Five years ago the Koinos church family blessed me with a 10-week sabbatical. It was helpful for me and my family in huge ways. When I returned I immediately told our staff and elders that we need to make this a regular part of our ministry to our leaders. Nathan Cargle, our youth minister, took that seriously and went on his sabbatical for a summer soon afterward. Now it is David Phillips’ turn. And we want the church to know how to pray for and care for him and his family during this time.
David has served lovingly as our worship leader at Koinos for 13 years. He met and married his wife, Tiffany, in those early years. Now they have two awesome kids, Trevor and Gracie. Boy, God has blessed them richly. And God has blessed Koinos richly through them! Now it is time for us to bless them with some time away to refuel and be enriched in God.
David will begin his sabbatical immediately after Sunday, June 5 and will return on Sunday, August 21. That means he will not be leading worship for any of those Sunday worship services. His family may attend worship with us some of those ten Sundays but will worship in other places many of those weeks. The bottom line is that he and his family will be free to spend time together being refueled without the responsibilities of preparing for and leading worship for those weeks.
They are making a plan for how to use those weeks best for their enrichment. Keep in mind that David’s full time employer is not giving him a sabbatical as well. Here’s how Koinos can bless them. Pray for them. Send them loving and encouraging notes. If you see them in worship, tell them you are praying for them and ask how they are doing. Don’t demand their time but be available to hang out with them if they’d like. In general, love on them in the way the loving Koinos family always does.
One need Dave & Tiffany have is to find some solutions for their daughter’s sever allergic reactions. This has been a heavey burden on them. Please pray for God to lead them to the answers they are looking for. Also pray for God to comfort their hearts with His all-sufficient grace.
Then, following David’s sabbatical, welcome him back and let’s continue growing in God’s grace, worshiping Him together. There is much to be done together to reach our community with the grace of God.
