December 29, 2009 is my 38th Birthday so I’m asking all my readers for a gift:  Will you please share this post with your network?  2009 has been in a season of personal discovery and I’m excited to say that I sense God’s leading to again become a Sr/Lead Pastor in a local church.  Here’s the story of that Journey:

I’ve been in vocational ministry for 19 years, which includes experience in youth ministry, small groups, church planting, and being a Sr Pastor.

Right now I’m a church consultant and speaker, but recently I served at LifeChurch.tv in Oklahoma City for 4 years.  I was the Executive Pastor over small groups there as well as serving in two different associate campus pastor roles.  I still have great relationships with the LifeChurch.tv team and that is where my family and I are active members.

I left LifeChurch.tv in January of 2009 feeling unsettled and sensing that God was calling me to something different. Foolishly, I didn’t take the time to figure out what that “something else” was and within a month I was working as the Executive Pastor of Small Groups at JourneyChurch.tv (one of LifeChurch.tv’s daughter churches) in Norman, OK.  Journey is a wonderful place with an amazing staff but within weeks I was having the same unsettled feelings that had haunted me at LifeChurch.tv.

Reluctantly I spoke to my new Sr Pastor, Clark Mitchell, about it and he graciously led me through a gradual exit strategy from Journey that helped me start my consulting business.  My leaders at Journey and others wisely suggested that I start consulting to allow time for prayer, fasting and learning what God was calling me toward.  Through much prayer, fasting, and seeking wise council I’ve come to an inescapable conclusion: God created me to evangelistically lead and preach in the local church, and the position where those gifts are best utilized is that of Sr/Lead Pastor.

Thanks in advance for the birthday present of passing this post on to your network!  You or someone in your network may know of the church God created me to serve.  So your help is playing a vital role in my discovery of God’s will for the next phase of my life!

My resume can be found on my website here and samples of my preaching/speaking ability are available here.  The two audio files are the most recent, preached in the last few months at a city-wide evangelism event and at the RightNow’09 conference.

My personal core values are as follows:

• Integrity (Integrity is being the same on the inside that you are on the out)
• Trust (You can’t lead people unless you trust them)
• Evangelism (Evangelism is the only thing God calls us to do on Earth that we can’t do in Heaven)
• Authenticity (You can never be something you are not…so don’t try)
• Creativity (Imagination is our greatest limitation)
• Humility (Humility is putting aside your own selfish agendas)
• People (Jesus’ first priority is people)
• Stewardship (Priorities are best seen in a person’s/organization’s budget)

Thanks again for helping me get the word out!

Alan