As some of you already know, we will be leaving Horn Creek this August. Due to the financial challenges that Horn Creek is facing and the coming restructuring this fall, Leslie and I have both felt led to head in a new direction with our lives. This is not without great discomfort and sadness, as we have loved this season of our lives. Our ministry opportunities, our home, the amazing Colorado wilderness in our backyard, our friendships and relationships, and our church family are all hard to walk away from. We have absolutely loved this chapter in our lives! In fact, on many days it has felt like someone keeps ripping ductape off my hairy chest. I admit this is not a great analogy because for one, I don’t have a harry chest, and two; I think the visual itself is kind of demented. Anyway, on with the future…
So, with prayer, pleading, and trembling, I do believe God is leading us Foxes in an entirely new direction. Now, I suspect both our Christian, and non Christian friends are reading this post. Some of you have praised our involvement in vocational ministry both in the church and at camp. Others of you may have scratched your heads and thought, “Ok, whatever works for you.” We have been working in the church for close to 15 years now in some capacity; in youth ministry, college ministry, and camp ministry. It has been a joy, a challenge, and a tremendous blessing. We also believe strongly that the church is a light, and a vehicle that God uses to bring people to Christ, to challenge those who waver, and to encourage the faithful. But, we have also realized that our commitment to such ministry has kept us from engaging the world like we'd hoped. Yes, we have reached out, and loved meeting all types of people. But, in the end, we still spend most of our time with people who have the same values, beliefs, and lingo as we do. We have spent many years challenging many of you to be a light, have integrity, and share your faith in the workplace. We have tremendous respect for so many of you who live out your faith every day, often in very difficult work environments. In many ways, we feel like God is telling us to start living the message in similar ways ourselves.
As we have prayed about what is next, it has been crucial for us to sense that God is leading, and pushing us to take new risks for Him. The safest thing for us to do (I am talking about the Foxes) is to stay in full time vocational ministry. Yet, I do not think we serve a safe God, and sometimes I believe He calls us to live lives that are far from safe and predictable. As a result, Leslie and I have a growing passion to connect with everyday folks in every day places. We also seek to continue to use our home as a place of refuge, rest, and encouragement, and yes, ministry. In fact, instead of going somewhere else to do ministry, or heading across town to do church, we want our home, our work, our lives to be church. I mean let’s face it, did not Jesus say the two greatest commandments were to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus also challenged his followers in Matthew 5 saying “let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in heaven.” We sense that God is asking us to take those verses literally. As a result, we intend to place ourselves in a situation where our light shines and our neighbors are loved. Of course we will still attend and serve in the church, but we long for our home itself to be the place of light where we meet with all kinds of folks, not just those like us.
Now, it is going to be a bit tough to pay the bills if our ministry is simply focused on our home and neighborhood and not a vocational ministry job. So, I also believe God is calling me to find employment in the community. A non ministry job so to speak. The plan for this fall - as of now - will be to pursue a full time job in real estate to hopefully pay the bills and support our desire to be involved in the lives of many different types of people. Many of you will probably not be surprised by that, as I have always had a bent towards the real estate world. My father has been a realtor for close to 30 years now; I think it is in my blood, if you know what I mean.
So, how will all this look? We plan to move to Golden, Colorado in the fall. Golden is a small community on the edge of Denver, right next to the Front Range Mountains. It is known for its outdoor culture, and its numerous mountain biking and hiking trails. It is also a road biking, kayaking and climbing mecca, with lots of opportunities to join any outdoor club possible. Golden is also a college town, with the School of Mines in the middle of downtown, with the University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado Christian University, Denver University all within 20 minutes of our front porch. And if anyone needs any more incentive to come visit us, Golden is also home of the Coors Brewery. At any rate, we have rented a home in the heart of downtown, across the street from the river, a block from School of Mines, and walking distance to downtown and my new Real Estate office.
Many of you reading this have spent time in our home over the years. You know it is our passion to show hospitality and to live life with those we care for. As a result, it should be no surprise that we are excited to open up our home as we have always done to college students, neighbors, high school kids, and just about anyone else who may stop by. We are not sure how it is all going to look, but we expect over time we will have groups of folks in our home at least a couple nights a week, in addition to serving in the local church as volunteers - what a concept.
Are we excited? Heck yes! Are we scared? Hell Yes! (Did I just say that?) We will move to Golden with no income and houses to sell. We have never, ever done something this stupid. Well, there is a close second, but that is another story…. We are truly scared out of our minds, but also sense that God is asking us to dive in head first and trust him to provide. We ask you to pray and hope with us, and to pray that God will bring us not only income, but people to care for. We are excited to fully dive into our community with hearts to serve, invest, and make a long term impact.
We would love your prayers, your encouragement, and of course your visits. We will be leaving Horn Creek by August 16th at the latest and intend to have a blast with our remaining months up here on the mountain. Thanks all who took the time to read, and who have sincerely cared for the Foxes over the years.
Warmly,
Jeff and Leslie
