Commissioning the Burtons
Good Friday Morning Lake Tapps Community Church!
Well, we said last Sunday was going to be a full day and it was. But wasn’t it a special day?
So many have commented on how good it was to be together Sunday. Whether to worship together, to walk through family business together, to honor the Heaths together, or to do all three together, there was a tangible feeling of being family. A real joy from being together. A real blessing to participate in recognizing well the Heaths for their many years of service to the kingdom and the 25 years shepherding our flock.
Thank you to everyone who was involved in making Sunday happen. There were so many of us involved! Some who had been lined up in advance, some who just stepped up as needed. It was community at its best.
As we look to this coming Sunday, we have another special day in front of us (though not quite as long). We’ll shift from looking back to looking forward. We’ll shift from remembering a ministry that was to anticipating a ministry that will be. Instead of remembering the highlights of a couple who were called to a serve LTCC in 1997, we’ll reaffirm our support for a couple who are being called to be sent by LTCC in 2022. In the glow of celebrating the Heaths, we’ll pause a week in our Daniel series to participate in the privilege of commissioning the Burtons.
That Evan and Kathryn Burton are here to bring the gospel to the Pacific Northwest until there’s “no place left” is because of us. Well, it’s actually because of the Lord. But He used us.
I think back to our last youth leader search in 2017. A young couple who didn’t fully meet all the requirements we’d listed in our job description put their name forward by sending us an intriguing application which talked about the journey God was leading them on and wondering if LTCC wasn’t the “next dot” He was connecting. From a process point of view, there were a number of decision points where, if we had just followed the process, the Burtons could have been dropped from consideration. But at each of these gateways the overwhelming sense of the search committee was to advance them to the next stage until, eventually, they were among our top two candidates. We first offered the position to the more experienced couple, but the Lord didn’t give them peace about a move to Washington. We then called the Burtons about coming to visit with our church for a few days. They were thrilled.
And then they got here and saw the mountain. And then they knew this was the dot.
They’d been given a deep sense that there would be a mountain in their future. Who knew it was Mount Rainier? God did.
We thought they were coming here to have a long fruitful ministry serving our students as part of our church family. Who knew that it would actually be to fan into flame their heart for evangelism to lost people who lived in the shadow of that mountain? Again, God did. And over the past year or so, we have known it too.
This Sunday, Lord willing, we will formally “commission” Evan, Kathryn, and their boys to the work of the Lord in the Seattle area. Just as a new ship is commissioned, publicly declared to be seaworthy and ready for voyage as the launching point for its active service, the public commissioning of a missionary by their sending church marks a significant milestone.
This Sunday we will seek to:
Affirm the Burton’s calling to full time service under the banner of “e3 Partners” as they go and make disciples in the Seattle area.
Commit as a church family to engage with and support their ministry – materially, prayerfully, lovingly.
Rejoice and give thanks for what God has done through our calling of the Burtons and for what He will do through our sending of the Burtons.
Provide a way for our church family, and for our brother and sister in Christ, to say goodbye to one another well.
We would strongly encourage your “ministry of presence” at this Sunday’s service.
Last Sunday we were able to show our love for Tim and Sue as they enter the sunset season of their ministry. This Sunday we get to show our love to Evan and Kathryn as they enter the dawn of theirs.
Looking forward to another great Sunday this weekend. Hope to see you there.
On behalf of the elders,
Pete
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Read about the Burtons in this week's Missionary Spotlight.
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