After a nationwide search that took a year and had us interviewing several excellent applicants from across the country, we are so excited to have Joe join our staff. Joe will be leading our ministry to the families living and moving into the West Park neighborhoods.
Joe and his wife Sarah are Sacramento area natives and most recently have served as the Sacramento Directors of Forge Ministries, a ministry of sharing the good news of Jesus on a grass roots, neighbor-to-neighbor level, and training other believers to do the same. When Joe and Sarah were interviewed by Pastor Scott, on a Sunday morning in January, about their work with Forge Ministries both the Search Team and the young families in our congregation said, “They are exactly the kind of people we are looking for.”
So, Pastors Scott and Phil started up a conversation with them, which led to a lot of praying on everyone’s part, more conversations, sharing vision, then interviews, all of which has led to the Leadership Team calling Joe to be our New Community Pastor and Joe accepting the call.
JOE STARTS TOMORROW!
In the days, weeks and months to come, you will get to know Joe and Sarah better. Already you have heard him preach during our
Higher series, and his commentary on the book of John has been published in our Spiritual Growth Saturday emails every Saturday and can also be found on our church website.
Joe has Master’s degrees in both theology and history. In addition to his work with Forge Ministries, he is an adjunct faculty member at Epic Bible College and former Young Adult Minister at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church. Joe is also a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Deputy working in the law library at the Sacramento County jail.
At his request, Joe will continue his position as a sheriff’s deputy while serving with us as a "tentmaking" pastor just like Paul (Acts 18:1-4). There are benefits to this arrangement financially for both him and the church, but more importantly it helps him connect to his neighbors as a guy who has a “normal job” just like them.
Our goal is to start a vibrant ministry to young families who are moving in by the thousands. We don’t just want to reach Christian families, most of all we want to “seek and save those who are lost.”
Joe and Sarah and their three boys will begin house hunting in the West Park area. From there they will start doing grass roots, neighbor-to-neighbor outreach, starting home study groups, and recruiting and training like-minded believing neighbors to join them in making Christ known through the normal activities and conversations you would have with your neighbors. Already they have been having an online Bible study with our young families and some of their friends.
It may take a while before we see much evidence of their ministry within our church walls. Remember, we are now ministering in a post-Christian culture that probably has a lot of similarities to the pre-Christian culture that the churches of the New Testament ministered in.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
PRAY
that God will:
- Continue to prepare and equip Joe and Sarah for this new ministry
- Help them find and purchase the right home in the right location
- Help their boys transition to new friends and a new school
- Prepare the community to want to hear about and embrace Jesus
GIVE
to the 20/20 Campaign (see the article below)
