Surprise!

After making a big deal that I was done here, I am coming back to let you know that even though I was done, God was not. Over the last month, He has let me know in so many ways that there is still so much left to do here.

My wife told me it was a mistake to walk away and some others indicated as much and the straw that broke the camel’s back came one night recently as I was having dinner in Tulsa with Kirk Longhofer.

Kirk is a good friend and I respect his opinion and I came right out and asked him what he thought of my decision.  He immediately said he thought it was a mistake and I really need to get back in there.  That didn’t help me at all, because deep in my heart, I knew I couldn’t go back.  I can’t even explain but even though I’m still passionate about tech in church, the chapter that involves CTM, as it was, is over for me.  He went on to suggest maybe I should open it up to guest writers and that almost had some appeal but it also seemed like an administrative nightmare keeping up with things and lining writers up.  So, that didn’t quite gel either.

What came next was exactly what I needed: a late night, 2 hour drive home.  In that time, what I am about to share began to take shape in my mind and it was right.  The question that began to resonate in my head was:

Why not invite other church tech volunteers to write posts and shift the focus of CTM to be entirely focused on volunteers and the challenges they face?

I have always had a heart for the small church, yet never quite knew how to effectively reach out to them. In fact, I wrote a post a few years laying out a vision to essentially create a network available to help support the smaller local church.  Ultimately, this concept fell flat, however it did generate a lot of conversation.

What I realize today is that the way to reach the smaller church is to reach the tech volunteer that needs the support.

So, in a matter of days, I was able to bring together a group of tech volunteers that are eager to share their experiences and knowledge through CTM.  God has been stirring in all of us, it seems, and we have quickly banded together and came up with a plan to reach tech volunteers worldwide.

We are ready to cut loose and see what God can do through this group of dedicated servants.

Our prayer is that this project will reach thousands of church tech volunteers and even staff and help all of us to equip the church to effectively use technology to reach people for Christ.

My role in this is to let go of this site, my baby, that I had already walked away from, and trust it to this group of volunteer leaders, to let them begin to shape this new vision and create something far greater than I ever could on my own.

The plan going forward is you will begin to see a variety of posts from a variety of perspectives and in the near future, each of them will introduce themselves to you and share their background and areas of expertise.  I am very excited and you are going to see that this team is very talented, passionate and dynamic.

Early in this process, I quickly learned that the best thing I can do at this point is make a few suggestions here and there and seriously get out of the way.  Since this is our first collaborative effort of this magnitude, there are some things we don’t quite have figured out yet and we will make some adjustments along the way. Instead of perfecting every aspect, we felt it was better to just go live and fine tune it as we move forward.

Please join us on this next leg of our journey as God uses this group of talented, passionate people to lead us and begin to connect the community of church tech volunteers.

http://www.youversion.com/esv/Prov.19.21

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. Proverbs 19:21

Click here for the official press release