Helping Other Churches
As Suncrest grows, I get a lot more requests (and feel more responsibility) to help other churches in our area. It’s always a balancing act because the demands at Suncrest aren’t getting any smaller either. Today confirmed to me that this is an important role, though.
For breakfast, I met with Mike Gillespie. He’s the minister at South Side Christian Church in Munster. They have been hammered by the flooding from a few weeks ago and we’ve tried to help in every way we know how. They facing an enormous task to restore their building and equally big decisions about the future shape of their ministry. I got to hear some of Mike’s story and grew in respect for how he is shepherding this church through a challenging time.
Later in the morning, I met with a group of pastors in Michigan City. First Christian Church there is an old downtown church that is on the edge of making a HUGE kingdom decision. Their community around them has changed demographically and socio-economically. And (I’m so proud of them about this), they are considering re-shaping their ministry to meet the needs of that community instead of abandoning it. Dennis Gamauf is the minister there and he has led the church to such a powerful (and frightening) change. I loved seeing the camaraderie around the table to try to accomplish something so worthwhile.
Also found out today that Dennis played basketball for Purdue in the early 70’s. How cool is that?
.Real.Greg.Lee. 
I lived next to Dennis at Purdue, in Owen Hall, in 1969-70. Dennis was an awesome basketball player. He was the team star, though he was extremely modest about it. I lost track of Dennis, though I am glad that he followed the call to ministry. I could see signs of it even back then.