Raising up tomorrow's leaders!

In the span of three weeks or so I have had the incredible blessing of being a part, a very small part of the "installation" of two men to the calling of pastor to two respective churches in which I have been blessed of having a part.  Brent Small became the new Lead Pastor of Faith E. Free in Waterville, Maine after being my right hand man, colleague and friend for 15 years.  Ben Franklin was installed a couple weeks later in Solon, Maine at the New Hope E. Free Church, a church we planted, well, a long time ago in a small town 35 miles north of us.

Pastor Brent came to us "raw" but with the right heart and soul and he was a phenomenal colleague, friend, support and enabled me to continue to serve at Faith for as long as I did.  Pastor Ben came to faith screaming and kicking not yet even in relationship with the Savior. He met Jesus, grew, blossomed, and now heads up the work of Christ in a tiny Maine town with Christ lovers who have shown their grit and love for the Savior over the years. And coincidentally, the first pastor of the church plant in Solon was a man who came to Faith in desperation, unsaved, ungroomed and uneducated (as the world would label education.)

It dawned on me as I was preparing my second pastoral installation that Faith has a history of seeing where God is at work and joining him. (Thank you Henry Blackaby...)  Over the nearly three decades at Faith we have brought on staff, 13 men and woman out of our own faith community, who were either completely raw, untrained, or had been long out of ministry but were who we needed to continue the work of the Lord in Central Maine.

When I look back on my decision to abandon my dreams for medical school entering the ministry it was such a Divine ordination that there are no doubts of what He had put into play. I will die an accomplished man, fulfilled, completed and satisfied and in awe of the grace of a God who can take anything and anyone and fashion it/them for His purposes without ever trampling one's personal choices and freedom.

I have no idea what He has for me with the years that remain but I fall on my face in gratitude and joy coming into the fullness of all that the Lord's Shalom comprises.  After all--
"...does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?"  (Romans 9:21)

Why He chose me for such honorable purposes I don't think I shall ever know. All I can say, is Worthy is the Lamb who was slain--ALL glory and praise belong to Him now and forever more.