JD and Michele Senkbile are part of the original nucleus of Coram Deo. When we started in 2005, they were a young married couple a few years out of college. They took the risk of quitting their jobs and moving to Omaha to help form the launch team for a missional church.
JD wanted to be an intern, but we had no money to pay him. So we told him he could hang around and help lead as much as he wanted, as long as he found a job to pay his own bills. He landed a gig as a personal trainer and spent most of his spare time in my office, reading books and talking about theology and helping to hammer out the vision and philosophy of Coram Deo.
Reading and thinking was just what he needed to do. JD came to Omaha on the verge of theological meltdown. He was reading lots of work from the Emergent stream of thinking (for those readers not familiar with Emergent, just substitute “angry white guys under 40 who grew up in the evangelical church but took 12 hours of postmodern philosophy in college and now think it’s hip to question historic Christian orthodoxy under the guise of seeking ‘authenticity’”). It didn’t take long for JD to rediscover the gospel and realize that it actually answered all the questions he was asking. And once he got the gospel in his spiritual DNA, his motivation for mission took on a whole new spirit.
By the time The Kingdom of Couches went to press in January of 2006, it was clear that JD was carrying enough of the leadership load at CD to merit at least a part-time paycheck. So we started paying him a pittance so he could spend more time discipling men and leading the church. By the end of 2006, we worked out a deal to allow him to raise some support and come on staff full-time. Shortly thereafter he began the eldership training process and eventually became an elder.
Everything that Coram Deo is and does bears the fingerprints of JD and Michele. Our work in mercy and justice in the city, our ministry to refugees, and a third of our missional communities are a direct result of their efforts. And a hundred other things – from preaching to membership to marriage counseling – are marked by their influence.
So it is an understatement to say that we will miss them. This week, JD and Michele and Cohen hop on a plane to move to Cape Town, South Africa. As JD shared yesterday, this decision is the culmination of 3 years of prayer and planning for global mission. It is a bittersweet time for our community as we anticipate God’s work through them in Africa and at the same time lament their absence from our community.
You can listen to this past Sunday’s sermon to hear JD talk more about God’s direction in this endeavor. If you have a good Senkbile story, feel free to post it in the comment thread as we pay tribute to their ministry among us.
Later this week: the Top 5 JD Senkbile stories…
Above: JD, Michele, and Cohen
Below: CD Core Members pray for the Senkbiles earlier this month
