IS RANDY STILL DOING HIS MINISTRY?
You have probably been wondering why I have not been communicating for the last few months. (Then again, maybe you haven’t.) In any case, I have been negligent in communicating with you and I apologize for that.
As you may know, I am also the Worship Pastor at my church, Open Door Fellowship (ODF) as well as an elder. We are an elder led church and the role of ‘Senior Pastor’ doesn’t really exist, though our Teaching Pastor, John Lynch, filled that function for a number of years. At the end of last year we all became aware that he could no longer do it alone and I agreed to step into that role with him. By doing so, I hoped to relieve some of the burden and give some needed leadership to the ministries of the church. Obviously, this would cause me to reorder my schedule which I have been doing for the last few months. It also has been taking a lot of my time to get up-to-speed with the things that needed attention at the church and try and address those things. It has also allowed me to use some talents that I had not been needed for in the past. It is a lot of fun and at the same time, a challenge that I am enjoying. I have been very happy to do this and I believe we are making progress in getting things running more smoothly.
The focus and demand of time has not allowed me to do some of the things I usually have been doing with my ministry, namely - get this letter out and keep my website up-to-date. I am sure it looks as though I have been neglecting my ministry, but the truth is - it is just the letter and the website that have been neglected. I have been singing and traveling throughout AZ doing concerts. I have also been diligently trying to get concerts booked and developing new leads.
All of that to say that I am still pursuing my ministry as much as ever. I have just been irresponsible in communicating to all of you. Again, I apologize.
So, what else is new!
My life is busy with ministry of all kinds. I have written a song in the last month, which hadn’t happened in the last year, for whatever reason.(The title - ‘In the Image of Your Son’). It was in conjunction with a message we were doing as part of the Roman’s series we were doing at church. I gave a few of the messages at ODF. We have begun making the messages available via Mp3 from the ODF we site. If you are interested in hearing any of them they can be downloaded by going to - ‘www.ODFchurch.org’. On that page there is a button labeled - ‘Listen to the Sunday Messages’. This will take you to a page listing the various series we have recorded. Click on any of them and you will be given a listing. They can be listened to from the site or be downloaded to your computer and listened to when it is convenient.
Linda and I also taught at a marriage retreat, which is such a blessing. We have done this for the last three years and each time we are encouraged and humbled by the reaction to the truths we are getting the privilege of communicating, knowing the power they have to bring healing and hope to marriages that have been wounded and damaged. We wish that someone had given us these truths and tools early in our marriage. Some of the things we struggled with would have
been so much easier if we had had the benefit of these things we are now getting to teach. To be able to give this to newly married couples is so cool. Linda and I have also wondered if sometime in the future we might do these retreats for other churches. It is something we are praying about.
The summer is busy with ministry and a vacation. We will be doing worship for Horn Creek in Colo. starting July 7th - 15th. From there we will be going through WI and then down to OKlahoma City and then arriving home sometime around the 29th of July. We are open to doing some concerts during this time and if any of you are interested in having us come to your church while we are in your area, let me know and we will try and do it.
