Only 3 Days Left

Maybe that’s what your kids said to you walking out the door this morning. “Only 3 School Days Left!” And here in Orange County, FL, that’s actually true. Only 3 school days left until Summer. But I’m sitting here in my office for the last time. Tomorrow I’ve got some things to sort and some final todos to get to-done and then Sunday is my last day on staff with Kensington Church. Only 3 days left. Period.

Last night I wrapped my final Windermere Prep event in this role. It was the 8th grade graduations titled “Turning A Page”. And it was fitting, because that event, which has always been one of my favorites, epitomizes what I’m feeling right now. It’s that bittersweet excitement for what’s next and nostalgia, already, for what you’re leaving behind. I am SO excited for the next chapter, for turning the page. But unlike Middle School, my season at Kensington has been almost 9 years.

Just like last night, there is a part of me that wants to stroll down memory lane, but really I want to celebrate Turning A Page. Starting Monday I am no longer a staff member of Kensington Church. This June, we’ll be spending some time celebrating anniversaries, hanging out with family, cleaning the house (it’s been a crazy spring), and resting. And then July 1, the new chapter officially opens and a new adventure begins. I can’t wait!

My new role was literally made for me. I will be working out of my strengths with an organization that is highly aligned with my philosophy of mission and ministry. The short version (read more here): Global City Mission Initiative is a missions agency focused on Discipleship & Evangelism in global, urban places. We are planting churches with people groups that are hard to reach through traditional church methodology (even edgy churches like Kensington) and doing it in places that are naturally global and transient. My job will be to work behind the scenes to help maximize what we’re already doing and multiply our capacity to expand the number of mission catalysts in the field and the number of fields we are in.

A lot like those 8th graders last night, most of whom will still be a part of the Windermere Prep family, just a few hundred yards away in the high school, we aren’t moving anywhere. We’ll still be around Kensington, just as members/volunteers. I’ll still be freelancing as a tech around town, even occasionally at WPS. And in some ways that makes all this easier. And in some ways that just increases the weirdness and bittersweet of the whole thing. But here’s what I know. God has brought us to this moment, and the next 3 days are the crazy precipice of this long journey, but it’s just 3 days in an even longer adventure that God has been working through all along.

Only 3 days left. Can’t even imagine all the things God is going to do after that!

3 Quick Notes

• For more about Global City Mission Initiative and my new role, go to chrismarsden.com/gcmi.
• For regular updates about what I’m up to subsribe at eepurl.com/11OGn.
• To make a donation to support my work with Global City go to cma.rs/support. Our goal for salary, HR expenses, and ministry funds is $8,000 per month in ongoing support.