Monday, August 06, 2012

Bay Area Bound

Yesterday our church made an announcement that will change our life.

Almost 8 years ago I accepted a call to minister at South Hills Church Community as the Middle School Pastor!  I will never forget driving home, from our first visit, when I distinctly recall feeling the call of God to Henderson.  November 18th 2004 I started my new role at SHCC and it has been a great time in my life!

Through out the last 8 years I have served in almost every capacity at our church.  I started as Middle School Pastor, then became Student Ministry Pastor, then High School Pastor (with a sprinkle of Missions), after that I helped lead our church in the absence of a Lead Pastor, back to High School Pastor and finally Pastor of Discipleship.  During my time in Vegas I got married, started seminary, got ordained, had a kid, kept doing seminary, had another kid and graduated seminary.

While on sabbatical I received a call from a great pastor in the Bay Area asking if we were serious about considering a Campus Pastor role that one of my buddies had told me about.  I never really saw myself in this kind of role but for some reason felt God leading us to check it out more.  After spending five days in the Bay Area our family came home and prayed.  We prayed, we asked for prayer, we asked for council, we prayed some more, we spoke with our leadership and prayed more.  To make the long story short; a month after our visit we were offered a role to minister on the Peninsula and accepted the role.


Now the hard part.  I always thought that writing a resignation letter would be easy but it was SO difficult.  I love South Hills Church.  I love the people that we have worked with.  I love the volunteer teams I have spent time with and that made it all the more difficult to resign.  I am going to miss our church family dearly but I trust that this is a Kingdom call and I am so excited to work with the team of pastors up in the Bay Area.  I am excited for the training I will receive working alongside the staff up there and I am excited for God to stretch me in this new role!

On August 15th my pastoral duties will be complete and I will move my family to Foster City to work with a team at Central Peninsula Church.  Will you please take a quick minute to pray for my family during this transition.  Will you please pray for us as we transition out of Vegas?  Will you please pray for us to find a great place to live?  Will you please pray for God to prepare us for CPC and to prepare CPC for us?  Thank you for all your prayers and support!

2 comments:

Eli said...

Hi Neal,

I'll be praying for you in this transition. Congrats...sounds awesome!

Eli

Sharon Beach said...

Well,its hard to be sad when its going to such an amazing journey,besides, Neal,you're one of those people that have such impact,you'll never forget 'em! Visit often!!!!