What’s New in Season Two, part 1

J17 Ministries is just over six years old, and we have clearly entered a new season. What’s new in season two, besides everything? Today’s post will only address one critical and beautiful aspect.

We just completed our fourth open house in our (Dave & Val's) new home, where we invited our regular financial supporters to come enjoy our new home, and be the first to hear some of the changes before they went public. Much more will be public in the next month or so.

Season One was marked by beautiful stability. When God called me to launch J17 Ministries in October of 2018, He said immediately, “My call for you hasn’t fundamentally changed at all. You’ll just be doing it from a different starting place.” Over the next six months or so, 4Tucson asked me to take responsibility for several of the programs we had begun when I was the Church Domain director there. People who didn’t know the details have understandably assumed that J17 Ministries started 13 years ago (or that I was still employed by 4Tucson), since many of the primary ways we’ve worked at uniting the Body of Christ have been the same this entire time. John 17 Weekends, Tucson Ministry Alliance, Prayer Summits, Pastor Partnership, and more have all been happening for well over a decade: growing, shifting, and adjusting, of course, but fundamentally the same look, feel, and format.

Our J17 Ministries staff has been the same that whole time, also. Karen Henley, Tasha Campbell, and I have been the “three musketeers” for virtually all of these six years. We began working together at 4Tucson, and continued into J17. But that is changing in season two.

When we internally started officially using “season two” language, a big part of what we talked about was what God might be calling each of us to in this new season. Rather than assume that it would be the same, even though we have nothing but gratitude for the previous season, might God be calling us to move in different directions in season two? “Let’s courageously listen to God, because His ways are far better than ours,” we said. Karen heard a new call from the Lord, a fundamental shift in what she has done professionally most of her adult life.

This Thanksgiving week, high on my list of praises and thanksgivings is all these years of partnership with Mrs. Karen Henley. I am thankful for her wonderful husband Colby, who didn’t ask her to quit after her very first week, when I told her, “Welcome aboard. We have a citywide prayer summit in three days. We know where it will be and the hours, but that’s about it. Help.” Colby supported her and us despite lots of very long days right out of the chute.

I nicknamed Karen “Houston” years ago, because I couldn’t possibly count the number of times I’d reach out and say, “Houston, we have a problem,” and Karen would immediately go to work solving it. Her administrative skills are formidable. She is able to capture the essence of a meeting, record it, and identify the next action items better than anyone I’ve ever seen. Her meeting minutes are works of art! Her people skills might surpass her administrative skills, as all of you know if you’ve ever worked with her. And her relationship with Jesus is rich, mature, and multi-faceted, which of course is what we all see when we interact with her.

This Thanksgiving, please join me in praising God for all He continues to accomplish through our dear friend and partner, Karen Henley.

Dave Drum, Founder