GraceLife Transition Team

For Everything
There is a Season

A Time to Come Together

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)

A couple of years ago, Pastor Tim began working with an Advisory Team of GraceLife members to understand how God might bring the next Senior Pastor to GraceLife. This Advisory Team had hoped someone could be brought on board to become familiar with the church and then would be poised to be the next Senior Pastor when Pastor Tim retired. During that time, the team prayed through and worked with several potential candidates.  In this part of the process, God did not reveal His choice for our next Senior Pastor.

In January of this year, Pastor Tim began to assemble the Transition Team to intensely focus on finding his replacement and to assist in the transition from Pastor Tim’s leadership to the next Senior Pastor.

Over the last six months, we have received many recommendations for potential candidates. We reached out to several people who were familiar with GraceLife and asked them for recommendations. We have spent many hours watching sermons online from numerous churches around the country. We spent a lot of time praying, talking and studying God’s Word for direction. We modeled our process after 1 Samuel 16 where God sent Samuel to anoint David as Israel’s next king. In the same way that God had chosen David before Samuel ever arrived in Bethlehem, we recognized that God had already chosen our next Senior Pastor! Like Samuel, our role was to follow God as he led us to that person.

We explored several possible strong candidates. In each case, God revealed to us that the person we were looking at, was not the one. At times that was a little disappointing because we encountered many godly men. But it reinforced for us the realization that God was in control of the process, and He would lead us to the right man in His timing.

If you’ve spent much time reading the King James Version translation of the Bible, you are familiar with the phrase “it came to pass.” Other translations might read “when the fullness of time came.” In humble gratitude, we believe the fullness of time has come and that God has revealed to us whom He has chosen as the next Senior Pastor at GraceLife! To be sensitive to the needs of this man, his family, and his church, we can’t yet make his name public. But we want you to mark your calendar for Sunday, October 4th when we will have the opportunity to hear this man preach and to meet him and his wonderful family.

Over these several months we have asked for you to pray for the Transition Team, the leader God has chosen, and the GraceLife family. As God reveals this man to the church body, we now ask you to pray that we all diligently seek His direction and that there is a spirit of unity as His will is revealed through His people. In the coming days, each member of the GraceLife family will receive additional information about this man and a timeline of events leading up to an affirmation of God’s will on October 11th. Before that date, we will have an opportunity to talk with him and hear his vision for ministry and discipleship. And our members will get an opportunity to hear from the Transition Team and to answer any questions you have.

We are eager for you to hear the incredible story of how God led us to this man. We pray that as God has given the Transition Team, Pastor Tim and our GraceLife pastors peace about this selection, He will do the same for you.

We serve an amazing God!

Devotedly,

GraceLife Transition Team

Tod Campbell
Jon Couch
Tammy Lollar
Corbett Merrill
Rhonda Phillips

A New Leader,
A Faithful Lord

Trusting in the Lord’s Transition Plan

Then Moses continued to speak these words to all Israel, saying, “I am now 120 years old; I can no longer act as your leader. The Lord has told me, ‘You will not cross the Jordan.’ The Lord your God is the one who will cross ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will drive them out. Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, as the Lord has said. The Lord will deal with them as he did Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and their land when he destroyed them. The Lord will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous; don’t be terrified or afraid of them. For the Lord your God is the one who will go with you; he will not leave you or abandon you.” Moses then summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with this people into the land the Lord swore to give to their ancestors. You will enable them to take possession of it. The Lord is the one who will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

Deuteronomy 31:1-8 (CSB)

Moses had been the Israelites’ leader for 40 years—from God’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt, through the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea and all through their journey in the Wilderness, leading right up to the Promised Land on the other side of the Jordan.  It was time for Moses to retire as their leader because He would not be entering the Promised Land.  The LORD had appointed Joshua to now take the lead and help the people cross the Jordan River to possess the Promised Land of Canaan. 

A BIG transition for the Israelites was about to take place:

•From their familiar leader of 40 years (Moses) to a new leader (Joshua)
•From the wilderness (Seir) to the Promised Land (Canaan).
•From the known past to the unknown future

But God……promised to go ahead of them, be with them and not fail them.

A similar BIG transition for GraceLife is about to take place:

•From their familiar under shepherd of 30 years (Pastor Tim) to a new under shepherd (known only by God)
•From the present discomfort of not knowing to the promise that God will be with us
•From the known past to the unknown future

But God……promises to go ahead of us, be with us and not fail us

Take a few minutes to: 

• study and reflect on God’s Provisions for the Israelites and His provision for GLBC 
• pray for “such a time as this” in our church family 
• reread Deuteronomy 31:1-8 and allow the bold words to sink into your heart and mind 

Points of Study and Reflection: 

1. The Lord’s leadership transition

• “The Lord has told me” (v.1)  

The Lord spoke to Moses as He has spoken through the Holy Spirit to Pastor Tim: It is time to retire as my under shepherd at GLBC.  

• “Joshua is the one who will cross ahead of you, as the Lord has said.” (v.3)  

The Lord had appointed the next leader just as He will appoint the next under shepherd at GLBC.  

2. The Lord’s instructions to follow and commands to obey

• “go” into the Promised Land and “possess it” (v. 7) 

• “You must do…exactly as I have commanded you.” (v. 5) 

• “Be strong and courageous” (v. 6-7) 

• “don’t be terrified or afraid/ Do not be afraid or discouraged” (v. 6-8)  

3. The Lord’s promises to trust

“The Lord your God is the one who will” …. “He will” . . .. “as the Lord has said.” (v. 3) The LORD is already at work, will continue the work and complete the work. 

• “The Lord will . . ..” (v. 4-5)   

• “Lord your God is the one who will go with you;”  

• “He will not leave you or abandon you.” (v. 6-8) 

• “The Lord is the one who will go before you” (v. 8) 

With faith and obedience, GraceLife can enter the Promised Land of a new under shepherd of Christ!  Will you trust His promises? Let this time in our church history be a testimony of His faithfulness. 

Small Miracles,
Unfailing Faithfulness

Applying the Story of the Axe Head 

Now the sons of the prophets said to Elisha, “See, the place where we dwell under your charge is too small for us. Let us go to the Jordan and each of us get there a log, and let us make a place for us to dwell there.” And he answered, “Go.” Then one of them said, “Be pleased to go with your servants.” And he answered, “I will go.” So he went with them. And when they came to the Jordan, they cut down trees. But as one was felling a log, his axe head fell into the water, and he cried out, “Alas, my master! It was borrowed.” Then the man of God said, “Where did it fall?” When he showed him the place, he cut off a stick and threw it in there and made the iron float. And he said, “Take it up.” So he reached out his hand and took it.

2 Kings 6:1-7 (ESV)

A small, obscure passage in the Old Testament can be applied to GraceLife’s present ‘time of transitioning” as we seek the Lord in providing a new pastor. 

In 2 Kings 6:1-7, we see a group of apprentice prophets traveling with Elisha. They had outgrown their initial meeting place and were given permission to go down to the Jordan River to construct a larger meeting area. One of the prophets begins to chop a tree with his borrowed axe. Sadly, the axe head broke off and fell into the river. Was it lost forever? Elisha then cut a stick and threw it into the water, exactly at the spot where the axe head fell. Miraculously, the heavy axe head floated to the surface. Elisha instructed the prophet to lift the iron out of the water. He did, and that ended that.  

True, it’s a small, obscure passage. But are there deeper takeaways or truths we can apply from this simple miracle?  

• Like a church losing a coveted senior pastor, this prophet-apprentice lost a very coveted item. Metal tools were very valuable. Furthermore, a borrowed axe that wasn’t returned would have been viewed quite negatively in the eyes of the owner and his family. The integrity of this prophet would have been doubted. Just like Elisha knew the value of losing that axe head, we can affirm that God knows the value of losing a senior pastor. Like the axe head, we are worthy. We are precious. Being willing workers at a church called GraceLife, we know God will likewise rescue us in our hour of need. He will guide us to “cut a stick” and “throw our stick into the water.” At the end of our “miracle-needing” moment, He will provide us another capable senior pastor. 

• We also see the wise prophet Elisha acting with faith and obedience. Throwing a stick in the water would make no sense to the average person. But Elisha, who was used to listening and following God’s commands, did not waver. He trusted in the resolution of the problem. Likewise, in faith and obedience, we seek to do God’s will in this time of transition. 

• Most of humanity flies through this passage without giving it much thought. It’s only seven verses. In the grand scheme of life, it was just an axe head in the water. But at THAT moment, it was huge! God looked to the future. He saw an unnamed-to-us prophet who needed to return a valuable axe in order to preserve His good name. We’re not given the future implications of that act, just like now, we don’t know the exact way the future will unfold at GLBC. To the world, we’re just an obscure church in the New River Valley of Virginia. To God, we are much more! If God cared about that lowly axe head, our Father and Provider cares about preserving His legacy through the GraceLife family of believers. He will provide, in His particular way, and in His perfect timing. We patiently await to tell that unique story to our children, how God provided in our hour of need! 

Spiritual Markers

Looking back in reflection. Looking forward in anticipation.

Not that I have already reached the goal or am already fully mature, but I make every effort to take hold of it because I also have been taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14 (HCSB)

When the Apostle Paul wrote those words in the third chapter of his letter to the Philippians, he was summing up the transition that every believer makes from death to life. But there was a unique aspect to what he was expressing. Earlier in the chapter, he lists the things  he had previously attained in life – frequently called “spiritual markers”. We often look at this passage as “putting the past behind us.” But it is so much more as Paul explains that he is not content to rest in the past as good as that might have seemed. Instead, he strives every day to come closer to the goal God has for us all, to be fully perfected in heaven. It’s been said that Paul expected to grow every single day in his quest to become fully mature in Christ.

We can look back at so many spiritual markers in the last 30 years at GraceLife. Some markers the team recognized were three Life Action crusades, several trips through Blackaby’s Experiencing God, members called into both short term and vocational ministry as pastors and missionaries, the free provision of 48 acres in the center of the New River Valley, the Ndau of Zimbabwe moving from unreached to on fire for God, Helping Hands, and countless changes in the lives or our members and neighbors. Even now, as we respond to the growth God has brought in our next generation ministries and church support staff, we recognize that God continues to work in our midst. He is not done growing us into what He wants us to become.

As the transition team began to meet and to pray together, we discovered that several of us were dealing with the issue of fully embracing, and resting in, God’s absolute sovereignty. Nowhere is His sovereignty more apparent than His timing of a building program and search for a new senior pastor. Those two tasks would be daunting separately, but together they can only be accomplished by trusting God and His sovereign plan. And through this process we will grow, pressing on towards that for which Christ has taken hold of each of us and GraceLife as a church.

How are you dealing with embracing God’s absolute sovereignty? How is He growing you into the person He wants you to become? Are you able to list the legacy of your spiritual markers? Are you “resting” on the accomplishments those markers represent or are you pressing on each day?

We’d love to hear what you sense God is telling you in these days. What are some spiritual markers that God brings to your mind in your life and in the life of the GraceLife family? Help us compile a list of spiritual markers that we can use to remind ourselves of the faithfulness of God as He encourages us to expect even more in the days ahead. Email us with the spiritual markers that have been important in your life at, markers@gracelifefamily.org and we’ll add them to the list. We’re so glad to be walking with you on this journey of FAITH – Fantastic Adventures In Trusting Him. Thank you, Corrie Ten Boom, for this acrostic, through Pastor Tim’s reminder in a recent sermon.

A Letter from the Transition Team