I grabbed my friend by the side of the head and told him this.

The entire sentence was, “Preach the Word, no one else here is going to tell you to do that. You’d better do that, or I’m coming up there to kick your butt for leaving here.”

I came here in 2002 in a world of misery, but the hope of a new life for the first time since I went to college. I knew no one. I had nowhere to stay. I had a nice car, a little bit of money, and a job.

This guy was the first lead evangelist I met younger than me. From the start, he welcome me in. He listened to my hurts and encouraged me to go talk to everyone I was angry at.

I did. All of them. Sam Laing, Arthur, Kip, all of them.

I stopped being angry and devoted myself to helping others again. I worked on computers for free. I got some outside speakers to come here. We tried some new ideas. I taught some classes. I enjoyed attending church for the first time in years.

We talked about a lot of things. He helped me overcome my fear of speaking my mind. He helped me temper my perchant to bluntness without ever telling me a thing. I saw him struggle to come to grips with our church past. I even defended him when people were trying to tell him how to preach. I saw him also go back to his old church and try to make amends for everything he had done. He answered emails from some of those folks.

He became confident in his own calling yet have his own voice. He received criticism from within the church, outside the church, and from other ICoC subculture ministers. Still, he went his own way. He went to a Presbyterian school here to get a theological degree, he reached out to CoC’s, a Vineyard church, and befriended a professor that was feeling pretty low himself about his ministry.

He officiated weddings (including mine) and memorial services, but he did more than that – he cared. Whatever my feelings are on some of the things done during his tenure here, I always knew that he cared. I wish he was not leaving, but I support him in going after his dream.

His dream was to plant a church near he and his wife’s family. In this time of post-HKL renaissance, this requires no approval from anyone. With three young children, it was now or never – and I believe the time was certainly now. The message he preaches needs to spread. People need to know that Jesus is the message, not a church, not a system of control, not a mechanical system of theology. Jesus cared and he exemplifies that like no one else I know.

I truly believe that God brought me here to learn from and learn with this man. Despite both our faults, somehow we ended up helping each other. For that I am grateful.

I wish you well my friend. Go with God and preach the word.

Or else. 🙂