As we move toward my retirement from the active ministry on July 1st, I wanted to convey to you what the leadership of The Fount is planning.
As you already know, Pastor Paul Park has been taking on more and more responsibility at The Fount, having joined the staff on January 1st to aid in the transition. He and I have been working to integrate the congregations of The Fount and Free Life Community at the same time. The reason for this is that the Church Council is planning on having Pastor Paul assume my responsibilities as of July 1st. As such, Pastor Paul will be serving as pastor of both The Fount and Free Life Community, while I step into an “emeritus” position of support for the church and Pastor Paul. My family and I will be remaining in the parsonage here in Fountain Valley for at least a few months before we move fully into retirement. In this way, I can help with the on-going lawsuit and the plan to eventually merge the congregations of The Fount and Free Life Community into one church, the Lord willing and the disaffiliation is successful.
The plan is to continue with two worship services, much like they are now. The 9:00 service will be a blended traditional/contemporary service and the 11:30 service will be fully contemporary.
With both congregations working together, the hope is that we will see continual growth in mission and outreach and in the numbers of participants. The leadership believes that this is the direction God is leading us, and so they are working toward this goal.
With that in mind, on Sunday, March 17th, we are inviting The Fount congregation to come to the 11:30 service of Free Life. We will not be holding our regular 9:00 service that morning in order to encourage attendance at the 11:30 service. This is so The Fount’s members can get a feel for the worship life of Free Life, and so you can get to know some of the wonderful people at Free Life. Free Life members have already visited The Fount service, so this is a way to encourage integration. As I said above, though, we are committed to having two services every week going forward.
Additionally, on Easter Sunday, we will be combining together with Free Life to hold a joint Easter worship service. It will be held outside on the lawn, and it will be at 9:00 AM. I will be preaching, but Free Life is planning the service. It will be a wonderful time of worship and fellowship together! After the service on Easter, there will be an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids and a brunch for everyone.
I know that there will be questions that arise, and I want to encourage everyone to ask those questions. Speak to me or any member of the Church Council. The hope is that this transition will be as transparent as possible. Whenever something like this is attempted there are always hiccups. But your leadership is committed to making this as smooth as possible.
Please continue to pray for your church. These are exciting times of great potential. And our God is faithful!
Blessings,
