2026 has been a year of transition. One year ago I left pastoral ministry after nearly 20 years, and began working with Krista in the Biblical counseling practice that she had started. Together, we began to explore what it would look like to provide faith-based care for people who lived in areas of the world that had little to no access to such spiritual support. We began to consider how we could help churches to develop cultures of care and discipleship that were theologically robust and yet practically wise and compassionate. And so, one year later we are reflecting on all that God has done.
The Lord has been gracious. We’ve seen the ministry blow up and opportunities for service have expanded beyond what we could imagine. What started as a few soul care cases a week has turned into more cases than we can currently handle, and from all over the country and indeed the world. Through virtual meetings Krista has been able to provided spiritual care for people who are on the mission field or who simply live in countries where Biblical counseling doesn’t exist. We are at a point in our caseload where she has to consider whether God is calling her to expand the ministry and hire additional soul care advocates.
We have also enjoyed expanding our church-based trainings. We have had the privilege of doing training for several large churches in our area, seeking to equip their congregations to better care for hurting and struggling people. This is a huge burden of ours and we would love it if the Lord would grant us more opportunities to help churches develop a better culture of care. This is one of the areas we hope to expand next year.
We have also had more speaking engagements this year than in any previous year, in fact more this year than in all previous years of ministry combined! I went from traveling once, maybe twice, a year to traveling so much that I achieved Delta Platinum status. We have travelled to half a dozen states and then done multiple in-state workshops too. Our speaking has become a major part of our ministry and we are already scheduled for more travel next year.
Finally, writing continues to be its own ministry. Our book Power with Purpose: God’s Design for Power Dynamics in Marriage came out in December of 2025 and while we never track a book’s reception we have received good encouragement on it. We are speaking at the CCEF National Conference this month on that topic. We have other projects in the works both joint and individual. Exciting things are happening there and we can’t wait to tell you more about it.
The year of transition has been, in many respects good. We are enjoying a new season of ministry. We’ve also seen the transition of our first child to college, which has been both wonderful and surprisingly difficult. We’ve also transitioned to a new church. We were at Cornerstone for 14 years and we dearly miss many people there. That has been a hard transition, and yet we love the congregation that God has led us to.
We are grateful to so many of you who have stayed connecting to us and encouraged us in this new season of life. We are grateful for the many relationships that have endured change and the prayer support many have given to us. The Lord is continuing to do good things through Sparrow & Heart Soul Care and we are excited about the future. We have some really neat opportunities that are coming up and we can’t wait to share them with you (more on that in another post). We are grateful for this year of transition and hope you will continue with us into the next year.
