Letter from Missions Pastor Nathan Cook

Dear Friends,

I was hoping to share this with you in person; however, since I left early Wednesday morning for Uganda and won't be back for three weeks, I didn't want to wait to share the news.

After much prayer and discernment, including discussions with Pastor Paul, Kim and I have decided that my time serving as Missions Pastor at Christ Methodist will end at the close of September.

As I've thought about how to share this news, I keep coming back to something we experienced repeatedly during our 20 years with house churches. We regularly sent people we loved overseas to serve Christ. They would often return home for a season—to rest, reconnect, be encouraged, share what God had taught them, and then be sent out again. Those seasons were never the end of their calling. They were part of God's preparation for what came next.

In many ways, that has been our story.

Christ Methodist has always been home to me. It is where I came to faith in Christ, where I was discipled, and where God first gave me a vision for urban ministry through Tom Marino and the ministry of SOS. Returning here three and a half years ago has been a tremendous gift.

When Kim and I arrived, we needed a place of healing and renewal. After many demanding years in ministry and walking through difficult circumstances, Christ Methodist became a place where we could breathe again. Your friendship, encouragement, and support have strengthened us in ways that are difficult to express.

These years have also stretched and shaped me in unexpected ways. My understanding and practice of prayer have deepened significantly. Through my work with Paul, I was introduced to the Four Fields discipleship framework, which we later had the privilege of using in India. As a staff, reading Loving the Church, Blessing the Nations together also gave me a richer understanding of apostolic ministry and God's heart for movements that plant and strengthen churches. Along with opportunities to learn from Tampa Underground, those experiences clarified and renewed God's call on my life to help equip disciple-makers, develop church planting movements, and serve alongside teams who are multiplying house churches.

This fall, Kim and I will return to working alongside our longtime house church network in Memphis. Our desire is to strengthen and expand that work by training disciple-makers, equipping indigenous church planters, and applying many of the lessons God has taught us during our time at Christ Methodist. Alongside that ministry, we'll also launch a small business that we hope will not only support our family but also eventually become a model to support indigenous missionaries in other parts of the world.

Although my role is changing, our relationship with Christ Methodist is not ending. Ella plans to remain involved in the youth ministry, and Grace hopes to return next summer to serve as a youth intern. I also look forward to continuing to participate in prayer gatherings when I can, including the prayer summits, and I hope there will be opportunities for us to continue partnering together in ministry for many years to come.

Thank you for welcoming us, encouraging us, praying for us, and allowing me to serve alongside you. I leave with deep gratitude for the friendships we've built, the ministry we've shared, and the ways God has used this church to shape our lives. Christ Methodist will always be home, and Kim and I will always be thankful for these three and a half years together. We look forward to seeing how God continues to connect our paths as we seek to serve both our city and the nations.

With gratitude,

Nathan