Sonrise Family Update (6/14)
July 14, 2024
We want to make you aware of some adjustments that are taking place in our ministry team. First, our dearly loved and highly respected Mercy Director, Heather Brown, will retire in December. Over a year ago, Heather and I discussed retirement, and I asked her when she felt like she wanted to retire. She expressed the desire to step away from her paid role in December of 2024. We are honoring that request and look forward to celebrating her later this year. We still plan to have a Mercy Fund and are working out how it will be managed after Heather’s retirement.
Second, after several months of prayer and discussion, we firmly believe our 10-year vision requires us to add, adjust, and eliminate some of the roles on our staff. These changes are necessary to align us better with our vision. We are convinced that our family ministry team needs to be expanded to foster the growth God is bringing to this area of our church. We are adding a Girls’ Youth Director and an intern to our family team. We are also looking to add to our children’s ministry staff. Two of our staff members who served in our Family Ministries are moving into new roles where we believe they will flourish. We asked Pastor Jacob to take on the role of Young Adults Pastor, and he agreed to take on this new opportunity. Eliza will now be serving on our team as our Executive Administrator. We are also hiring a worship ministry intern. We are starting a new internship program, which will begin in the fall and offer a part-time salary and the opportunity to earn a fully accredited bachelor’s and master’s degree. We want to assure you that these changes have been carefully considered, and we are very excited to see how God will use these four new hires and two role changes to expand the ministry of the gospel to our community and beyond.
Unfortunately, we needed to eliminate a current role to add these new roles. Although this move was necessary, we wanted to take our time to make this adjustment carefully and respectfully because we greatly love the individual who served in this role. As an executive team, we began having discussions with this individual in March of this year and, with the help of the Trustees, provided a financial package that would make this transition as smooth as possible for them. The role of Missions and Care Pastor is being eliminated. Pastor Keith served in that role. Pastor Keith has been a valuable team member for over seven years and volunteered for nine years before being on staff. His impact has been felt in missions, care, administration, marriages, and mentoring. We want you to know we love Keith and Kathy and are grateful for their contributions to Sonrise Church over the last 16 years. Recognizing their contributions and the weight of this decision, we desired to give them as long a runway as possible before this significant transition.
This transition is not about replacing Pastor Keith. We are not going to hire someone to fill his role. His responsibilities will be spread out to volunteers and staff. For example, we are forming a missions committee to ensure we continue providing care and support to all our missionaries. On Keith’s behalf, we want to be clear that there are no moral or ethical failures or performance deficiencies driving this decision. Pastor Keith has our full support after this transition to continue serving as a ministry leader at Sonrise. Keith is currently considering returning to work as a journeyman metal worker or another ministry for which he is qualified. We are fully supportive and are working with him to help him discover the next season of ministry the Lord has for him. We will be celebrating both Keith and Kathy on Sunday, August 11.
This statement will be emailed to the congregation and posted on our website. If you have any questions, please email one of the executive team members: Paul Crandell (paulc@isonrise.com), Aaron Kellar (aaronk@isonrise.com), or Daniel Johnson (danielj@isonrise.com).