The year was 2008. It was late summer, and I had just finished taking the Bar Exam when I got a call. “How would you feel about being my ‘consigliere’?” It was Rev. Justin Coleman. Rev. Coleman had been a mentor/friend since he was an associate director at the SMU Wesley Foundation while I was in undergrad. It was an ‘offer I couldn’t refuse’ (can you tell that Rev. Coleman and I share an affinity for the Godfather films?).Let’s back up. After graduating SMU and returning to Houston in 2005, my future wife, Ashley, and I were busy at work setting up our “adult” lives. Ashley began working at Texas Children’s Hospital as a registered nurse in the ICU and I was starting law school that fall. We began looking for a church and found St. Luke’s to be a great fit.  For me, I already had a communal connection to St. Luke’s. My high school youth director, Boyd Goodloe, was then the St. Luke’s youth director. And Rev. Coleman and another SMU connection, Rev. Taylor Meador Fuerst, became associates there soon after we started attending. Plus, Dr. Moore’s sermons felt very familiar after spending 4 years becoming accustomed to Dr. Mark Craig’s three (and only three) point sermons at Highland Park UMC in Dallas.

The first few years of our membership were rather uneventful as we were newly married, I was “hard at work” on my studies, and Ashley was working nights at the hospital. We didn’t take a lot of time to think about how to plug-in and take the next step at church. Until, sometime around early 2008, Rev. Coleman asked me to join a St. Luke’s task force to examine a possible partnership between St. Luke’s and Gethsemane United Methodist Churches. I’ll be honest, I didn’t really get it at first; but it was Rev. Coleman asking, and (being a dedicated, studious student) I had plenty of free time on my hands, so I agreed.

In one of our early meetings, we took a bus over to Gethsemane. We drove from River Oaks through Bellaire and into Gulfton and Sharpstown. As we observed these communities, I found it hard to believe they could be so close to one another because they seemed so far apart. But as we got off the bus at the Gethsemane UMC for the first time, I saw it. A beautiful mid-century church surrounded by a huge green field. This green field is what caught my eye. It was unique in Sharpstown. The only other large green space in the area was fenced off by the school district and not available to the community (I later confirmed this observation with Google Earth). That green field hit me hard and possibility overtook me.

Gethsemane UMC was a fascinating place. The vast majority of its membership were long-time members who either started or joined the church when Sharpstown and Gulfton were in their heyday. When they were built, Sharpstown and Gulfton were planned to be the premier suburban community in Houston complete with the city’s first air-conditioned shopping mall. Initial residents were young, upwardly mobile, white couples, and families. Naturally, Gethsemane’s early membership reflected its community. Fifty years later Sharpstown had changed tremendously into a community made up of first-generation blue-collar and entrepreneurial Americans yet Gethsemane still mostly made up of its early membership now in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. That said, there was pent-up energy within the Gethsemane leadership that yearned to reach the community that now surrounded the church. Match that with St. Luke’s desire to expand its impact and be transformative in this city, it was clear, the two churches were aligned in mission.

Fast forward a few months and Rev. Coleman and Dr. Pace had been appointed as pastors of both congregations while the two churches contemplated a future partnership and potential merger. Now I am on the phone and Rev. Coleman is asking me to be his “consigliere” as he starts as Lead Pastor at the Gethsemane UMC. For you Hamilton fans, he was Washington in need of a “right-hand man.”

I hadn’t loved law school and my clerkship experiences were characterized more by competing large egos at small firms than by exciting court room battles. I’ve always been entrepreneurial, and I didn’t see myself fitting into the traditional view of the profession. Now, Rev. Coleman was presenting an exciting and unorthodox path. With the reservations of my parents heard and the full support of my wife, I set aside my legal career and accepted the role of Executive Director at Gethsemane UMC.

My primary job was to support Rev. Coleman as he led Gethsemane UMC through a series of changes that would help the church reach the Sharpstown/Gulfton community. Early on, everything felt like an uphill battle. Change of any kind can be hard, but changes to your church (even when it desires and invites the change) can be downright upsetting. At times we managed those changes with grace, but I was 26 and at times I just goofed up. Fortunately, I was surrounded by faithful Christians at both Gethsemane and St. Luke’s that were willing to overlook my inexperience and embrace my idealistic, if not naïve, pursuits. Looking back on it, I can’t think of a better environment for a young, aspirational person to learn about conflict, leadership, and the importance of humility.

We faced a number of challenges: 1) an aging and shrinking membership; 2) financial uncertainty; 3) walking both campuses through the contemplation, affirmation, and transition of a merger; and (to make matters worse) 4) Hurricane Ike had caused significant roof damage to the church right before Rev. Coleman’s and my first day on the job.  But Dr. Pace and Rev. Coleman had a vision and were resolute in seeing it through. What started with relationship building and courting of great community organizations has now erupted into vibrant second campus of St. Luke’s where we can see mission in action. Today a host of organizations like CCSC, Kids Hope, Connect Community, and reVision Houston thrive on the Gethsemane Campus. First-generation families now call our church home with services in Spanish, Swahili, and English. Oh, and that green field that first caught my imagination is now home to a spectacular garden managed by CCSC and a soccer field that reVision Houston’s soccer team has used to win championships. And to think, when Rev. Coleman first approached me about Gethsemane, I didn’t really get it. I didn’t, but God did.

Eventually, life moved Rev. Coleman and me on from the Gethsemane Campus. But that had no impact on God’s plan for St. Luke’s. Together, the Westheimer and Gethsemane Campuses have made St. Luke’s a force of transformation in the city of Houston. I’m so grateful that Dr. Pace and Rev. David Horton have continued and surpassed our wildest dreams for the Gethsemane Campus. In 2008, we laughed about the impossibility of starting a day school on the Gethsemane Campus of the same quality and care of the St. Luke’s Day School. Yet here we are today, and St. Luke’s has partnered with Small Steps to do just that this coming January. What a wonderful church to be a part of; happy 75th birthday St. Luke’s!