From South America with Love - Part One

When God called Ashley and I to the Shenandoah Valley in the fall of 2009, we knew that it would be a serious change of pace from the suburban Atlanta community in which we lived. I never imagined myself being a pastor and I remember swearing I’d never move to Virginia as long as I lived. Not only was I not interested in living or pastoring in Virginia, but especially not rural Virginia. Yet, God called us here and we (reluctantly) obeyed!

Let be begin by saying that, over the past 31 months, I have found such incredible joy in leading Calvary Cross-link to Impact the Valley and Bless the Nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. However, after spending 18 months in the Valley, it became evident that leading my church to a global ministry mindset was going to be a challenge. The closest international airport is over 100 miles away and most of the people I inherited had never been on an airplane before. The general mindset was “There’s enough lost people in the Valley, why go on a mission trip till we reach the ones in our own back yard?” Sound familiar?

I knew that I wasn’t the only pastor to face these challenges in leading my rural church to a global ministry mindset, so I decided I needed a mentor. I have always been blessed with many mentors in my life, none more influential than my own father. But, I needed a specific kind of mentor…someone who was leading a rural church to global focus. I found Pastor Tim Anderson from Clements Baptist Church in Athens, Alabama. Pastor Tim started a church 17 years ago in rural Alabama that is now personally invested advancing Gospel in dozens of nations around the world. His church invests hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. They have freed up their pastor to lead an incredible organization called International Congress on Revival that trains pastors around the world. Once I contact Pastor Tim, he made himself available to me any time I needed. We began to talk over the phone about various aspects of ministry, staff, leadership and missions. I found him more than familiar with the mindset I was fighting in the early days of Calvary Cross-link.

Tim invited me to join him in Cordoba, Argentina for an ICR Pastor’s Conference. I joyfully accepted and so begins Calvary Cross-link’s journey on to the international mission field…to be continued…