leaving the most amazing church in the world”

March 10, 2009

Patti and I have recently announced that at the end of April we will be leaving our staff positions at Suncrest (she being the East Campus Children’s Director and I the East Campus Worship/Arts Director… Note that as I write this I will interchange the words “I” and “we” a lot… since Patti is also moving on from her role, and we’ve sought each other’s council on all of this, I might get my pronouns switched around). It was a very hard decision for us, so I wanted to write a (probably not short, but I’ll try to be as brief as possible) post about how we came to the conclusion to move on. After all, we genuinely believe that Suncrest is the best church we’ve ever been a part of, (or, to our knowledge, the most amazing church in the world) and public opinion is that this isn’t the wisest time to be on the hunt for a new job.

Suncrest is an amazing community of faith… these folks really “get it!” It has been a great place for us (and with Evie in the picture now, our family) to grow our relationship with God. Originally, we simply wanted  to attend a church that we had heard good things about, since we were between ministries and were living in the area with Patti’s parents. I was able to join Suncrest as a Leadership Resident under our Cultivate Pastor, Bobby Jackson, and then Patti and I were able to help launch Suncrest’s first multi-site campus with Doug Gamble and the rest of the East Campus staff and launch team. We are so glad we’ve been able to contribute to Suncrest’s ministry in such an exciting time for the church and NW Indiana. Recently, though, we’ve been re-examining our giftedness and our goals for how we want to help bring God’s Kingdom in the world, and realized our roles at Suncrest may no longer be where we can do the most good. Here’s some of our thoughts…

•    I would love to be in full-time ministry again. Working half-time at Suncrest has been fantastic (until Evie was born I was able to put in full-time hours anyway), but financially and for time-effectiveness, I would love to be full-time. There were high expectations that my role would become full-time in 2009, but with the present state of the economy and some other high-priority staff positions that need to be filled, it is definitely not in the books for the foreseeable future. Not the biggest reason for our decision, but it definitely factors in.

•    I am praying for a role with greater influence and decision-making ability. A campus-level role is more about reproducing what already exists (which in Suncrest’s case is a very good thing!), but I’m really “built” for new things… I’ve been biased by my many years in church planting! My heart is to do a new thing to bring the Kingdom to people who need it… I’d like to continue on the path towards leading a new church work sometime in the future.

•    I would love to be in a role where I can contribute a larger spectrum of my giftedness/passions. In my previous ministry experience I’ve been able to head up areas (in our 4-C lingo) like Care, Cultivate, and Connect, and preach/teach on a fairly regular basis. Of course, Suncrest has team members who already specialize in these areas and do an excellent job of it—so these are areas I am simply not needed! A role where I could be stretched and challenged into areas in addition to the arts would be a good fit.

•    There are certain areas of the country some consider to be the “front lines” of the Kingdom—would love to work there. When I read articles like this one about the Pacific Northwest or the East Coast, or hear about the needs in urban areas, my heart absolutely breaks. There are many people right here in the Southeast Chicago Suburbs that need to hear the good news, but Patti and I know that there are certain areas where we have worked (Northern California, as an example) that really brought out the best in us.

•    I would love to be in a role where I can use what I’ve learned at Suncrest. And I don’t just mean from our leaders like Greg or Doug… just being part of a growing, thriving community like Suncrest has taught us so much, and fueled our passion to change people’s lives. We now know what it is to have a truly shared vision and to work in a large staff structure. Learning from Bobby Jackson has been amazing (of course, he is a fellow CCU alumni, so should I have expected anything less?). I know I am a stronger leader… I am a better person because of Suncrest, and I want to share that with a church community that needs it!

Of course, the hardest part of any transition like this is having to say goodbye to all our great friends. Thank goodness for social networking! Seriously, though, we will miss all of our friends here at Suncrest, especially our fellow worshippers at East Campus… you all are consistent, committed, and genuine, and it has been an honor to worship God alongside you, and create a new campus here in Hobart. Thank you for letting us be part of that experience! Ah, this post has grown ginormously long… if you’ve stayed with me throughout, thanks! Don’t hesitate to call me (219.688.2540) or shoot me an email (Kevin.Richardson AT Suncrest.org) if you have any questions!

-Kev

Posted in Kevin's Life, Suncrest