What Happened

If you look at the dates of my recent blog posts, you will notice—and most of you will remember—that I did not write one word in 2020. No one has asked, "What happened?" but I won't let that stop me from telling you the story of 2020.

Let me take you back to the fall of 2019. Starting in September of 2019, we embarked on a venture that brought more opportunity than we were ready for. Our prison ministry was taking center stage, even though at that time, we were only involved in a few locations in Oklahoma City and Purcell, Oklahoma.

We were given the green light to build a four-hundred-seat chapel on the prison yard of Joseph Harp Correctional Center. Their small chapel only had space for about sixty people. Each Sunday night, we were given a large "visitation room" where we could set up two hundred chairs for our worship service. Every week, all two hundred chairs were used, and we were turning away fifty to one hundred inmates. I asked the Warden if he thought we could get permission to build a four-hundred-seat chapel, and long story … we were given the green light to build a chapel, which when completed, we would not own or have any guarantees we would always be welcome to use.

That chapel is now under construction.

In addition to the prison chapel, we were preparing to buy land for a new satellite location sixteen miles northeast of our Crossings OKC campus. We were also planning to repurpose a six thousand square foot area of our OKC campus for a new media center to provide high-quality options for video and audio recording, writing, producing, and recording music, improved social media platforms, and a higher quality online experience.

And to make it all happen, we needed to raise $10 million to get the projects underway. Since we do not borrow money for any reason, we would not be able to start until funds were pledged or in hand. So, in October of 2019, we asked our Crossings family to support this as they were able to do so. Within ninety days, we had received contributions or pledges which allowed us to get started on these projects. Eight weeks later, we were in the Christmas season, getting ministry plans ready for 2020, preparing a new message series for January, and hoping to catch our breath between Christmas and the start of a new year.

Thanks for waiting this long to get to the "what happened" question. Here's the answer: I didn't catch my breath between Christmas and New Year’s Day. There was no breakdown, no laying in a dark room for a week, no thoughts of quitting. It is hard to admit this: I was just tired. My body was fine. My brain wouldn't wake up. I was looking forward to taking off all of the Sundays in March, so I buckled down and brought the best I could to the platform each Sunday, eagerly planning to use March to restart or refresh my mind.

Then came COVID-19. Seventy-four days into 2020, the world stopped. Everything changed. Everything closed. And I got the virus. Thankfully, I had a very mild case, but any notion of catching my breath in March was no longer reality. The Crossings media teams became my heroes as they flawlessly shifted everything to the online platforms, and for the next several months, I spoke to empty rooms.

Finally, 2021 arrived. And over the past ninety days, my brain has begun to wake up—but it has taken some intentional changes that I'm still getting used to. I had to get out of as many meetings as I could. I could no longer say "yes" to everyone who wanted to talk to me.

That was the hardest part of it all: I had to be away from the office more, which meant more time in a very quiet and comfortable study at home. I've had to hand off more to an outstanding assistant who is beyond capable of handling most of the details of my life.

Most Wednesdays and Thursday afternoons are blocked for "brain time”: reading, weekend message prep, and catching up on email—a task that has become nearly impossible.

I never wanted to be a megachurch pastor, especially one who was hard to find, unavailable, or considered uncaring. So, it was time to force myself out of as many details as possible and redirect my focus to the things that I must do, and must do well. The Crossings family deserves my very best.

So, now you know "what happened." It is so good to be back! Thank you for blessing me with YOUR time.

Marty