1. How did your personal connection with East Mountain start?
Gabe Smith and I were reconnected through a mutual ministry friend in 2015. Gabe was a student in the student ministry I helped lead back in Charlotte in 1991-92. We lost touch over the years, so it was good to renew our friendship and find that we shared many passions for Kingdom work and desire to reach the lost with the gospel as well as building up and encouraging/training Christians and Christian ministry leaders.
Gabe invited me to join him and a team in South Africa in 2016. It was a powerful time of working with the East Mountain Community staff, partners and residents as we applied the beauty of the gospel to our hearts. We experienced God move in our lives and the echoes of those movements are still heard today in my life and others who participated. While on that trip Gabe and I along with Dale Phillips spent a couple of days away praying and developing a new mission and vision for my own church, Hilton Head Presbyterian. I left South Africa with a deeper appreciation for the work of Christ around the world along with a fresh new vision, mission and values statement for our church. It was more than I could have asked for going into the visit.
I returned in the summer of 2017 with my son, Zach, to work with the staff, ministry partners and residents. I had the opportunity to teach and train others, but the most powerful result of that trip was in Zach’s life. The EM staff invited Zach to spend the summer as a resident. Zach, whose walk with Christ was very weak at the time, believed it was the right thing to do and stayed. The Lord provided the funds needed for him to remain. It was easily the most formative few months in his life to date. He recommitted his life to the Lord; entered his story in a profound way; and ministered in the Mitchell’s Plain township. The time with EM continues to have an impact in his life. I give thanks to the Lord for working through EM and Gabe in particular in my son’s life. Zach joined the staff of EM for a season and remains engaged with many of the people worked with all around the world.
2. What makes the partnership between EM and HHPC a good one for the church and the Kingdom?
Unique is the word that comes to mind for the partnership between EM and HHPC. Gabe and I approach ministry with similarly ground lenses. We believe the Church has to be greater than it is and that the old models of international and local partnerships must be deconstructed and rebuilt on new foundations and forms. I invited Gabe to join the staff at HHPC as our Executive Pastor, but he believed the Lord had more work for him to do in and through EM. We created a unique partnership where HHPC essentially hired Gabe as our adjunct Executive Pastor. Gabe meets with me and other senior level ministry staff members weekly via phone call or video conference and monthly in person. The partnership’s value cannot be overstated. He has led our staff retreat and worked with me and our executive team on planning, strategy, and crisis management. Gabe has been invaluable during the last year with COVID.
Gabe and I are also dreaming and planning continuing ministry opportunities for HHPC and EM. The Lord has blessed our church with great Kingdom resources and our partnership will give us unique pathways to release those resources, both human and financial, into Kingdom work. I look forward to working with Gabe and Chris Furr to come together to develop leaders in Scotland and South Africa. I’m excited to see how we can make the EM Carolinas ministry thrive and grow within the American context (which is wildly differentiated from other places in the world).
3. What impact do you think the EM ministry in carolinas could have on the church, the Kingdom, the world?
Having a place where Christian groups can come and gather for spiritual formation and times of retreat is essential in our area. Ministry leaders and pastors along with their families need places for solitude and rest. I am excited to see EM Carolinas develop into a place where we can host times away for teams and families to grow in their walk with Christ. Beauty cannot be overstated in the life of the Believer, and there is a beauty on the farm that settles the soul and points the eyes of the heart heavenward. I envision a place bustling with groups throughout the year coming and partnering with local ministries to serve and affect lives. I envision a place where tired pastors gather around a firepit to share their hearts in a safe and formative place. I envision a place where men’s groups, women’s groups, students, and couples come to learn and grow today as they develop spiritual practices and rhythms in their lives.
The Lord has big dreams for EM and what He can do with a place for spiritual formation. The upstate of SC is a great place to develop an anchor site. It is much needed. From there I can envision people encouraged and sent out to have an eternal impact throughout the world for Christ.
