Leaders of Kensington
I just felt like God told me that I needed to write to all of the leaders at Kensington for some time. I was raised Catholic, and when I got to high school, I stopped attending. I couldn't figure out why we were going to church, saying the things we were, but then I would see the same people not living the way they spoke or living the things they spoke about.
I first attended Kensington in 1993 at Troy High School. I was attending CMU at the time, and had just started dating Superstar-now my wife. I was living in Mt. Pleasant, and Superstar was living in Oak Park completing internships for her degree. My friend, Fish, who ended up being my best man in my wedding told me-"You need to check out this church my sister is going to." I very much trusted his opinion on everything, and I think Superstar and I attended together. I will never forget walking into the auditorium at THS where they were playing U2's 'I still haven't found what I'm looking for'. I don't recall the message, but we did start attending whenever I was in town, and started to see that church could actually benefit you.
I did a semester abroad in Ecuador in the fall of 1995, and my student teaching in the winter term of 1996. Superstar and I became regular attenders, did the pre-marriage things through Kensington, became members, and Wilson even married us. (PS-I have great pictures of him with a nice haircut in 1996) We joined a small group, which at the time Superstar was encouraging, and I was just like the drama-this is going to be a bunch of wierdos, this is going to be ugly, this is nuts. But we joined a small group in Northville-we lived in Pontiac. That group split, and we started meeting with the Pretzels in Royal Oak. This group made our young marriage incredible, and the growth we had spiritually is probably not measurable.
We felt like we needed to get 'plugged in' as people around us were encouraging us to do. We served on the set up team, and Superstar tried various serving opportunities. I tried out for the drama team, and was accepted. I can tell you that this changed a lot in my life-through relationships with people like MN, The Kallen's, The Mattar's, Shaffmaster, I was truly beginning to be entrenched in community. I can tell you to this day, if I were to be caught in some kind of distress, I could call many of my friends from the drama team, and I KNOW they would come to my aid, hold me accountable, encourage me, or give me whatever it is I need in my walk.
Back to the small group-we grew and grew, and we felt like God was nudging us to lead our own small group. YIKES. We prayed about it, and we finally did start our own group-I think it was 98 or 99. When we first started, it was us and two other couples. Since then, we have split twice because of growth, and we moved to the east side. We live in R-town, and it is about 40-45 minutes one way to Main. We could not find another church that would fill our needs in our walk, so we continued to attend each Saturday. After many serving opportunities, Superstar found her niche in the nursery. Saturday nights were devoted to serving and attending.
Then EAST come along-THANK YOU GOD FOR ANSWERING THAT PRAYER. Superstar took on the nursery position, I started serving in production. I started a men's group this year, trying to provide for myself and other men an opportunity to be REAL with each other.
Now comes the fun part. As you may know, I am a principal of a middle school. I have worked very hard at my career, have three degrees and I'm working on number four. A friend of mine that is a Superintendent has been encouraging me to attend a four month seminar entitled "SUPES Academy". It is designed for potential superintendent candidates, and it is invite only. For years, I have been telling him no, but this year, I felt like God was calling me to do something bigger, so I applied, and they invited me. The first weekend of the training was Thursday/Friday of the Leadership Summit. Superstar was working there, and when I got home Friday, I was feeling like God was telling me YES, there is something bigger for you. I thought at the time it was the Superintendency. Superstar and I sat on our deck that night, and she put it to me straight. "I feel like you have this vision for your career, but not for our family." Ouch. I love her dearly. But in my heart, I knew the vision that God had led me to, but had never expressed it to her. So I said: "That our girls will see me working very hard at what I do because God gave me some skills and abilities to be a leader. And wherever that is, whatever I'm doing, they will know that I am doing it to glorify God and follow Him." I had never expressed that verbally to myself or anyone else. Superstar had seen the session "A Vision to Die For" at the summit, and she said-OK, now that's a vision to die for, and I'll go anywhere we need to go to do that. Then she said that I should go to the Summit on Saturday, and so I did.
Sitting in the summit on Saturday, I was overwhelmed with emotions. I can't explain why, but I was weeping. When the Pastor announced the NYC thing, I thought bummer for us, but that's great for him. Nothing else. But as I sat in the auditorium, I felt like God was asking me what about NYC? The emotions were great. When I went home, I told Superstar (who did not go) that I needed to talk to her. She knew that I had been crying, and I told her that God might be asking me about NYC. She said that while she was home washing the car that morning, he asked her the same thing. And so, the NYC journey began. Attended a plunge, and there are a TON of details from that I can tell you about, but that's another day.
This is where I actually get to a point. We are now on the launch team with Pastor and Fruit Salad for NYC. As Toby Mac sings "I'm all in." The point of this post is to tell the leaders of Kensington, that if it weren't for the 17 people that started the vision for Kensington, none of these things may have ever happened in my life. I would not be the husband I am. I would definitely not want to be the father I am. I would not be serving others at church. I would not be leading a small group or a men's group. I would not have a deep sense of God's calling on my life. I would not understand how to LISTEN to him, and act when he tells me to. I would not have the deep sense of faith in Jesus as my Savior. I would not feel the mercy that God extends to me.
And so, I thank each of you for living the vision. For reaching out to a broken world to demonstrate God's love to those who are so desperately seeking answers to life. I thank you for not being selfish and keeping the resources in house, but letting the flow go from HERE to THERE. I find it interesting that there are now 17 people on the launch team for NYC. As I sat in church last week, and watched snippets from the 10 year anniversary, I couldn't help but think about the future. As we take this step in faith to NYC, what will our ten year video capture? How many will be led to Christ because we are going to do what you did 17 years ago? I pray for the leaders of Kensington to continue to provide a place where people can see the Face of God, and experience life to the full. I thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for all you do. I thank God that you followed him, even in your doubts, and I pray that the NYC team will have the strength to do the same.
I first attended Kensington in 1993 at Troy High School. I was attending CMU at the time, and had just started dating Superstar-now my wife. I was living in Mt. Pleasant, and Superstar was living in Oak Park completing internships for her degree. My friend, Fish, who ended up being my best man in my wedding told me-"You need to check out this church my sister is going to." I very much trusted his opinion on everything, and I think Superstar and I attended together. I will never forget walking into the auditorium at THS where they were playing U2's 'I still haven't found what I'm looking for'. I don't recall the message, but we did start attending whenever I was in town, and started to see that church could actually benefit you.
I did a semester abroad in Ecuador in the fall of 1995, and my student teaching in the winter term of 1996. Superstar and I became regular attenders, did the pre-marriage things through Kensington, became members, and Wilson even married us. (PS-I have great pictures of him with a nice haircut in 1996) We joined a small group, which at the time Superstar was encouraging, and I was just like the drama-this is going to be a bunch of wierdos, this is going to be ugly, this is nuts. But we joined a small group in Northville-we lived in Pontiac. That group split, and we started meeting with the Pretzels in Royal Oak. This group made our young marriage incredible, and the growth we had spiritually is probably not measurable.
We felt like we needed to get 'plugged in' as people around us were encouraging us to do. We served on the set up team, and Superstar tried various serving opportunities. I tried out for the drama team, and was accepted. I can tell you that this changed a lot in my life-through relationships with people like MN, The Kallen's, The Mattar's, Shaffmaster, I was truly beginning to be entrenched in community. I can tell you to this day, if I were to be caught in some kind of distress, I could call many of my friends from the drama team, and I KNOW they would come to my aid, hold me accountable, encourage me, or give me whatever it is I need in my walk.
Back to the small group-we grew and grew, and we felt like God was nudging us to lead our own small group. YIKES. We prayed about it, and we finally did start our own group-I think it was 98 or 99. When we first started, it was us and two other couples. Since then, we have split twice because of growth, and we moved to the east side. We live in R-town, and it is about 40-45 minutes one way to Main. We could not find another church that would fill our needs in our walk, so we continued to attend each Saturday. After many serving opportunities, Superstar found her niche in the nursery. Saturday nights were devoted to serving and attending.
Then EAST come along-THANK YOU GOD FOR ANSWERING THAT PRAYER. Superstar took on the nursery position, I started serving in production. I started a men's group this year, trying to provide for myself and other men an opportunity to be REAL with each other.
Now comes the fun part. As you may know, I am a principal of a middle school. I have worked very hard at my career, have three degrees and I'm working on number four. A friend of mine that is a Superintendent has been encouraging me to attend a four month seminar entitled "SUPES Academy". It is designed for potential superintendent candidates, and it is invite only. For years, I have been telling him no, but this year, I felt like God was calling me to do something bigger, so I applied, and they invited me. The first weekend of the training was Thursday/Friday of the Leadership Summit. Superstar was working there, and when I got home Friday, I was feeling like God was telling me YES, there is something bigger for you. I thought at the time it was the Superintendency. Superstar and I sat on our deck that night, and she put it to me straight. "I feel like you have this vision for your career, but not for our family." Ouch. I love her dearly. But in my heart, I knew the vision that God had led me to, but had never expressed it to her. So I said: "That our girls will see me working very hard at what I do because God gave me some skills and abilities to be a leader. And wherever that is, whatever I'm doing, they will know that I am doing it to glorify God and follow Him." I had never expressed that verbally to myself or anyone else. Superstar had seen the session "A Vision to Die For" at the summit, and she said-OK, now that's a vision to die for, and I'll go anywhere we need to go to do that. Then she said that I should go to the Summit on Saturday, and so I did.
Sitting in the summit on Saturday, I was overwhelmed with emotions. I can't explain why, but I was weeping. When the Pastor announced the NYC thing, I thought bummer for us, but that's great for him. Nothing else. But as I sat in the auditorium, I felt like God was asking me what about NYC? The emotions were great. When I went home, I told Superstar (who did not go) that I needed to talk to her. She knew that I had been crying, and I told her that God might be asking me about NYC. She said that while she was home washing the car that morning, he asked her the same thing. And so, the NYC journey began. Attended a plunge, and there are a TON of details from that I can tell you about, but that's another day.
This is where I actually get to a point. We are now on the launch team with Pastor and Fruit Salad for NYC. As Toby Mac sings "I'm all in." The point of this post is to tell the leaders of Kensington, that if it weren't for the 17 people that started the vision for Kensington, none of these things may have ever happened in my life. I would not be the husband I am. I would definitely not want to be the father I am. I would not be serving others at church. I would not be leading a small group or a men's group. I would not have a deep sense of God's calling on my life. I would not understand how to LISTEN to him, and act when he tells me to. I would not have the deep sense of faith in Jesus as my Savior. I would not feel the mercy that God extends to me.
And so, I thank each of you for living the vision. For reaching out to a broken world to demonstrate God's love to those who are so desperately seeking answers to life. I thank you for not being selfish and keeping the resources in house, but letting the flow go from HERE to THERE. I find it interesting that there are now 17 people on the launch team for NYC. As I sat in church last week, and watched snippets from the 10 year anniversary, I couldn't help but think about the future. As we take this step in faith to NYC, what will our ten year video capture? How many will be led to Christ because we are going to do what you did 17 years ago? I pray for the leaders of Kensington to continue to provide a place where people can see the Face of God, and experience life to the full. I thank each of you from the bottom of my heart for all you do. I thank God that you followed him, even in your doubts, and I pray that the NYC team will have the strength to do the same.
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