David W's Sabbatical (Summer 2014)

I am very grateful to have been given an opportunity at my request to take a 2-month sabbatical beginning May 25 and ending July 25.  

A sabbatical is a rest or break from work often lasting two months to a year. At the beginning of the year, I sensed the Lord nudging me to take an extended break from my normal routine to re-focus on him and spend extended time in prayer and thought. I have been hugely blessed by the supportive response to this idea from our leadership team, our church family, and my peers. So many of you have celebrated this opportunity with me and encouraged me to take it. Your response has been life-giving, honoring, and freeing. Thank you.

The purpose of my sabbatical is to create space for three things:

• Extended times away with the Lord
• Time resting with and focusing on my family
• Time with non-Christians in our city (secondary but one I am excited about!)

In the Bible, God called people away from their normal routines to focus on spending time with him and preparing for new seasons. Moses, Jesus, and John the Baptist spent extended times in the wilderness to prepare for seasons of ministry. After a fast start in the ministry, Paul spent an extended period away from ministry tasks before launching into years of church planting across Turkey, Greece, and Spain.

Last year, our church responded in obedience to several clear prophetic words from God to become a multi-site church with a vision for expanding beyond the Fenway to impact neighborhoods throughout Boston. Living out this expanded vision that seeks to plant multiple sites in the city will require new patterns of leadership and disciple-making. Those new patterns require apostolic imagination to form and develop. With the extended time and space my sabbatical will provide, I am looking forward to imagining those patterns and strengthening my own relationship with the Lord.

During my sabbatical, I will  be away from Boston for several periods of time and will cease from all of my current church responsibilities.  I am excited to see what God does in our church while I am gone!  

The following leaders will be serving in pastoral and administrative capacities and can be reached out to at any time. Their contact info will be available at our Sunday gatherings and via our weekly email. You are in good hands with these men and women who I trust deeply.  In addition, our community group and serve team leaders will continue to serve and lead us.

Pastoral Oversight

Jayan Koshy

Pastor Dave Hill (Abundant Grace Church)

Site Contacts

Paul McFarthing - Fenway

Casey Marques - Allston

Staff Contact

Betsy Slate - community@fenwaychurch.org

If you have any questions about this sabbatical, please feel free to contact our staff team at the email above. I really do appreciate your support so much, and I welcome your prayers for me and my family during this season.

Grace,

David W.

Re-Thinking Prayer

It is sometimes joked that even atheists pray when they are in real danger.  I can relate.  I'll throw up a desperation prayer too when I'm late for an appointment desperately trying to find a parking space on Newbury Street.

To many of us that is what prayer is.  It is a one-way plea for help to a God who may or may not exist and who may or may not be interested in our current predicament.  We will roll the dice when we feel the need, but we are not expecting a Yahtzee.

Is that what prayer is?  A crap shoot?  An app that lets us get a few words in with the guy upstairs?

When we limit prayer to just making a request of a higher power, we miss out on what prayer as Jesus taught it and experienced it is all about.

Jesus taught that prayer was like spending time with a good Dad who had a lot great gifts he wanted to give away.  Jesus taught that prayer looked a lot more like a relationship than a duty.

Jesus taught that prayer was not just about making a request of God but an opportunity to worship him.

Jesus valued prayer so much because it was when he got to hear from his Dad.  Prayer seemed to recalibrate Jesus as spending time with a person who loves and cares for you usually does.

Jesus talked to his Dad in front of other people, alone in the wilderness, and when he was dying on a cross.

Times with his Father in prayer reminded Jesus why he had come and helped him get back on track with his God-given mission.  Jesus knew that when he prayed, his ability to meet the needs of others greatly increased afterwards.

Jesus expected his Dad to hear his friends prayers because his Father heard his prayers.  Jesus expected the Father to answer their prayers because they'd spent time with him and come to know him (and when you've met him you've met Dad too) and joined him in his mission.

See re-thinking prayer involves re-thinking who you are (a child of God), re-thinking what you believe (Jesus is God's son), and re-thinking what you are about (being a part of Jesus' mission to bring people back into relationship with Dad).

It's about joining with Jesus, the ultimate older brother who came to find us and show us what Dad is all about.

Pray.  Enjoy the relationship.