I'm a relatively creative person. I love to sing, dance, and act.
But for years I stayed away from the visual arts. That is not my
forte. Although I enjoy paintings and sculptures, I thought I
wasn't good at this form of creativity. Then one day a friend
invited me to a painting party. We went to someone's home. Each of
us had a canvas and there were several brushes and paints to share.
Someone had brought some examples of easy to re-create paintings.
All I had to do was copy it. I was still hesitant. My drawings had
yet to evolve past stick figures so I wasn't sure how to pull this
off. But when I was surrounded by other friends, who were all
giving insight into the creative process, I discovered I could do
it. What I couldn't do alone, synergy let me accomplish with the
help of others. Synergy is that moment when different elements come
together to create something that couldn't be done alone. In 2006,
I began working with Allan Todd to start a new church. A different
church named Lighthouse United Methodist Church. A church that we
believed was what God really wanted us to offer to the people of
Fayette County, Georgia. Our focus was on innovative, contemporary
worship and frequent service projects in our local community. As we
met each day to dream about what we wanted this church to look
like, we discovered that we created synergy. Our launch team was
excited for our grand opening on August 13, 2006 that would offer
an exciting new concept to our community. On August 3, 2006, Allan
passed away suddenly. The moment Allan died, my life changed
completely. There was a hole in my heart that ached to be filled
and my life seemed so foreign to me. My life with Allan, before and
after his death, was segmented into two moments of time and it all
happened in a matter of minutes. Grieving and healing had to be put
on hold. We still had a church to start. Even if we didn't have our
Senior Pastor, we were going through with it. I held everything
together as best I could until a new Pastor could be appointed.
Eight weeks later, Mark Jordan was appointed to Lighthouse. I was
relieved and excited but also ready to grieve and heal. Healing
took much longer than expected, but the journey with Mark made
things much smoother. He taught me things I didn't know I needed to
learn and brought healing to a congregation whose faith was on the
edge. Mark was a completely different person than Allan. He was
younger, shorter, more organized, and more technological. Best of
all, he had a gift of pastoral care that nurtured us without
compromising the vision of a church with innovative worship, a
focus on service, and radical hospitality. Mark always remembered a
name and a face and he never met a stranger. Although the initial
meeting with him brought up mixed feelings, it wasn't long before
we got into a groove of working together and created synergy with
the other leaders at Lighthouse. What I thought I'd lost with
Allan, I recovered through Mark by being able to know how he
worked, share work frustrations, and move forward as a team. .The
synergy hadn't gone away. It just shifted. This true story is about
dealing with the loss of someone who taught me so much and
overcoming grief to learn to create synergy again. Along the way I
learned a lot about myself and human nature and have been very
blessed to feel God's presence through it all.
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