It’s no secret that times are tough these days for everyone and churches aren’t immune.  We’ve been feeling it here at Fusion for a long time now.   Honestly, our giving took a hit last year and we thought that was big until we rolled into this year.  From January until today, our giving is a fraction of what it was last year.  I don’t think the majority of that drop is because of fear or a lack of desire to give.  Honestly, we’ve got so many people that have lost jobs or that have had their hours cut back that the drop in giving is understandable.

During financially challenging times, I usually seek the Lord and He will either tell me to keep plugging away at the church and look for His provision OR He will tell me to adjust our spending to where the giving is at currently.  For the last six months or so, we’ve been hanging on and cutting back in all sorts of ways but it is clear to me that we are now in a season where we have to make some dramatic cuts.

Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that I’m announcing today that Stephen Lowe is stepping down as our Executive Pastor.  Stephen is an amazing man and I can’t tell you how sad it makes me to think of doing church without him on staff.  He’s a man of so many gifts and talents that it’s hard to define or even explain everything he’s done for us at Fusion.  It’s also very hard to let him go but I know that it’s best financially for him, his family, and Fusion right now.  The truth is that when we hired Stephen we hired him for a song with hopes of raising his pay as we went along.  Sadly, we were never able to do that and as much as I would love to continue to have him on staff, I don’t want him to put his family in any financial hardship by staying at Fusion.

I’m so very glad that Stephen and Stephanie still plan on being a part of Fusion.  They are committed to being active at our church assuming, of course, that they don’t have to relocate due to the job change.

Please join me in thanking Stephen and Stephanie for all they’ve done at Fusion the next time you see them.  Also, please agree with me in prayer that the Lord will provide for them and guide them every step of the way.  Beyond that, if you’re in a position to hire Stephen, I highly recommend him to you and suggest that you move quickly because a person of this caliber doesn’t come along often.

Finally, as you all know, Stephen has a blog as well and since things like this tend to start rumors we thought we’ve both blog about this to show that there’s no ill will between us.  You can check out Stephen’s blog for his take on the whole thing.