Continue to pray for Andrew and his family as he now serves as the youth pastor at Tulsa Bible Church. The note below is what Andrew shared with the Springs of Grace Church when he left in 2010.

Pastor Andrew’s Resignation

Church Family,

There is no easy way to tell you this, but effective today I am resigning my position as one of your pastors. For many months Cara and I have sensed that the Lord preparing us for a new assignment. We have prayed and talked and sought much counsel. After reflecting over the many ways in which the Lord has worked in our life, many positive and some negative, we have begun to see how the Lord has slowly been readying us to leave Springs of Grace Bible Church. We are convinced that the Lord has brought us to this point, and we are ready to begin taking the next steps in following him. Right now we don’t know where those steps may lead. We simply know they lead away from here. So, today, Sunday, May 23rd will be our last Sunday to worship with you.

I know this seems abrupt and for many of you it seems unexpected. Let me assure you it is not. This is not a decision we have come to recently. Rather, it is a decision that has been reached over a long period of time. Cara and I feel the timing is right to go now and step out in faith believing in the goodness of God to show us the next step.

Please don’t think that our leaving means we think poorly of you or poorly of the church. We love each one of you. Just because we are leaving the church for what God has next doesn’t mean we are leaving your friendship. We are confident in the Lord that He will continue doing a good work here in this church. We have been greatly blessed during our 8 ½ years here to watch the Lord work through your lives.

There are few people who have intersected my life and my family’s life who have been more of a blessing to me than Joe. I have complete confidence that he will continue to lead you and love you with a wide open heart for you and for the Lord. And, I’m thankful for the fruit that his ministry has born in my own life and the life of my family. In fact, we never would have had the blessing of moving to Tulsa and being part of this church family had not the Lord put it on Joe’s heart to ask me to partner with him in this work.

Now our time here has come to an end. In many ways it is sad. And, in other ways it hopeful. In some ways this is an end. In other ways it is a beginning.

We pray God’s richest blessings for you and we hope you will pray for us too as we try and follow the Lord’s leading.

Sincerely,

Andrew, Cara, and family

Pastor Joe’s Response
Sometimes God brings things into our lives that we don’t understand – things that we don’t want. This is one of those. Andrew said that in some ways this is sad and other ways it is not. I feel the sad. I also hope for the ways it is not. I have a love for Andrew and a commitment to him that goes way back and runs deep. Andrew’s father and mother showed incredible kindness to me and Rosa when we were young and immature and Andrew’s dad became one of my dearest friends. I had the privilege of being Andrew’s youth minister and coaching him as a junior high athlete over at Lewis & Clark; listening and praying with his dad about his years at East Central and then Northeastern State; rejoicing over his marriage to Cara; watching him explode spiritually as a young man in the preacher school in Shreveport; watched him step up as a man of faith after the death of his dad and then mature on the Springs of Grace staff there. I watched and prayed and rejoiced and when the elders at Grace Church in Texas felt like it was right for us to come and start a church in the center of Tulsa with a dream of catching a wave of God’s grace that would use us to take the gospel across class barriers and racial barriers and reach this city – I called Andrew and asked him and Cara to come with us. I asked him to come and pastor with me with no guarantees only a promise that I wouldn’t let him or his family starve before I did. And with that glamorous sales pitch he agreed to be a part and 8 ½ years ago moved up to join this work. I – like many of you have been enormously blessed by his preaching and teaching. I have thanked God over and over for the truths he has expounded from God’s Word to my family and my own heart. I have reveled in the times he has taught us in our preacher school through books like Romans and Hebrews and many others – I tell you that so you know the sadness you are feeling about losing your pastor is felt more deeply in my own heart.
Ministry is hard. It is hard to give yourselves away for others. It is difficult to cross cultures and to invest your lives in areas that you aren’t good at. It’s hard but it is exciting to be in a place where you have to depend upon the Spirit of God. I’ve been thankful to get to pursue this ministry together with you, Andrew.
It is an enormous understatement to say, “You’ll be missed.” Your departure will be like losing a part of our body. It will hurt.
But your leaving to pursue the next step of ministry God has for you will also be like the Church at Antioch sending out a Paul or a Barnabas. No doubt that was difficult but they commended them to the Lord and they rejoiced at what God would accomplish through them – and we feel that too.
Church family – I just want you to be clear. As Andrew said – this is something they have been praying about for some time. There is not any sin issue or problem where Andrew is being forced to resign. That is absolutely not the case. This is a matter of him following what he is convinced the Lord is showing him to do and because we trust the Lord and we love Andrew we, as a church family want to send you out with much anticipation of the Lord using you for His glory.
I have asked some of our men to step in the leadership gap as Andrew leaves. Doug Fry, Jared McCoy, Topper Coursen, and Curtis Branch have stepped in to help and as leadership we want the church family to know we are going to continue to support Andrew during this time of transition. Even as God leads you on to something else we want you to know that we see you as a part of this family and want to remain a part of what God does in you and through you.
I know many of you may have questions about what is ahead. Our leadership team doesn’t pretend to have all of the answers but we want to hold a church family meeting tonight at 6:00 pm right here to share with you how we are hoping to function leadership wise in the days ahead and to answer any questions you might have. I am thankful for strong, godly men God has given us to help lead us and I have asked some of these men to come forward and pray for Andrew as we thank the Lord for the years of ministry and service he has given this faith family and to ask for God’s continued blessing on his and Cara’s life and the lives of his family.

Pray For…Haiti

Stats
•Population – 9,035,536
•Percentage of Evangelicals – 22.2%
•Total Number of People Groups – 6
•Number of Unreached People Groups – 5
•Language Spoken – French, Creole
•Major Religion – Roman Catholic (80%), Protestant Christianity, other (roughly half population practices voodoo)
•Human Development Rank – 149
•Persecution Index – N/A

Haiti was a French colony up until 1804 when it gained its independence and became the first black republic to declare so. The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti has been plagued with political violence for most of its history. According to recent stats, 76% of Haitians live on less than US$2 per day and 56% on less than US$1 per day. Approximately 46% of the total population of Haiti is undernourished. One third of newborn babies are born underweight, and one in five Haitians die before the age of 40. During the 2008 hurricane season, severe storms devastated more than 70% of Haiti’s agriculture and most of its roads, bridges, and other infrastructure, creating pockets of severe malnutrition and killing 800. In addition, 3.3 million people were left in need of food support. This year’s earthquake was even more devastating. In January, Haiti was hit with the biggest earthquake it had experienced in over 200 years; tens of thousands were killed, hundreds of thousands injured, and as many as one million left homeless. This further damaged infrastructure especially around Port-au-Prince hindering relief coming into the country and to other areas effected by the earthquake outside the city. Evidence of the destruction remains today, and many organizations continue to provide aide for the Haitians. Sources: IMB Global Research, UN World Food Programme, CIA World Factbook

•Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. Ask God to provide for Haiti in their time of need for His name’s sake.
•Roughly half of the population of Haiti practices voodoo. Pray that God would open the eyes of these people who are in darkness and bring them into His Kingdom of light.
•Due to the recent earthquake, tens of thousands of Haitians were killed, hundreds of thousands injured and as many a one million left homeless. Pray that God would reveal Himself to these people, comforting them and drawing them to Himself.
•Pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ that they would be faithful in ministering to the country of Haiti.
•Pray for resources and training for the local believers so that they may be equipped to proclaim the Gospel and disciple those who come to faith in Christ.

I found this to be great encouragement as we head into the summer. – Brother Joe

Every Man
May 17, 2010
The church of Jesus Christ in America today is afflicted with a terrible malady: the passivity of its men.

Whether due to widespread spiritual lukewarmness, ignorance about the church’s mission, a general fear of responsibility, the malaise of false humility, a sense of aimlessness and incompetence, or the stiff-arming of adulthood, young men and men overall generally expect someone else to do the work and pick up the slack. We are waiting for the next guy to charge the hill, step up to the plate, and grab the bull by the horns. And we continue to sit back as the church at large maintains our most convenient excuse: a substantial clergy-laity distinction where the “full-time” ministers are expected to do most of the work.

As men, we have generally allowed ourselves to have low leadership ambitions — in the home, in the church, and in the society. We are not interested in high expectations and heavy responsibilities. We want to keep our aims low and our lives light. This is not to say that we should be overly ambitious or selfishly ambitious; only that we should be much more ambitious than we are, and for far purer aims than we are.

If every young man is exhorted to be “self-controlled,” (Titus 2:6) “fearing God and keeping His commandments” (Ecclesiastes 12:13); if every older man is urged to be “sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness” (Titus 2:2); if “every man” (παντα ανθρωπον) is meant to be “warned,” “taught,” and “presented mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:28); and if every man is a “joint” within the body of Christ who must be “working properly” in order to “make the body grow” (Ephesians 4:15-16) — then every man ought to be bending and stretching and exercising and pulling his weight for the mission of God to be accomplished in the church, and through the church to the world.

This means that your church may have pews, but it has no bench. There are no substitutes and no practice players. Men, we are not spectators. We are participants. And not only are we participants — we are leaders and influencers and guides. We are to sincerely and humbly and courageously and selflessly lay our lives down by performing the highest duty of spiritual leadership — service.

The drama of redemption is not just meant to be read or watched or heard or learned or even memorized and internalized. It is meant to be lived. We stand on the living stage of redemptive history. One day we will walk the halls of heaven, but today we live in the last days, holding the line in our local-church outposts scattered throughout the cursed earth until Jesus comes to make all things new. And we have a role to play in these community outposts – as men, as mentors, as husbands, as fathers, as role models and instructors and leaders and organizers and mobilizers and evangelists. Not our pastors. Not our professors. Not our favorite authors and internet preachers. Us.

How many different ways can I say it? If you are a man, you are a leader. You may not be a great leader or a good leader or even a grown leader, but you are a leader, by nature and by calling. The question is only who, how, when, and in what direction you will lead.

If you want to know who is meant to have foremost influence in your church, in your home, in your dorm, and in your community and workplace, don’t turn to Piper or MacArthur, Mahaney or Mohler, Keller or Carson, Chandler or Tripp, or Dever, Duncan, and DeYoung. Look in the mirror.

This is an army. And the question at hand is not whether its men will be soldiers. The question is what kind of soldiers we will be. We have already been enlisted, and the battle is raging around us and above us and within us. Our Commander in Chief is invincible, our commission is clear, and our cause is the very hope of the world.

What would our churches look like if, this summer, every single man in your local church — regardless of age or position – yielded to the guidance and power of the Spirit and resolved by the grace of God to serve his family, church, and community by humbly and courageously leading those around him to see the gospel more clearly, worship Christ more passionately, obey God more specifically, love others more sacrificially, and disciple younger men more intentionally to do the same?

What if every man among us, this summer, re-read the sacred Scriptures, freely confessed our sins of laziness and lust and passivity and fear and faithlessness, rejoiced afresh in the forgiveness and freedom of Christ, threw off our besetting guilt and haunting regrets and spiritual disillusionment, re-prioritized our lives, our time, our friendships, our marriages, and our finances, established masculine relationships of encouragement and accountability, and pled with God daily to revamp our vision of His grand story of redemption and to reinvigorate our labors for His mission?

By God’s grace and for His glory, may we find out soon — every man.

As we walk through the trials and challenges of these days and as the summer is upon us, I want to encourage you to keep this vision in front of us.

SPRINGS OF GRACE VISION MESSAGE for 2010

1) Diligently promote among Springs of Grace an awareness of the need in our city and world. (Luke 10 “Parable of Good Samaritan”; Luke 14)

Hopelessness, poverty, human trafficking, sexual perversion; generational patterns of violence, drugs, family disintegration; educational crisis, racial prejudice and discrimination; absence of biblical gospel, lack of biblical knowledge.

THERE IS A NEED BIGGER THAN WE CAN IMAGINE AND A MISSION GREATER THAN WE CAN ACCOMPLISH.

2) Call the people of Springs of Grace (our faith family) to pray – to really pray – to join in what God is doing throughout this city and throughout the world through prayer. (John 15:7, 16)

Use Operation World book as a tool to pray for the entire world over the coming year. Develop a prayer page online that is updated at least weekly, if not more often, about the ministries of Springs and the prayer needs of the world – (This is something that we still need someone to take the oversight for)

Ask each other: “WHAT ARE YOU PRAYING FOR?” and “WHAT CAN I PRAY WITH YOU ABOUT?”

KEEP DOING THIS!

3) Encourage one another at Springs of Grace to read the Word of God (John 15:3-7).

We will provide a “Read the Bible in a Year” handout; as well as a handout for reading through the New Testament in a year and reading through the key passages of the Bible in a year.

Ask each other – “WHAT ARE YOU READING THIS WEEK?” or “HOW HAS GOD USED THE SCRIPTURE WE READ THIS WEEK IN YOUR LIFE AND THE LIVES OF THOSE GOD HAS GIVEN YOU TO LOVE?”

KEEP DOING THIS!

4) Press hard to equip and develop more of the saints at Springs of Grace for ministry (Ephesians 4-12-16).

a) Pray for laborers – “Jesus said, ‘ The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech (PRAY) the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. Luke 10:2
b) Intern program – pray and recruit and support more interns for this summer – we have 27 coming! THANK YOU JESUS.
c) Preacher school – seek to develop the preacher school by offering another step beyond the bible study that will more diligently develop preachers. Ask God to use the intern program as one of the main feeders into the preacher school.

d) Offer more classes for the church body. We hope to offer a hermeneutics class (How to study the Bible) and a general overview of the Bible class this next year.

5) Count our lives as nothing (Acts 20:24) in order to be about a mission (John 20:21) we can’t accomplish on our own.

a) Cultivate a love relationship with Jesus as the fountain source for all we do so that we stay as far away from moralism and legalism as possible but give ourselves away as the overflow of the rich love we have for Jesus.

b) Encourage our brothers and sisters in the body to use their gifts alongside us so that we collectively demonstrate the perfections of Christ to our city. Not everyone has the same role but all are a necessary part of the body (1 Corinthians 12).
c) Encourage one another to be bound by the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s will because faithfulness to His mission is better than life.
d) Encourage one another to be faithful even though we don’t know what tomorrow holds because faithfulness to His mission is better than life.
e) Encourage one another to not quit when it gets tough because faithfulness to His mission is better than life.
f) Encourage one another to reject the American Dream (trust yourself) and embrace the gospel dream (deny yourself) because faithfulness to His mission is better than life.
COUNTING NONE OF THESE THINGS AS GAINING MERIT BEFORE GOD OR AS A STANDARD OF RIGHTEOUSNESS TO MEASURE OURSELVES OR OTHERS BY – but seeing faithfulness to His mission as better than life BECAUSE it is the way to finish the mission and it is the path to joy forever.

6) Preach, Live, Glory in and Believe a God who is greater than we can imagine – One who is able to do the impossible (Luke 1:37; Matthew 19:26)

a) Dependent upon His Spirit and not ourselves

b) Praying for a great God to do great things

c) Looking at the things God has blessed among us and considering how we might be more involved in what He loves

d) Thinking and dreaming and praying together as to how we might love like He loves and speak like He speaks in this city at this time

e) HOPING for God to change us and our city to be like Him as He stirs His people to pray and as His Spirit empowers His Word to accomplish His work

Pray For…Greece

Stats
•Population – 10,737,428
•Percentage of Evangelicals – 0.4%
•Total Number of People Groups – 14
•Number of Unreached People Groups – 14
•Language Spoken – Greek
•Major Religion – Greek Orthodox (98%), Muslim, other
•Human Development Rank – 25
•Persecution Index – N/A

Greece has both a vast cultural history and a long history related to the Gospel. The New Testament is full of references of and letters to Greek cities like Corinth and Thessalonica. Greece was once a powerhouse in the Mediterranean. Its language was the standard in antiquity. It was the language chosen by the New Testament writers. However, even though it was evangelized by the first Christians thousands of years ago, all 14 of Greece’s people groups are considered unreached. The Greece of today gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1829. Years of monarchy and military dictatorship led finally to democratic elections in 1974. Since 2001, Greece has been a member of the European Union. But Greece currently finds itself in the middle of economic crisis. An increasing number of Greek citizens are becoming unemployed while inflation is on the rise. As for the spiritual condition of Greece, Greek Orthodox Christianity has been predominant for centuries, and very few Greeks would profess salvation by faith in Christ alone. Due to this, evangelical missionaries have begun to proclaim the Gospel in order to plant churches which has not gone without opposition. Some evangelical missionaries have been harassed and arrested for proclaiming the Gospel around Greece. Greeks are often suspicious and even at times hostile to anything that is not Greek Orthodox. It is only God who can change the heart. Let us lift up in prayer the more than 10.7 million who comprise Greece’s 14 unreached people groups.

•Pray for God to bring revival to the country of Greece
•Pray for God to soften the hearts of the people in Greece
•Pray for missionaries in Greece to have strength and courage for them as they continue to take the Gospel to Greece.
•Pray for boldness and unity for the few evangelical Christians in Greece.
•Pray for training and resources for the few evangelicals in Greece so that they may be equipped to share the Gospel.
•Pray for the current economic crisis in Greece. Ask for God to show His sovereignty and provision to the Greek people, and that He would guide the government as they make decisions for the future of Greece.

Pray For…
The Mandinka of Gambia and Senegal
Stats
• Population of the Mandinka – 1,414,000
• Percentage of Evangelicals – unknown (0.1% Christian Adherent)
• Language Spoken – Mandinka
• Major Religion – Islam (Sunni) mixed with traditional beliefs
• Human Development Rank of Countries – 166 (Senegal), 168 (Gambia)
• Persecution Index – N/A

Centuries ago, the Mandinka people left their homeland in Mali to search of better farm lands and settled in Gambia, Senegal, and some surrounding countries. The Mandinka were mainly animists, but through trade, some converted to Islam. Many of the Mandinka resisted Islam but over time their animistic beliefs merged with Islam. Now, most of the Mandinka claim to be Muslims but their beliefs are sometimes mixed with animism. Today, almost half of the population of Gambia is Mandinka. Senegal and Gambia are two of the world’s poorest countries. There is currently the New Testament translated in Mandinka, but due to poor education very few of the Mandinka are able to read. In addition, access to the Gospel is limited among the Mandinka people. The highest estimates say only 0.1% of Mandinka are Christians. The few Mandinka who are believers live in an oppressive environment with little support outside of their faith in Christ.

• Pray for the spread of the Gospel among the Mandinka and that they would know the one true God.
• Pray that God would send laborers to continue the proclamation of the Good News among the Mandinka.
• Pray for God to call out teachers to help educate the Mandinka so that they can learn to read His Word.
• Ask God to grant courage and boldness to the Mandinka believers to remain faithful.

via Desiring God Blog on 5/3/10

(Author: Jon Bloom)
We know that—for the most part. But still, we can be tempted to think that if we just figure out the secret formula—the right mixture of Bible meditation and prayer—we will experience euphoric moments of rapturous communion with the Lord. And if that doesn’t happen, our formula must be wrong.
The danger of this misconception is that it can produce chronic disappointment and discouragement. Cynicism sets in and we give up because devotions don’t seem to work for us.
The longing for intimate communion with God is God-given. He will satisfy it fully some day. And the Spirit gives us occasional tastes. But God has other purposes for us in our daily Bible meditation and prayer. Here are a few:
Soul Exercise (1 Corinthians 9:24, Romans 15:4): We exercise our bodies to increase strength, endurance, promote general health, and keep unnecessary weight off. Devotions are like exercise for our souls. They force our attention off of self-indulgent distractions and pursuits and on to God’s purposes and promises. If we neglect this exercise we will go to pot.

Soul Shaping (Romans 12:2): The body will generally take the shape of how we exercise it. Running shapes one way, weight training shapes another way. The same is true for the soul. It will conform to how we exercise (or don’t exercise) it.

Bible Copiousness (Psalm 119:11, Psalm 119:97, Proverbs 23:12): A thorough, repeated, soaking in the Bible over the course of years increases our body of biblical knowledge, providing fuel for the fire of worship and increasing our ability to draw from all parts of the Bible in applying God’s wisdom to life.

Fight Training (Ephesians 6:10-17): Marines undergo rigorous training in order to so ingrain their weapons knowledge that when suddenly faced with the chaos of combat they instinctively know what to do. Similarly, devotions make us more skilled warriors.

Delight Cultivation (Psalm 37:3-4, James 4:8, Psalm 130:5): When a couple falls in love there are hormonal fireworks. But in marriage they must cultivate delight in one another. It is the consistent, persistent, faithful, intentional, affectionate pursuit of one another during better and worse, richer and poorer, sickness and healthy times that cultivates a capacity for delight in each other far deeper and richer than the fireworks phase. Similarly, devotions are one of the ways we cultivate delight in God. Many days it may seem mundane. But we will be surprised at the cumulative power they have to deepen our love for and awareness of Him.

Pray For…Ethiopia

Stats
•Population – 85,237,338
•Percentage of Evangelicals – 19.7%
•Total Number of People Groups – 127
•Number of Unreached People Groups – 120
•Language Spoken – Amarigna (32.7%), Oromigna (31.6%), Tigrigna, Somaligna
•Major Religion – Orthodox Christian (50.6%), Muslim (32.8%), Protestant
•Human Development Rank – 171
•Persecution Index – 44

Ethiopia was ruled by a monarchy from ancient times until 1974 when it was overthrown by a military junta. The new regime established Ethiopia as a socialist state. After years of turmoil, widespread drought, refugee problems, and military uprisings a rebel coalition overthrew the government in 1991. The following years Ethiopia adopted a constitution, conducted elections, and became a stable democracy. However, the people of Ethiopia have had little relief. Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. Over the past two decades, Ethiopia has experienced six major droughts that have resulted in the lack of food and water in many areas due to damaged crops and inability to support livestock. Instability in surrounding countries has not helped this. Tens of thousands of refugees from Sudan and Somalia fleeing war-torn countries to Ethiopia has put added strain on the land and government resources. As for the spiritual condition of Ethiopia, Islam grew during the time of socialism while many Christian leaders were imprisoned. The first Christians came to Ethiopia in the 4th century and Orthodox Christianity had been the state religion in Ethiopia for centuries until the fall of the monarchy. Due to its isolation from other Christian communities, however, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has developed traditions and theology that in many ways is in need of reformation. Evangelical believers today are hard-pressed and live under the threat of persecution from both Muslims and Orthodox Christians. Almost 95% of all the people groups in Ethiopia (120 out of 127) are considered unreached; 98 of those people groups have no known witness of the gospel of Christ. The needs, both spiritually and physically, in Ethiopia are great. So, let us go before the Father on behalf of those in Ethiopia.

•Pray for those who have disease and deaths of loved ones due to the lack of water.
•Pray for God to raise up His church to take the gospel to these refugees.
•Pray for God to strengthen His church in Ethiopia so they can withstand false teaching and persecution while being able share the true message of salvation by faith in Christ alone.
•Pray for the 120 people groups in Ethiopia that are considered unreached.