Dearest Church Family,

It’s been one of the greatest honors of my life to serve as New Life’s Lead Pastor for the past 19 years. I consider myself an extremely blessed man. 

The support and encouragement you all have given me in this role has been truly humbling. To be able to travel together on our shared journey deeper into the Gospel of Jesus has been an incredible privilege that I often thank the Lord for. Like I said, I’m a blessed man.

Now, at the culmination of a process that has extended for nearly six years the Head of The Church, Jesus Himself, has made it clear that the time has come for New Life to have a new Lead Pastor. And He has used that process to bring to us a young man whom our elder team believes is His choice to lead us into a future of even more impact for the Gospel.

This past weekend ministry partners across all three of our campuses voted to affirm the elders’ recommendation of Jake Mills as New Life’s next Lead Pastor by an overwhelming majority of 97%. You need to know that level of support is fairly rare in the larger church world, so we are grateful to God for fostering such broad-based unity in our church.

So what now? Well, as you can imagine for the Mills family there is a house to sell and a house to buy, there are matters to wrap up at the church where he currently serves, many end-of-school-year activities to participate in for all of their children, good-byes to be said, tears to be shed, belongings to sort through and pack up… and many other items requiring their attention. 

So it will likely be a month or more before they will find themselves on their way up here to Columbus, Ohio. Please keep them in your prayers during this stretch as there is a lot for them to attend to. And then let’s all get prepared to welcome them here with open hearts and hands when they roll into town.

In the meantime we’ll continue doing what Jesus has always called us to do as His church—preach the gospel to ourselves every day, rest in His incredible grace to us, find our highest satisfaction and joy in Him, listen for the voice of His Spirit, saturate our minds in His Word, passionately pray for His will to be done, love each other with an active, fervent, forgiving love, serve Him faithfully, seek to win more followers to Him, and do our part to disciple them deeper into gospel truth… all of this fueled by His grace and motivated by a desire to see His kingdom reign expanded for His glory!

And as for me, until the Mills’ get here and we have his installation service and pass the baton to him as our new Lead Pastor, I’ll also continue doing what I’ve been called to do—preach, disciple, facilitate connections, write, mentor, love on people, and keep pointing others to Jesus. Then (probably starting in July) I’ll pretty much be out of the picture for a season (a lengthy sabbatical has been recommended and approved by our elder team). That will enable Jake to establish his leadership here without his predecessor hanging around and being a distraction. 

You should know that I’m good with all this. Really I am.

After that (perhaps by next March), I hope to return to the church that Shirley and I love so much and start serving again, this time in a smaller ministry-focused capacity in whatever ways Jake and the Elder Team deem appropriate. This has been my desire and plan for several years, and I’m excited to enter in to that next phase with renewed passion for Jesus and His people.

So there you have it!

As a leadership team we were talking earlier this week about how much TRUST is involved in all of this… trusting each other, trusting our elder team, trusting Jake, and mostly trusting THE LORD. As I remind myself often New Life is HIS church and is extremely precious to Him. He wants nothing but the best for us. I firmly believe He has led us to this point and will continue leading us into a bright future of expanding influence for His kingdom.

As Christ Himself once said, “You trust in God, trust also in Me” (John 14:1).

And I am! I believe you are too.

“To Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations…” (Ephesians 3:20).

So Truly The Best Is Yet To Come!

Pastor Steve