29th October 2017: A Q&A with Geoff and Sherry Surratt

Today’s ‘preach’ is a Q&A session with Geoff and Sherry Surratt who engage with Kerith-sized churches and help facilitate their growth.

Ben: What brought you here to Kerith?

G+S: We first came to Europe (Portugal) about 8 years ago, to a leadership conference where we met with leaders from several UK churches. We were amazed at what God is doing, at the desire for God – in the US people hear stories of church decline, but that’s not what we encountered.  We met Becci Oliver and Heather Pocock there and kept in touch afterwards, talking over leadership issues

Ben: Tell us a bit about your background?

G: We were married at 19 & 20, and we’ve been in ministry for about 35 years.  We went to a small church; it grew, had multiple services, and wanted to expand – but was refused permission for a larger building, so instead it opened up a second site .. and then a third.  G ‘s job became one of looking for new sites – we ended up with 14 sites serving 12000 over 12 years of work.  Other churches came visiting, to learn from what we had done.  Since then we’ve moved around a bit, I’m currently serving as an interim pastor in a Denver church.

S: I started out trying to answer the question “How do we help a church leader take an idea an implement it?”.  We formed “Mum’s International” an organisation help churches set up small groups for mothers and toddlers, reaching those who wouldn’t otherwise be in church.  It’s Now called “Orange Family Ministry” where the orange stands for the combination of red (family love) and yellow (church light).  We produce a curriculum for children’s work, which Kerith has now adopted.

Ben: for the record, G+S have written a book on forming multi-site churches which the Kerith leadership have used to help shape their thinking on the way forward for Kerith.

Ben: So tell us about your marriage?

G: We’ve been together about 35 years, so its all e perfect, or course. Or maybe not …  Some years ago we were working in a Texas church.  It was culturally difficult, we were both working really hard to make things work.  There wasn’t much time for family or kids, but I’d not heard anything bad, so I assumed all was OK.  But one day Sherry was obviously upset; she said she felt lost, she didn’t know who she was supposed to be and we never talked of anything except work.  I hoped things would pass, and nothng more was said for a month or two - but when we next talked at a retreat,we  concluded our marriage was basically over.  At the retreat, S just said ‘I want to be friends again’ – and that was the start of a journey back.

S: the lessons we learnt were:

·         Have honest, earnest conversations

·         We hadn’t been in the habit of praying together, but we learnt to be comfortable with praying out loud together – it’s hard to keep resentment for someone who has been praying out loud for you!

·         For me, it’s hard to be a busy working mum, meeting all those expectations of perfection. I learnt I needed to take a few minutes out of busy-ness every day and listen to God.  You’ll never be doing things perfectly, but he’ll maybe tell you it’s OK – relax!

·         Enjoy the moment you’re in, because those times pass fast.

G – praying out loud a good example to kids, too.

S: In the midst of everything, the verse I hold in my heart is Zeph 3:17 (NLT).

“For the Lord your God is living among you.
He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
With his love, he will calm all your fears
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.”

Ben: do you think these family lessons are applicable to church, too?

G: some of them are.  Back at the first church we spoke over, we encountered lots of growing pains as the church developed.  We liked the feel of the small church - everyone knew everyone, and it was comfortable.  As the church spread over more sites we lost touch with friends; everyone gave money and time to causes [sites] that we wouldn’t see anything back from; and we changed behaviours and practices we loved, to accommodate new members who didn’t come from a background that would appreciate them.  Soon church members didn’t last out the change, and stopped coming – so there was sadness along the way.  My life’s verse, though is Eph 2:10 (NLT):

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago

So, despite sadness, God plans our lives to become a masterpiece; we, and the church, are better for making the hard changes.

Questions

How do you keep Jesus at the centre of your life at home, in a way that draws you and your family together? What habits and practices would you want to pass on to others?

Kerith is growing, and like G+S’s church, that means it too will change.  How do you feel about that?

·         Are you prepared to embrace change for the greater good of others?

·         Are there things which you couldn’t imaging giving up, so much so that you’d rather change churches if it meant you could keep them?