My fellow Indiana Baptists,
I would like to introduce myself to those who may not know me. My name is Joshua Goepfrich and I serve as pastor at Hilltop Community Church in Warsaw, IN. My wife Melissa and I have been married twenty-two years and will celebrate another year in December. We have three children, Peter (20), Bethany (18), and Chloe (17). Our two eldest are college students, one in Florida and the other in Oklahoma, while the youngest will start her senior year in high school this fall.
Like some of you, I have served in full-time, full-paid ministry at one of our churches in northern Indiana. Like others, that is not how it is for us now. I am a full-time, multi-vocational pastor. I have served when our children were young and now as they are older, and some out of the house, I continue to serve as God leads and directs.
The reason I say that is I understand both sides of the business that comes in ministry. The busyness that comes with leading in the church ministries that you have a hard time getting away from, and the business that comes when having to make ends meet to survive and still pastor the church. I get it.
I want to encourage you to make plans now to serve this fall. It may not be an office or a position, although if God calls you to do so, do it with faithfulness and honor, yet you can serve by being a messenger to the Annual Summit on October 25th in West Lafayette. Put it on your calendar now. Make the commitment now. Make your plans now. We are all busy, but we should not let busyness be the excuse to not participate. We hear that enough as pastors, let’s not be the ones who say it.
I have been blest and honored to serve in many different roles in all areas of our denomination, local, state, and national. I count it a privilege to be able to serve and take on the responsibilities of your state president with great respect and reverence for what it entails.
In Christ,
Rev. Joshua Goepfrich