Dear Friends,
Happy New Year! Along with the change to a new year, there are a number of other changes happening at Outpost Ministries. But first, a review of the changes from last year.
The first part of 2022 was a busy time. First, we bade farewell and congratulations to Jean, our Elijah Company (EC) and Living Waters (LW) Coordinator as she retired in January. Jean had been with Outpost part-time for about ten years. Then in February we welcomed her back as a volunteer LW leader! Ah, but then we said goodbye to Marti, our bookkeeper, who moved on in order to develop her own bookkeeping business.
Along about that time, we did some hiring! First, we outsourced our bookkeeping by contracting with SimplifyChurch, an agency that specializes in church finance. Then we hired Craig as our new EC Coordinator. That’s just the first two months!
In March we lost our Donor Relations manager, Joy, who had been full-time with Outpost-TCJHOP for about four years. Her jobs were able to be “in-sourced” and were taken up by Annetta, Wendy, and Scott. (More on them later!)
In April we said “bon voyage” to Jonathan, our President and Joshua Fellowship (JF) Coordinator. Jonathan sailed on to warmer climes—literally—as an Executive Pastor somewhere out in the Pacific Ocean. And just so you know, everyone gets into the transition act at this point. You see, I was then appointed by our Board of Directors as Interim President, while maintaining my other roles as CalebSpirit (CS) Coordinator and Senior Pastor (basically, I maintain spiritual oversight over the whole operation).
So as to not leave us high and dry, in March we hired Matt as JF Coordinator. Matt has made a one-year commitment to this very part-time position, as he is a relative newlywed and also working his full-time career job in architecture.
After a half-year of everyone getting acclimated to the changes, we said “Happy Retirement” to Annetta, who retired as Office Manager and Donor Relations Manager on November 30. It was a second career for Annetta, and thus a second retirement. But don’t worry, she’s married to the Interim President so she’ll still be around! She’s already managed to get in some volunteer hours since retiring!
Annetta’s tasks have been insourced to Wendy and Scott. Wendy has come on full-time, so she’s easily absorbing most of the Donor Relations and Human Resources tasks. Wendy will also have the time to focus on increased fundraising and outreach activities, including event planning. Scott, in the meantime, is upping his time to 25 hours a week and will be taking on the Office Manager responsibilities. Scott is doing additional fundraising in hopes of becoming full-time by the end of 2023. We will have no trouble finding jobs for Scott to do as this develops.
At the moment, then, we are left with needing to make two new hires. One, a JF Coordinator to replace Matt by this March. Two, a new President to take over my Interim President duties. I’m all in favor of replacing myself with a new President as soon as possible! Please pray for the Board of Directors and me as we seek to hire the new President. Then add another prayer for me as I seek to replace Matt in JF.
The sheer number of personnel changes is overwhelming to a small organization like Outpost. A year ago we started with eight paid staff. Only three of those eight remain! We now have only five staff total: two full-time and three part-time.
With the search for new President, the Board and I are well aware of the risks of hiring the wrong person to lead our organization. We’ve seen what happens to other organizations when their leadership fails to follow the biblical mandates. They yield their prophetic voice and spiritual authority to social pressure. They weaken and eventually close their doors. Once the prophetic is lost, souls are lost, too. We do not want to give the enemy a foothold!
This hiring decision will set the stage for the next phase of Outpost Ministries and hopefully will carry us far beyond our 50th anniversary in 2026. We want to remain strong and retain a voice of power and love for the 50 years beyond that! I urge you again, please pray for Outpost Ministries! This will be a critical change in our organization, offering new hope and new vision for an increasingly hopeless and blind world.
Let us pray like Isaiah for Outpost Ministries to be the light that people walking in darkness will see. Then pray like Jesus taught in Matthew 5:16, “that they may see [Outpost’s] good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”
