08/06/2026
A message to my brothers and sisters I was privileged to serve with and shepherd.
I didn’t plan to say all of this but God woke me at 5am and gave me these words. So I need you to hear this from me.
I believe with all I am that God brought us together. It wasn’t an accident.
We were never going to fit the mold of the “modern church.” You know it. I know it. We were too rough around the edges. Too honest about our scars. Too broken to fake it on Sunday morning.
But that’s exactly why God put us in the same room.
He gave us the same characteristics:
A heart for the underdog.
A burden for people who’ve been chewed up by life.
A memory of what it’s like to suffer with past trauma and wonder if God still sees you.
The guts to say, “I’m not perfect, and I’m done pretending I am.”
God didn’t call us to be polished. He called us to be present.
He didn’t call us to look holy. He called us to go show people that we don’t claim to be perfect, and we don’t expect them to be either.
We are the people He sent into the fire. And we walked through it.
Not because we were strong, but because we knew God was there with us in the flames. Isaiah 43:2 wasn’t just a verse for us. It was our life.
And because we’ve been there, God gave us something: a testimony.
Not a theory. A testimony.
To tell the addict, the divorced, the abused, the ashamed, the ones the “modern church” didn’t know what to do with — that there is hope.
There is peace.
There is mercy.
There is forgiveness.
And it’s all found in one name: the Lord Jesus Christ.
We may not be enough for the modern church.
We may not sing the right songs or wear the right clothes or say the right buzzwords.
But hear me: Jesus thought we were enough to die for.
Romans 5:8 says while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not after we cleaned up. While we were still a mess.
That’s the Gospel we carried. That’s the Gospel I saw you live.
You showed love when it was hard.
You showed kindness when no one was watching.
You showed forgiveness when you had every right to walk away.
You carried a burden for lost souls, and you didn’t quit.
It has been my pleasure and my honor to serve alongside you and to shepherd each of you.
I don’t say that lightly. Shepherding you was one of the greatest callings God ever gave me.
I will always love you as brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus.
Wherever God takes us next, don’t forget who we are.
We are God’s children.
Called, not polished.
Broken, not worthless.
Sent, not sidelined.
Keep loving the ones nobody else wants. Keep telling the truth about grace. Keep walking with Jesus.
I love you. I’m proud of you. And I’m with you, even though I’m not in the room.
May God bless each of you.
-Pastor Chris