The Decision Is…

Jaydubbs — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 16:25:45 +0000

After several months of searching, praying, processing, thinking, and all the other “ing” words that I’m sure we took part in at some point in time, we’ve landed on where we think the Lord is wanting us in this new season.

Remember, we had 2 opportunities that were really exciting to us…Seattle or Scottsdale. Long distance or local.

Well, Jessica and I have decided to stay in Arizona and accept the Scottsdale position at Scottsdale Bible Church.

It was definitely a very difficult decision. Not that Scottsdale Bible was not a fantastic place to see ourselves at. It is. Our family has a loooooonnng history there. And the maturity, solid Biblical foundation, and vision to really see people live in Christ is practically unparalleled in the city. It was difficult in the fact that we anticipated God giving us a real discernment into where he wanted us. But God does not always work in our expectations.

We had the chance to visit the church in Seattle a couple weeks ago. To be honest, we thought the community there at Bethany Community Church was fabulous. The staff is caring and vibrant. The people are inviting and warm. Pastor Richard Dahlstrom is a real visionary, incredible teacher, and he’s at the helm of a tremendous and thriving community. Not to mention the city of Seattle is dirty sweet! Can’t wait to get back there again.

So we did a lot of wrestling.

And in the end, in the depth of our gut and heart, we felt like we needed to be at Scottsdale Bible. The truth is, we couldn’t be more excited about the future and my role at SBC. There is indeed a part of me that feels like I’m taking somewhat of a “sidestep” in my journey as a worship leader. Scottsdale Bible is more of a support role, whereas Bethany was an opportunity to be the director of the ministry. Casting the vision and steering the ship. After a decade of leading worship, I think it’s only natural to aspire to be “the guy” at some point.

But, there are opportunities this role gives me that I really felt called to. I’ll be working with a couple really amazing ministries in both a worship leader and mentoring aspect. And there are some guys I’ll be rubbing elbows with that I know are going to grow and strengthen me immensely. In this moment, God is teaching me and molding me to be humble and joyful in the small things. And I’m getting the chance to take a breath. Grow. And focus more on being the most open and loving leader that I can be.

My family and I are once again learning that we do not ever really steer the ship. And if we were to think deeply…we prefer it that way. Let’s face it, we would just screw stuff up. So we’re perfectly content in the Lord and simply riding the coattails of His leading in this season.

God’s faithfulness is found on the other side of obedience.

Weekend In A Nutshell

Jaydubbs — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:40:33 +0000

This last weekend, we took a trip to Seattle to check out a possible new opportunity to join a new church community called Bethany Community Church and lead the music ministry. We came away with a ton of thoughts and ideas. Here’s a conclusion to our weekend visit to the Emerald City without all the crazy details…think 30,000 foot flyover.

Seattle – That city is the straight up jam. Really. I could spend a whole other week just walking around downtown. I’ve yet, in my life, to come across a city with more culture, grittiness, fantastic design, and color. You have the city lights. You have water. And you have natural beauty all around wherever you look. We loved it! Jess thinks she would love the gray skies and drizzle all the time…not sure how it would fit me. But the catch-22 here is that, without the climate and weather that Seattle goes through, the city wouldn’t have the particular beauty that it does.

Seattle: 2 thumbs up

Chelsea Station Inn - This is the bed and breakfast that we stayed at over the weekend, and it was probably one of the coolest places we’ve stayed at in a long time. It was sort of a small apartment inside a renovated old building right across the street from the zoo & a huge park called Woodland Park. Every morning we crept downstairs where the innkeepers would make a ridiculously good breakfast from scratch! Some of the nicest people ever there as well. Check out the Chelsea here.

Chelsea Station Inn: 2 thumbs up

Flying/traveling with a 15 month old rambunctious boy - Don’t get me wrong, I love my son Cruz like crazy…I just didn’t like him that much over the weekend. He was like a different kid, I swear. I’m sure there was at least 8 people on our flights that would’ve duct taped his mouth shut if they could have. Including me. Southwest Airlines made our flying time as comfortable as they possibly could, but even they couldn’t fix Cruz “uncomfortability” every single time I had to change his diaper in a 3×3 airplane bathroom. Picture evidence A:

Cruz & flying: 2 thumbs down…and in to my ears because Cruz is screaming.

Bethany Community Church – What an incredible community. These guys are excited about where God has led them until now and are rampant in seeing God awaken hearts in their local community. Pastor Richard Dahlstrom is a tremendous teacher and such a down to earth dude, that you get to experience his real heart in the first 10 minutes of hanging with him. They have a slew of worshipers who are stoked to be part of serving Gods people in music with their various talents. And trust me, these peeps have talent.

Bethany: 2 big thumbs up

You’ll have to wait a bit to hear where we are thinking of landing in our search for a new church community to be a part of or whether we’ll be in Scottsdale or Seattle. We are still processing a bit with various people and praying about the situation, but you friends will know sooner than later.

Thanks for your prayers and support over the weekend, we have been SO blessed to have people like you behind us!

Stay tuned…

Jaydubbs.com » Bethany Community Church

The Decision Is…

Weekend In A Nutshell