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Month: May 2021

New Pastor in the House

Published by on May 17, 2021

Yesterday Jamin Carter announced that Mandy was going to become the next executive pastor at Christ City Church. I’m so happy for the church and for her. I know that she is going to do a great job. And I also love the twist in our story.

Mandy has been an elementary school music teacher for almost two decades, and while at times she’s thought about doing other things, she has always loved what she did. In early March, though, her school decided not to renew her contract. She was absolutely shocked. I should point out that they chose to do this with several other great teachers.

I too was shocked and sad, but I also felt an immediate confidence that this could end up being a good thing. Micah was finishing at New Hope this semester, and it could be good timing for Mandy to pursue some other things that she was passionate about.

A few days later I was meeting with Jamin Carter, the pastor at Christ City. I told him what had happened. He was very sorry to hear the news, but agreed with me that some organization was going to luck out getting her on their team. A week later he reached out to Mandy and asked if she would consider applying for the executive pastor position. Now that I think about it, this may have shocked her more than finding out she had been let go. But at the same time, the possibility excited her.

If you’ve read this blog or just know my story, you’ll know that I spent two decades in vocational ministry, several of those years training and and in various positions, and then twelve years as lead pastor of a church I had started. Who knew that three years after my major career change, Mandy would be doing the same, but now she would be the pastor in the family!

When we first started attending Christ City, we knew that the leadership wanted to transition from a complementarian view of leadership to an egalitarian one. Complementarians believe that the highest levels of leadership in a church are reserved for men. Egalitarians believe that leadership is based on gifting, and that gender doesn’t matter. Mandy and I have had this latter belief for quite awhile, and so it was important to us that this was being considered.

A couple of years ago Christ City officially made the switch, and for the first time invited women to serve at the highest level of leadership: elder. Major changes like this can be hard for folks, and quite a few people left. However, those who remained were grateful and excited.

This is a big next step for our church, and it’s one that I am very excited about. Mandy’s gifts and experience are tailor made for this kind of leadership.

I remember several years ago listening Shirley Raines speak at a conference. When she became president of the University of Memphis, her husband told her that he felt his new role was to carry her briefcase. I remember thinking that I’d probably say the same thing to Mandy one day. I saw that level of leadership in her. Over the years this has only increased. She makes things happen on a level I’ve rarely seen with anyone else. And while I greatly admire the job of teaching kids, I have at times felt that Mandy had some more things in her.

So as I wrap up this post, I want to say a few things publicly to my wife…

Mandy, I continue to be impressed with you. I love how our story has led us to this place, and I can’t wait to see what this next season holds for you. I am excited to see you get to lead and use your gifts in powerful and beautiful ways. I know that you are going to do an amazing job, and I know that Christ City is lucky to have you. I love you, I believe in you, and I will be right there to carry your briefcase wherever you go!

It’s Supposed to be Hard

Published by on May 12, 2021

I shared in a post a couple of weeks ago about a time in my life that was really hard. Though I would never choose to go through something like that, I’m so glad that it wasn’t wasted. It taught me that life is going to knock you down. There are going to be moments when you have to make a decision on whether or not you are going to get up. You’re going be tested beyond what you thought was possible. In summary, life is going to be hard. And it’s supposed to be hard.

Several years ago Mandy and I had the opportunity to go to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. I remember being impressed and moved by what I saw, but what has had a significant and lasting impact on me were four paintings by Thomas Cole called The Voyage of Life. These paintings portray four distinct seasons of a man’s life. The first is Childhood.

Thomas Cole (American, 1801 – 1848 ), The Voyage of Life: Childhood, 1842, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

You see immense joy as the child is experiencing the beauty of the world. The second painting is Youth.

Thomas Cole (American, 1801 – 1848 ), The Voyage of Life: Youth, 1842, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

Here the young man finds himself on his own for the first time. There doesn’t seem to be much fear. Just excitement as he steps into an adventure. The third painting is Manhood. And in case you weren’t sure, this was the one that stopped me in my tracks.

Thomas Cole (American, 1801 – 1848 ), The Voyage of Life: Manhood, 1842, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

The joy of the child and the excitement of the young man are both gone. It’s dark and it’s scary, and this man is just praying that he won’t die. What a shift, huh! I was going through this intense and challenging time when I saw this. I was in my mid-30’s. We had young kids. I was the pastor of a young church. We didn’t have much money. And I was embarking on a new business. This painting captured what I had been feeling.

Our family started reading the book of James together a couple of weeks ago. I encouraged us all to memorize James 1:2-3. This has been an important passage of Scripture to me for a long time. Here’s what it says…

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

This is such a good word. Our trials and challenges are not wasted. It’s possible to not simply go through them but to embrace them with joy, not because we’re masochists but because we know that there is nothing else in life that makes us better and stronger. How would you like for your life to be characterized by the phrase “mature and complete, not lacking anything”!

It will never happen without a fight. It will never happen by simply coasting through life. It only happens when we embrace the truth that life is going to be hard.

The even bigger truth for me is that I don’t have to go through it alone. My faith in God is what has gotten me through these challenging times. When I’ve been alone in that boat, being tossed by the waves, I’ve known that I wasn’t truly alone. The God who has guided men and women through those same treacherous waters has guided me, and he’ll continue to guide me. And that gets us to the final painting: Old Age.

Thomas Cole (American, 1801 – 1848 ), The Voyage of Life: Old Age, 1842, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

When I see this painting, I think of Paul’s words to Timothy, found in 2 Timothy 4 and most likely penned shortly before he was beheaded under the orders of Emperor Nero…

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness…

The fact that we have this fourth painting tells us that the man praying desperately in that third painting made it out alive. He went through the challenge, pain and loss that is found in life. He did the work, and I hope that he feels the reward.

My Real Estate Journey Pt.3 (2016-2021)

Published by on May 5, 2021

As I’ve shared in the last two posts, I’ve been on a real estate journey for the last 17 years or so. This last post will be about the last five years.

From 2016 through the middle of 2019, Rob and I bought, renovated, and sold several homes together. In that time I learned so much about identifying good deals, making budgets, negotiating contracts, securing financing, hiring good subs, making design decisions, and navigating a project to completion. The majority of of the homes we bought during those years were in my neighborhood. It was a privilege to be able to restore these beautiful 100 year old homes, and it was great to be able to play a role in selecting my new neighbors!

If you’d like to see some of the work that we’ve done, feel free to check out our website.

In the spring of 2019 I heard a term that would completely change our strategy. The term is BRRRR, and it stands for Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. Prior to this we were buying houses, fixing them up, and then selling them. And then paying a lot of taxes. Soon after hearing about the BRRRR strategy we had the opportunity to buy two houses next to each other in an area that we believed would appreciate over the next 5-10 years. So instead of buying, rehabbing and selling, we ended up renovating them, getting them rented and then refinancing them, getting all of our money back in the process.

Now when we start a project, we treat it as if we were going to sell it, but then at the end of the renovation, we run numbers to see if it could work as a long-term rental. The great thing about flipping houses is that at the end of the process, we get a nice check. But then we’re done. We’re not really building wealth. Long-term rentals help us to build wealth.

I retired from vocational ministry at the end of 2018, and since that time I’ve been able to give more time to my business. In that time I’ve grown my personal rental portfolio from seven properties to fifteen.

I mentioned Thatch Nguyen in a previous post. In that post I shared about a statement he had made that has made a big impact on me. A few weeks after this I heard him say something else that has made another big impact on me. He said that there are two phases of real estate investment. There’s the Accumulation phase, in which you, yes, accumulate properties, and then there is the Payoff phase, in which you (again, confusing I know) pay off your properties. The idea is that at some point you want free and clear properties that generate monthly cash flow.

After hearing this I decided to play around with some numbers. I wondered when we could have everything paid off, and what it would look like for us financially when it was paid off. Having learned about the debt snowball over twenty years ago from Dave Ramsey, I found this online debt snowball calculator and I began to input all of my numbers.

With the debt snowball, you take your loans and order them from smallest to largest. Then you take a certain amount of extra money and apply it to the smallest loan so that you can pay it off early. Once that one is paid off, you take everything you were paying there and apply it to the next smallest. And so on and so on.

I wondered how much extra it would take to pay everything off in 10 years. I plugged in certain numbers, and finally discovered that an additional $400 applied towards my smallest loan would do the trick. I was pretty blown away by that. One of the main reasons this worked is that I had just refinanced my two loans with longer terms (25yr and 30yr) to 15 years.

So now I have a vision of what life could look like for us a decade from now. There are of course lots of things that could cause us to course correct. Another 2008 could happen. One of us could get sick. But as of today I’m glad that we have a plan, and I feel really good about it.

If you have questions or want to chat, hit me up. I love talking real estate, and I’d be happy to help you if I can.