Greetings to all of our friends, family, and ministry partners! We have been enjoying time with our family and extended family. We have gotten to spend more time with our parents (the kids’ grandparents) and Robin’s extended family in the past three months than we have in the past 11 years.
We’ve gotten to be with them for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. And we’ve helped Robin’s mom with some projects around the house. We’ve also gotten some much needed rest.
Robin and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in the Hill Country of Texas on January 2. We’ve had good times and tough times, but we are more in love today than in 1993! We’re looking forward to what the next 20 years hold!
We’ve learned that a number of the celebrated “ministry heroes” of the Christian faith in the past couple of centuries lived lives that were seriously unbalanced. They sacrificed their families for the ministry…and as a result, many of their kids ended up abandoning the faith. (For more on this subject, I encourage those in ministry to listen to a related message from Mark Driscoll: http://goo.gl/kw5AE.)
We determined from the beginning not to sacrifice our kids on the altar of ministry. They are our number one ministry! And the fact that they still love us, each other and God tells us that we’re at least headed in the right direction. Because of this, we are more convinced than ever that taking a sabbatical was the right thing to do.
We again want to thank our partners, family and friends for supporting and encouraging us in our missionary adventure.
As is our custom, we want to celebrate each new year with a quick overview of the past 11 years.
We’ve seen 500+ people commit their lives to Christ, with another 1200+ that have renewed their commitment to Christ. We’ve trained hundreds of students and leaders in nine European countries (and the USA) to minister within their circle of influence. And through our website and blogs we’ve been able to influence over 30,000 others.
Our greatest ministry accomplishment has been the establishment of Watermark, a church for the unchurched in Freiburg, Germany. Through our roles as pastors to this 20- & 30-something crowd, we’ve been able to truly disciple and develop leaders over the past two years. We’re seeing lives turned around, especially kids. Lately we’ve seen a greater percentage of unchurched kids visiting our services. God is truly up to something BIG!
Our partners have made all of this possible. We want to thank you for taking this amazing journey with us. Only a few of you have been able to see it for yourselves. But in heaven there will be a LONG line of people waiting to thank you for your investment!
Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can.
(Excerpt from Mark Batterson)
Again, thank you for your natural and spiritual support. We are believing that this year will usher in God’s love, provision, and blessing like never before!
After resigning from his Associate Pastor position in a mega-church in the north Dallas, TX area, Jon and Robin moved their family to Germany in October 2001. There they focused on empowering European church leaders through mentoring and coaching, as well as teaching in seminars, conferences, roundtables and Bible Schools. They also planted a number of churches and youth groups throughout central Europe.
After planting and pastoring a “church for those who don’t do church” in Freiburg, Germany, they returned to the Texas Hill Country in August 2014 to help U.S. churches prepare for the coming Post-Christian cultural shift. Jon’s book, The Coming Post-Christian Tsunami is available in print and Kindle formats from Amazon.com.
Although they reside in the Texas Hill Country, they continue to equip Christian leaders throughout Europe and North America.
Jon and Robin have been married since 1993 and have three children: Ryan, Ashton and Emma.