Tonight I went to a farewell party for Alan and Jenny Hannaford.  Alan was the senior pastor of Crossroads Christian Church in Boise for 14 years.  Crossroads has gone through difficult and catastrophic changes and about a year ago began being transformed into a Real Life church--no easy task.  Changing the mission, vision and values of an existing church would be listed as an impossible task by most church growth experts.  Well, we did it, and about 4 weeks ago we launched Real Life Boise out of some of the leadership of Crossroads.  I am the lead pastor of Real Life Boise, so you can see there might be a little bit of awkwardness in my relationship with Alan.  Actually that might be true in a normal church, but not a Real Life Church.  We are different.     
     I am not sure how I would define my relationship with Alan.  He is a friend and a colleague who has decades of wisdom under his belt.  To be honest I haven't known Alan all that long.  But what I know and respect about Alan is not just the words that he has spoken but the actions and decisions he has made.  His support of what we are doing in changing the mission, vision and values and his participation in that process has been above and beyond. He humbly surrendered his position and willingly supported changes that didn't benefit him.  He did what most men couldn't do.  Don't think for a minute that it was easy for him to do it, because it wasn't.  But he did.  I am humbled to follow in his footsteps.  He truly lived as Jesus would in this situation.  
    Alan is moving in a couple of weeks from the Boise area and headed off to Seattle to serve at an amazing church.  God is good.  I want to thank Alan publicly for all that he has been in the midst of this time of transition for me, my family and the church.  There are very few real men that would be able to step in and selflessly support the new "inexperienced" guy as he did. 
Alan, I am not sure if you will ever get to read this...but I wanted to let you know how grateful I am. 
Thank you Alan and thank you Jenny.