Sometimes the most faithful thing you can do is make space for others to lead.
Yesterday I had one of the most humbling experiences of the past decade. I was invited to be a guest at the second anniversary of Iglesia Christiana Bethel — the church that now calls home the building where I grew up and once pastored.
In 2017, I became the senior pastor of St. Johns Wesleyan Church, stepping into leadership after my dad faithfully served the congregation for 35 years. In the weeks leading up to my installation, I vividly sensed God giving me a clear vision for our future: Give yourselves away. I didn’t fully understand what that would mean. I assumed it might look like planting new churches, expanding ministries, and growing so much that our blessings could overflow to others.
But three years later, God called us to something I never anticipated: leaving our building behind and merging with another local congregation. It wasn’t theoretical — we literally gave our building and our space away. Fidel and Victorina Gonon, who had been a part of our church family for some time, felt called to stay and seek God’s will for what was next in that holy place.
A few years after that, I introduced Fidel to Pastor Wendell Robinson — a local African American pastor who speaks fluent Spanish and carries a deep apostolic gift for releasing the work of the Spirit in emerging leaders around the world. Yesterday, Wendell was the guest preacher for Iglesia Christiana Bethel’s anniversary celebration, and it was clear that God had orchestrated every detail of this story.
As I slipped quietly into the service — late, after finishing up our own worship gathering at St. Johns — I sat near the front and tried to take it all in. I watched as the old walls of St. Johns Wesleyan were alive with new life: young families, vibrant worship, and a fiery hunger for the Spirit to move in our community. Pastor Wendell preached with power from the book of Habakkuk, calling God’s people to cry out for revival — to ask God to “do it again.” And the Holy Spirit fell in that room in a way I could never have orchestrated or even imagined years ago.
There I was — one of the only white faces in the crowd — standing among two pastors who look nothing like me, leading a ministry I never could have built and carrying a vision I never could have realized. I stuck out, unmistakably. But I also knew: this was exactly right. The impact this church is making on our community is profound. And my role? Simply stepping aside — making space for the Spirit to work in ways far beyond me.
Jesus said, “I assure you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24, CEB). Yesterday, I saw a glimpse of the fruit Jesus was talking about. The life growing out of that surrendered space is breathtakingly beautiful.
My prayer today is the same as it was when God first spoke: that I would hold loosely everything I steward. That I would be willing, again and again, to give myself away.