Hello Milwaukee

For Christ's Love Compels Us

This past Sunday the news became public that my family and I will be moving to Milwaukee, where I will serve as the lead minister with the Southside Church of Christ. The plan now is for me to begin at the beginning of November.

Of course, such a change means moving away from Newark. More importantly, I’ll be leaving the Newark Church of Christ where I have served as the lead minister for six and a half years. So sadness is mixed in with the excitement of what’s to come.

When the opportunity to consider serving with the Southside Church of Christ was presented, my wife and I were excited because relocating to Milwaukee would place us within three hours of our aging parents. But I’m also excited because, like the Newark Church of Christ, I see in the Southside Church of Christ a commitment to following Jesus with an openness to what that looks like as a lived embodiment of the gospel.

I’m thankful for the opportunity to have served with the Newark Church of Christ, and for the relations I have made with church members and people in the community. I am equally thankful for the way we have embodied the gospel within Newark and on the University of Delaware Campus. The shepherds of the Newark Church—Richard Duzan, Joe Giubardo, Bennett Foster, Harold Friedline, Ira Lockwood, and Dale Kirkpatrick—are godly men who care deeply for the congregation, serving with humility and integrity. Casey Coston, our campus missionary, has become a friend as much as he is a colleague and he’s a solid minister of the gospel too. I am also thankful that the Newark Church has a campus ministry apprentice like Lauran Brady, who is full of passion for Jesus and is well on her way to becoming a competent campus minister.

I say all that not only because of the gratitude I have for the Newark Church of Christ but also because I want to be clear that I am leaving without any animosity or conflict. But I am a follower of Jesus who has been called to serve as a minister of the gospel. So I also look forward to serving in Milwaukee with the Southside Church of Christ, just helping the church to follow Jesus as we strive to embody the gospel together.

On the homepage of the Southside Church of Christ website is the line that reads “For Christ’s Love Compels Us.” Indeed, we know we are loved by God in and through the love he has expressed in the crucified, resurrected, and exalted Jesus Christ. What more reason do we need to serve God as his servants in Milwaukee? Rather than overthinking what it means to live on mission with God, we will do well in striving to love God and love our neighbor as followers of Jesus.

To God be the glory!