HEYP!

As most of you have probably heard, Sarah and I have made the announcement that we will be moving on from our time at BCC and pursuing God’s next chapter for our lives. It has been an incredible run here and we will miss every one of our BCC students and friends. I also want you to know that whatever feelings you have regarding our departure, whether positive or negative, your feelings are valid and I understand completely. I have enjoyed every moment at this church and will miss each person here. I will always look back to BCC as my “first love” in ministry. It has been a great honor to serve alongside such talented staff and volunteers, and to minister to such an awesome community of teens.

That said, I want you to know how thankful we are for our time here. Each person at BCC has been incredible to us and we have felt so privileged to be a part of what God is doing in your lives. We love all of you and will never forget our time with you!

As for why we are moving on, I feel that everyone should know our reasons and so I am being as transparent as possible. There are three primary reasons that Sarah and I are moving on. Here they are in no particular order of importance:

1. Fresh Start

In addition, Sarah and I are newly married and have discovered that, given the nature of ministry, we will be unable to establish ourselves as a couple here. In other words, I have been personally established at BCC for quite some time, whereas Sarah is newer to the community. As a result, people identify us separately as opposed to together even though we are “one” as a married couple. This concept would not have mattered much to me before I was married. I would have, in fact, been turned off by the idea of being identified as anything other than an individual. But now, I see the biblical model for marriage and have developed a desire to be seen not as “Brian,” but as “Brian and Sarah.” Entering a church as a married pair will give us the opportunity to start as a couple and not as individuals. It is now important to me that my identity is not my identity at all, but is instead our identity, and getting a fresh start will allow that.

 

While I technically have 8 years of ministry experience, I still consider myself new in student ministry and perhaps will continue to consider myself a rookie for the next 10 years, if not longer. The more I learn, the more I find out that I have barely scraped the surface of what ministry is all about. With each mistake I make in ministry I learn something new. And with each success in ministry, I discover gifts that I never knew I had. At some point along the road, it is good to change settings and get a fresh start, a fresh start where one can do things differently the second time around and take one’s newly discovered gifts to the next level.

2. Health

Sarah and I are both asthmatics and are prone to sinus infections, and as pretty much everyone here knows, Nashville weather is not exactly the greatest climate for health. In particular, Sarah has had great difficulties with the Nashville climate and has found herself continually coming down with a variety of climate-related illnesses. I, on the other hand, have been able to adjust somewhat and be able to survive. If it were just me, I would probably just “tough it out.” Sarah’s reactions to the weather have been much more dramatic, however, and we must at least consider some locations that will better suit our health needs.

3. Calling

Ultimately, any transition in ministry must deal with the matter of one’s calling in life. Sarah and I both have a passion for students, so we intend to continue in student ministry until God moves our hearts in another direction. We have also been given a desire to impact the younger generation to the maximum potential, in a way that utilizes both of our gifts and fuels the ministry we are serving in. These things might include my speaking, Sarah’s worship leading, my leadership of the ministry, and the ministry’s ability to cover the scope of our gifts.

 

At BCC, I have been given the opportunity to build a ministry with an incredibly gifted staff team, to lead staff and volunteers toward a common vision, and to see hundreds of students’ lives touched through the student ministry at BCC. This has been such an incredible blessing, I cannot explain it in words. Recently, God has been helping me come to terms with my desire to build ministry again and to lead a staff team of my own. Unfortunately, this means that I must leave BCC in order to pursue that dream.

With every thought of the people at BCC, it will no doubt include a mixture of excitement and grief. Excitement because I can hardly imagine the extent of what God has planned; and grief because it is never easy to say goodbye, no matter how positive the transition may be. I am confident that God has something amazing planned for our lives in ministry. I am also confident in His providential plans for the student ministry at BCC. The best days of this ministry are ahead of it, not behind it, and I look forward to hearing the stories of what God is going to do in the lives of our students. Each person at BCC holds a special place in our hearts.

With love and affection,

Brian Drinkwine

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