Brian Allison

Spouse: Brenda Allison Children: Ashley, Royce and Chase

(Brian is being recommended by the Elder Nominating Committee(ENC) for a vote of affirmation by the LFC Ministry Partners. His term will be three years. Brian has previously served as an Elder at LFC from 2005-2007. During the interviewing process conducted by the ENC, Brian wrote these words to several questions he was given about his experience and vision for LFC.)

How long have you been a Ministry Partner of Lake Forest and why did you start attending?

I have been a Ministry Partner of Lake Forest since the Pioneer 101 class was held in the summer of 2000. I was saved while we were attending a church at exit 36 in Mooresville, and we went there for 6 years. However, we never actually became members there as we never felt like we had found our true spiritual home. We eventually met with the pastor and his wife over lunch and talked through our position, at the end of which Brenda and I felt freed to seek a new church. We drew up a list of more local churches that we knew about and the first one we attended from that list was Lake Forest. We loved the mix of contemporary worship and a message that was solid Biblical truth and still accessible to new believers. We kept coming back to Lake Forest and never visited any of the other churches.

What lessons has God been teaching you recently?

There are two lessons that God is trying to pound into my thick and stubborn skull:

• Following Christ may not always be easy, and the source of the highest difficulty may be where you would least expect it to be. The Enemy is still prowling like a lion and is still the father of all lies. Satan will use pride, disease, distraction and anything else that he can to attack God’s purpose in this world.
• He is not done with me: I am still clay in His hands, and He reserves the right to make a new jar anytime he pleases, whether it is comfortable for me or not.

Why do you believe God is calling you back to active service on Session? Why now?

God has placed a calling on me to serve my church in any way I am capable of doing. When I originally got the phone call to inform me that I’d been nominated as an Elder candidate, my first thought was of Moses when he was in the desert herding sheep. Like Moses, I thought God must have the wrong guy, but I decided to be obedient to the call and serve in this way. God has also shown me that just as our church has grown, so also must we grow in our ability to manage the complexity and the larger organization that comes with that growth. I believe the answer to “why now” is to help Lake Forest fully become the church that God intends for us to be.

Where do you think God is taking Lake Forest?

I believe the original basic call for Lake Forest is still valid, and that is to be a place for those who have been hurt, wounded or just turned off in some way by their previous church experience. We are also collecting some who really don’t have previous church experience to speak of, and some who aren’t really wounded but have chosen Lake Forest because of our physical place in the midst of their community. I believe we need to remain true to our basic DNA of being an ER for sinners and not a rest home for saints, and to be the place where one beggar tells another beggar to get bread.

Rusty Andrews

Spouse: Michelle Children: Ryker - 13, Raegan - 10

(Rusty is being recommended by the Elder Nominating Committee(ENC) for a vote of affirmation by the LFC Ministry Partners. His term will be three years. Rusty served as an Elder at Forest Hill t(he church that planted Lake Forest) and has served as an Elder at LFC From 2000 – 2004 and 2004 – 2006. During the interviewing process conducted by the ENC, Rusty wrote these words to several questions he was given about his experience and vision for LFC.)

How long have you been a Ministry Partner of Lake Forest and why did you start attending?

As active members and leaders at Forest Hill - Lake Forest’s “mother” church - we had the privilege of being a part of Lake Forest from the very beginning. Although we loved our South-Charlotte church home, we grieved often over the fact that we could never expect neighbors to join us for a Sunday service or some special event, when “going to church” meant a 40 minute cross-town commute under ideal circumstances. We longed for a local community of faith-friends we could labor with and lean into. We the Session endorsed the 1st ever Church Plant, hired Mike Moses, and identified our area of town (Huntersville/Lake Norman) as the location, we were DELIGHTED.

What lessons has God been teaching you recently?

There are two lessons that God is trying to pound into my thick and stubborn skull:

• God is allowed to redirect us. Yesterday’s “Yes” could become tomorrow’s “No” - and vice versa.
• (This is a reaffirmation) I am STILL allowed to say “no”
• Oswald Chambers was right: Often the purest demonstration of our allegiance to Christ is in obedience to the mundane and drudgery

Why do you believe God is calling you back to active service on Session? Why now?

Service as an active member of Session continues to be a core ministry passion of mine. When I came off of Session two years ago, we had just completed our move into the new building, my wife was in the final stages of a victory over cancer, and I was physically and mentally spent. I have spent the last two years, resting actively – making myself available a teacher in various adult and children/youth venues. I believe there are some burdens and dreams I have for our church right now where coming back on session feels like the right thing to do.

Where do you think God is taking Lake Forest?

I am very excited about our growing awareness of being intentional as a group of “infecting” believers. That is, through our practical living out of our faith – we affect and infect (in the most positive way) others with the Gospel… not by our words, necessarily, but by what we do and essentially who we are. We are uniquely positioned in our community to be an agent for God-ordained change.

I believe we will move, with a fair share of stumbling, from our energy around long term / long distant mission trips to longer term/local mission in our community. I was very intrigued when Mike began to latch onto his “Purple Church” notion around 4 years ago.