Year 4, April 21st, 2019: The First and the Last

On the first day of the week, Jesus rose again! Woohoo! And on this particular first day of the week, Gary preached his final sermon as the Lead Servant of Indian Creek Christian Church.  Wow! I'm sure he has all the stats about how many sermons, how many baptisms, exact number of weeks on the job, etc, but 29+ years of service to one church is almost unheard of! But it is finished!  Just one more week and the baton will literally be handed off to Dan.  It's been a crazy ride, and I've been here for 20 of those years! (Well, off and on, of course, we did have the 4 years in Canada, and when I was in college, I was here every other week, but point is, I was aware of the church and some of it's going ons in that time).

Originally, Jared and I were going to stay home today in order to leave room for guests, but I signed up to help in the nursery at the 9:15am service last minute.  So since I was already there, I went upstairs to the balcony to get a better angle for pictures and videos.  I had known I was going to do that, so that's why I didn't do that on Friday night.  I tried to immerse myself into the service that night so I was free to not actually worry about worshiping well today at the 11am service.  I'm sure those around me thought I was nuts but I didn't care.  I kept the phone low and right in front of me for most of it.  And you know what? Jared Ensminger had his big camera and tripod out walking around taking pictures and Tom Harrigan had his phone out taking pictures, so I was in good company.  Somebody's got to document these things!  Jared and Abishai joined me halfway through the sermon, because Jared, too, wanted to be there for the last time his Dad walked off the stage.  Because we were in the front row of the balcony, with a very antsy 4 yr old, Gary did see us and he told us he teared up when he did.  There were a lot of people backstage that applauded him as well when he walked off.

As far as the sermon goes, first of all, I'll link it on here once the church puts it on their website.  Second, it was a pretty straight forward, unsurprising sermon on the hope of the Resurrection.  It didn't blow me out of the water, however, it did for a few people.  In fact, one gentlemen decided today was finally the day to get it done.  Another family had just started coming to our church last week after they googled "baptism class" and our church's baptism class came up!  Their children wanted to be baptized and they couldn't find a church willing to do it.  So the whole family was baptized this weekend.  I can insert the number here when they post it on Wednesday, as well as attendance (which I will have to get directly from Gary since they no longer post it in the e-newsletter), which is going to be epic because not only were there a couple of rows of chairs outside the sanctuary, but they filled up the chapel as well!  And even the Friday night service was comfortable full on the first floor in the auditorium.  The 6pm service on Saturday was full on the first floor, so they opened the balcony.  I'm guessing there's going to be a record broken from this weekend!

I don't know what else to say.  It's a milestone for all of us.  Highly anticipated for 3 plus years.  And of  course next week, we'll really celebrate the passing of the baton.  This week, we needed to focus on Easter, and that we did well.  From a string quartet, to special lighting, to even lead singers changing positions, and special videos.  Well, you'll see some of it below.  I'm grateful that God brought us back from Canada to go through this transition process with our old/new church family.  I wouldn't have wanted it any other way, especially since Aaron and Shauna can't be here.  But our church in Cornwall, PEI actually sang one of the same song we did today, so I still feel somewhat connected with them there.  Sweet.  I miss them, too.  Anyway, enjoy what pictures and videos I got!  It was hard to get the right lighting and focus, but I did my best.  Enjoy!

Update: Final stats for 7 Easter Services, 5 at Franklin Rd. and 2 at Shelby St.: 7,344 in attendance and 14 baptisms!  Praise the Lord!  We had extra chairs and utilized the chapel on Sunday!  Even Friday night seemed full!  Yeah!

Easter Service 2019

To listen or watch his sermon, go here:
Gary's last sermon: "His Hope"

Gary doing his meet and greet thing between services.  Typical Sunday!

I love our simple, yet impactful stage.  And I love that we don't have the worship band filmed and on the screens.  When I've seen that done, I'm too distracted by the camera work or the worship team (usually figuring out what they are wearing or how they did their hair, don't judge me!) which makes it harder to worship.  Simple and lovely.

We had "hired" a string quartet for the first song.  Wow! I can tell a huge difference between real instruments and synthesized strings, especially since that's the part I played back at Manchester Christian Church during high school.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE real instruments!  Check out the playlist above to hear them!

Mr. Aaron Shroeder doing his thing, just like his dad, Andy, before him.  Andy was typically in the middle or in this spot as well. They don't sound exactly alike, but I often think of Andy when I see Aaron up there.  Andy was our worship minster for several years.

This was a pretty neat element as well.  The song was something we could have all sung, and I'm sure some of us did if we knew the words, but instead of putting the lyrics on the screens, they showed this cool video where different scenes from Jesus' last days, death, and resurrection were "drawn" with a continuous line that connected them all.  Again, check the video.  And we have some very serious talent on our worship team, very much out of my league.

Lately we've had an extra singer or two, and a very full stage.  Next week, Benaiah will be on drums again.  Oh, I loved the light show as well.  The light guys know how to use the lights well without being too overpowering.  I know some don't like it, but I appreciate and love how it matches with the timing of the music and makes it more dramatic.

Mr. Luke Green with the beginning and ending host momemts.  He is the middle school minister and the only time I see him without a hat on is when he's on this stage, lol.

I don't know their names, but I've seen these ladies before.  And then the guy on the right is Josh Howerton, part of the high school youth staff and in charge of their worship things.

I'm not the only stalker! A mutual friend caught this moment as Gary prepares to go on stage to preach for the last time.  Oh wow, that's awesome!

On to the main event.  He said all his typical things like "Think with me for a moment." and "From my heart to yours, listen to your pastor's heart." etc.

He's the king of hand gestures!  I tried to capture may of them.  This week, we had two cameras going so when he was using the TV screen there, the automatic camera would have the shot, and then the manual camera would follow him when the screen wasn't needed.  It's Benaiah's job as switcher to switch between the two.

During the Friday night service, the wrong pictures of these dictators was up!  It was the grandson and dad, not the dad and son (the current ruler of North Korea).

Rare treat: we were in the balcony (Jared hates the balcony.  I often come up here when it's just me.) and Abishai is with us.

He found this recently and wanted to see if there was anything on it.

Always, always, always with the acrostics.  It's how he memorizes the points of his sermons!  Or everything starts with the same letter!

"Let's us our minds."

I adore this picture!  I'm just remembering when Benaiah was little and his Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Boyer (the same one Abishai has now) would take him out to the foyer to see Grandpa on the screen.  Abishai will grow up not having first hand memories of Grandpa as Lead Servant and preacher like this.  It makes me sad, actually.  But I've come to terms with that everyone has different memories of the same thing, especially when you live in the same place for a long time.  You might grow up with the same parents in the same house but your recollection of events is quite different than your siblings. So, embrace it!

Final walkout after giving the invitation.  End of an era.

I was half expected an ovation.  I think that will come next week.

Just a little bored.

Abishai was hiding halfway under the pew.  The balcony pews are on concrete risers, so he couldn't go too far and couldn't bother anyone.

He enjoyed dancing to the last songs.

Typical position for Gary if he's not the one doing the baptizing.  He likes to make sure the little ones can see the baptisms.  We had something like 6 baptisms during that service.

Another new thing with the worship team was switching up where the song leader was.  So, one of the girls and Josh switched positions.  Interesting.

Then Gary ended up on the floor with Dan to do some of the prayers before the person got baptized.

Awww, I remember being at Cornwall Christian Church and Daddy holding Abishai while we sang.  The kids were in service with us until the sermon.

Dan on the left, Gary on the right.  And I didn't capture it on still film, but I did get a clip of them hugging one another.  Sweet!

Jared's tweet.  Jared isn't very sentimental, but he has become more sentimental in the last 5 years or so.  Awww....

Typical after church meet and greet.  Listening to stories and praying with people.

Awww.....I think this one might need to be framed....

Not the best lighting, and no one got the memo that you actually need to dress up for Easter, but hey, it's not a mountain I'm willing to die on.  At least we have some smiles!  And I look so short! Eek!

Mary Elsbury (who loves to encourage Benaiah as well): "Today has been bittersweet. Easter at The Creek is always filled with joy and celebration. This year was different for me - it was the last time I would run graphics for my friend and Pastor, Gary Johnson. It has been my pleasure to work with Gary for the last 20 years, helping to visualize his sermons. I’ve gotten calls at all hours, from around the world, when he needed something tweaked. Thank you, Gary, for always being gracious. I’m trusting God to bless you in your next phase of ministry. And I’m hoping you’ll call me to help."

This Year's Easter Service Creative Arts Team!

Mary Elsbury and Gary

Picture by Steve Minton.  They attend the Shelby St. campus, so they have a live band and live host, but then watch the sermon via satellite in real time.

Another perspective from Debra Kay Watts.

This was an awesome post by a former worship minister of Indian Creek.  Wow, I was there for all of that and what a perspective!  I'm saving this and some other basic "We will miss you! Congrats!" comments in a document for Gary.  But this sums up a lot of what people feel about Gary's time at The Creek. (And I think Chris is awesome, btw!)

From Facebook:

Chris Solwecki

"I must be at the stage of life where all of the people who have helped me grow are entering a transitional phase of life where they are retiring, or at least changing course. A few weeks ago I wrote about Rick Rusaw. Today I want to write about 2 men who have profoundly impacted my life significantly over the course of the past 18 years.
Gary Johnson and D. Mark Miller were Senior and Executive Ministers at Indian Creek Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana. They hired me at a challenging time in the church's life - they were finishing a building project, dealing with some staff fallout, and growing like crazy! For the first few months I was on staff, Gary and I would meet in the hallway as we were changing venues for services - He would preach first in one room, while I led worship in the other, and then we would "flip-flop." If I have my information correct, Gary started at "The Creek" in 1990, following another difficult season in the life of the church, soon hired Mark to join him, and, with God's help, grew the church from 250 in 1990 to nearly 2,000 in 2001!
I know the idea of that kind of growth is the stuff from which dreams are made, but growth at that rate is incredibly challenging - keeping up with staffing needs, building usage, community involvement, etc.
Three things stand out to me about these guys for which I will always be grateful. First, they should have fired me in my 2nd year there, and they didn't. I impetuously proclaimed some truth that I hadn't earned the right to proclaim in the manner which I proclaimed it. I had been there less than a year when I wrote an article in our church newsletter that offended many long-time members. When confronted about it, I was not contrite. They showed great patience, kindness, and a willingness to help me mend fences when I initially was unwilling to mend anything. I have no doubt that I would not be in ministry today if they had determined that I was "more trouble than I was worth." Even though my actions brought on a headache that neither of them needed, they endured it, and my petulance, until I came around to recognizing that one can be right and still wrong. I will always be grateful for that patience and lovingkindness.
Secondly, they modeled healthy leadership by doing tough things well. Dr. Johnson tells the story often about bringing Dr. Joe Ellis to The Creek. Dr. Ellis told us that we had to decide whether we would choose to be Member Driven or Mission Driven. He explained why mission driven was a healthier model. Remember, this is a congregation that had grown from 250 to nearly 2,000 in 11 years! The staff and Elders agreed to go to that model, which meant some significant changes about how we did what we did. Mark set a pace for the staff to follow that was appropriate, but not jarring, and Dr. Johnson sat with many, many families - families who had been with him since he first set foot at 6430 S. Franklin Rd. - and explained that things would change, what it would mean to them, and why it was important. Some left...but many more stayed because he invested in them, reassured them, held their collective hand through the transition. The easy path was to just continue doing what was being done...the right path was much more difficult, and Gary and Mark led the Elders, staff, and congregation through what could have been a harrowing time, instead instilling great confidence in all who were there.
Additionally, while they didn't always agree on direction, they always worked it out as brothers in Christ. It was never personal, it was always to God's glory. It was an amazing thing to watch and experience.
Finally, and most personally for me, they invested in me, and have remained invested in my life.
I had an opportunity to hire staff in my department. I had never done that before, and Mark recommended a really good guy. I met with him, liked him, but felt that he was too similar to me. I wanted to augment my weaknesses. I went to him with an unconventional approach, he listened, and he allowed me to follow that path. Every time I read one of Laura Dingman's books or hear her speak, I thank God that Mark said yes, and then she said yes to God's call on her life.
Dr. Johnson humbled himself to join my creative arts team as the choir director for a time. He came to weekly meetings, always deferring to what the rest of the team wanted to do. I was, and am to this day, humbled by his respect and deference. He certainly didn't have to do it.
Mark gave me a book when I left The Creek - "Solving the Ministry's Toughest Problems, volume 1." At the time I scoffed. Many times since, I have gone to that book for perspective. He has kept up with me here on Facebook, and has always answered an e-mail or call I sent, no matter how busy he surely was.
Dr. Johnson came to churches I led and trained our Elders for future growth. He has always greeted me with warmth and kindness, has been a reference for me when I needed one, a confidant when I needed one...always a friend.
I am grateful to these men of God for their example, their Godly leadership, their humble spirit, their friendship. My God continue to bless them both."

(back to me, Melinda) Praise the Lord for His faithfulness through all of this!

The End