We met serving alongside each other in ministry and it didn’t take long to recognize the harmony in our passions and what God had put on our hearts to do: to serve in a complementary, pastoral calling where we can fully apply the gifts God has given us and grow with a new or existing church community that shares our values and commitment to deepening relationship with Jesus and each other as the family of God, and actively engaging the surrounding area in innovative ways for the sake of making disciples as Jesus builds his church.

 

Our long-term goals are the same, and ultimately Melissa and I feel called to lead a local church together, as part of a dedicated and talented team of like-minded people who are fully invested and share a fully-integrated life of ministry in community.

 

Recently, God called us to take a significant leap of faith in the direction of our long-term calling.

 

Over a long and prayerful process of discernment, we felt called out of our church home in Huntington Beach, CA, a church family where we were deeply rooted in a community we love so much, to go serve in a new field where the harvest is great and the workers are few.

 

In January 2019, after being deeply invested at Branches HB, our home church for many years where Melissa lead worship and Andrew served as a pastor on staff, we left our home, family and friends to take the next step in our faith and ministry journey.  We sensed God was calling us to partner with a smaller local church in a difficult mission field, where both of us would immediately be able to step into the next level of our ministry together, use our unique gifts to the fullest capacity and also be developed in preparation for leading a new church plant or replanting an existing church community together in the near future.

 

In obedience, we answered God's call to serve at a local church in the San Francisco East Bay Area called GraceWay in Pleasanton, CA, where Melissa has stepped into a full-time role as the Worship Leader and Andrew is stepping into a church leadership residency to continue his development as a future lead pastor.

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Answering this call means we are coming alongside this existing church to help relaunch it in a variety of ways through the leadership roles we take on, as we move in a new direction together and replant the church in partnership with the existing leadership team.

 

To learn more about Andrew’s residency at GraceWay, click HERE.