It is with great sadness and joy that I write this post. Sadness because of all that we will leave behind and joy because of all that lies ahead.

This summer my wife and I will be leaving the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ and moving to Seattle, Washington to enter into a “pastor in residency” program with Mars Hill Church for 2 years. After our initial training we will then be sent out to plant a Mars Hill campus, location unkown at this point.

The reason for this post is to bring you up to speed on how God brought us here.

Just over one year ago I took a sabbatical from my ministry responsibilities. God was calling me into a season of repentence that I was eager to give my full attention to. The basis of this repentance has much to do with the order of priority in my life. My priorities were in this order…

1. Pastor (I use this losely in this context, better translated as “leader”)
2. Christian
3. Husband
4. Father

This is obviously out of wack and needed attention. Pastor had taken over everything, including my own following of Jesus. I often felt that I could not fully walk in the light with my own sin because I needed to maintain a certain image as a leader. In addition, my relationship with my family suffered.

As my sabbatical unfolded God began to reorder my life so that it more closely reflected His priorities.

1. Christian
2. Husband
3. Father
4. Pastor

By the end of the summer, life was more refreshing than it had ever been. I was finally walking in the light and honoring my wife and children with new God given passion. However, as I came back into my role as pastor in August of 2010 the pressure began to increase. What this revealed was that while we had cleaned a lot of clutter from our lives, we still had a lot of foundational work to do in our marriage and family. That was nearly impossible to do with the demands of pastoring nearly 1,000 students. Pastor slowly made its way back up the priority list.

As Kelly and I debriefed from the Fall ’10 semester, we felt more than ever that God was establishing the priorities of following Him and leading a healthy home life above all else. We made some adjustments and moved forward, uncertain if it would be possible under our current responsibilities.

While all this was going on I had also been seeking God direction for my life in ministry. Over the decade that I have been on staff with Campus Crusade I have learned a lot.  A  lot about me and a lot about ministry. Our time with Campus Crusade has been incredible and we are very grateful for God’s grace through it all. God has continuely shaped my personal vision for the part that I play in His kingdom advancing through my time of service. That vision began to go in a direction different from Campus Crusade during the winter months of 2010-11.  (This is an extremely simplified statement and if you would like to chat more about the differences, please email me.)

In Feb. of this year, I met some guys from Mars Hill and the Acts 29 network. Our conversations were very interesting as I heard 2 very clear things in all of them. One was the priority of our family in the life of ministry and second was a vision in ministry that God had been establishing in my own heart.

After these initial conversations we decided that we would take a trip to Seattle to explore God’s call. What God did during this time in Seattle was clearly show us that we needed to make a change in our lives. Namely to make room for Him to do the work in our lives that will set us up for a lifetime of ministry.

Leaving Seattle we were convinced that, even if Mars Hill didn’t offer us an opportunity we would still need to make significant changes in our life.

By God’s grace and in His love towards us He has provided an opportunity with Mars Hill that will provide for us in 3 significant ways.

1. God is providing for our marriage and family.
2. God is providing for our vocational calling.
3. God is providing our theological development. (Re:Train)

I want to be very clear about this.  We are thrilled to be invited by Mars Hill to join their team but our primary vision and calling is to be healthy disciples of Jesus that have an awesome marriage and lead a great family.

The bottom line is this:  Even if we never officially plant a church with Mars Hill we will not see our time in Seattle as a waste. God is making as an intentional investment in our family and for that we are thrilled.

However, we have no expectation that would happen.  We have every intention and desire to partner with Mars Hill for a lifetime; seeing people come to know Jesus, making disciples and planting churches.

We will be working with Campus Crusade through summer ’11 to help with the transition of leadership and moving to Seattle by August.

Thanks so much for caring enough to read this post and the part you play in our lives.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

Keep the Faith,

Jimmy (on behalf of the whole Trent family)