Passing the Baton: Keys to Successful Succession
August 28, 2024
Host: Jamie Mitchell
Guest(s): Bill Welte, Graeme Wilson
Note: This transcript is taken from a Stand in the Gap Today program aired on 8/28/24. To listen to the podcast, click HERE.
Disclaimer: While reasonable efforts have been made to provide an accurate transcription, the following is a representation of a mechanical transcription and as such, may not be a word for word transcript. Please listen to the audio version for any questions concerning the following dialogue.
Jamie Mitchell: What a joy it is to share another hour with you. I’m Jamie Mitchell, your host for today, and I’m so excited about this topic, what we are about to embark on and the people who will be my guests. Let’s start though with a question and you will be graded at the end of the program. What do the following biblical characters all have in common? Moses and Joshua, David and Solomon, Elijah and Elijah, Jesus and Peter, James and John. And finally Paul and Timothy, have you figured it out? All of them demonstrated the very unusual but incredibly important process of succession. Succession is when there is the passing of the baton of leadership from one person or group to another. The seamless transfer of authority, vision, mission, and influence. But instead, what we see most of the time is an abrupt end to one’s leader’s season followed by inactivity, decline, uncertainty, and losing ground that had been gained maybe four decades.
Jamie Mitchell: And finally, the finding and the insertion of a replacement. Who knows nothing of what used to be and feels the need to reinvent everything like it’s a new entity, lost time, lost resources, lost momentum, no continuity, a whole bunch of frustration, anxiety, friends, God’s people, God’s work, whether it’s churches, schools, ministries, or missions should do better. And sadly, the former is seen few and far between. If you speak to most leadership gurus, they will tell you that secession is the most desired but the least accomplished. It takes planning, hard work, sensitivity to spirit and mutual trust. And again, Christians seem to struggle with all of those. Well, today we want to discuss this idea of passing the baton keys to successful succession. And my guest today are literally living through their succession experience. As we might say, the ink is still wet. Bill Wealthy has been a guest on Stand In the Gap before. He has just completed 27 years as executive director and president of America’s Keswick, the nation’s oldest and most respected addiction recovery and Bible conference in our nation along with Bill is Graeme Wilson, the newly installed executive director and president at Keswick. And I have to say both of these are dear friends of mine and I just finished another great week of ministry at the Bible Conference and I have witnessed their succession. So fellas, thank you and welcome back to Stand In the Gap.
Bill Welte: Hey Jamie, thank you for the opportunity to talk to you and talk to our listeners, and you’ve been a good friend for 27 years, which is good.
Graeme Wilson: And I echo the same. It’s an honor to be here, Jamie and I so appreciate what Stand In the Gap does and the message that you walk through every single day. And so thank you for the opportunity to be here.
Jamie Mitchell: So Bill, let me start with you. What has just occurred at Keswick does not usually happen in evangelical circles. Rarely would be an amplification. Give our listeners the background. When did you begin thinking about this? What were the desires for KK and what were your unique concerns that your ministry and when did this process all start?
Bill Welte: Well, 10 years ago I had one of those aha moments that I was going to be turning 70, not that people have to retire at 70, but I began to really pray through and process what does ministry need to look like here at? As I turned 70, my top tier leadership would be the same age, some of them even older than me. And the lion’s share of our staff, I realized we’re beginning to talk about retirement and so we needed to think about board succession, we need to talk about succession in some of our key areas. We were looking to replace our CFO, our COO. But four years ago the board and I got very intentional and started to work through the process.
Jamie Mitchell: Wow. Graeme, you have taken the reins of leadership there at Kek. You’re no stranger to Keswick. Full disclosure, my son, who’s now 32 years old, you and he used to run around the conference when I would speak there and you guys were kids there, so you were a part of this wonderful ministry at Keswick. But tell a little bit about your background and what you had been doing in ministry and were you even thinking of assuming this role at Keswick?
Graeme Wilson: Sure. Well, to start with the end question, the answer is no, but America’s Keswick has been a part of my blood. My family moved here when I was six years old. I’ve grown up at America’s Keswick. I’m what known as a Keswick kid. First job was in our dining room. I remember my first day spilled coffee on someone’s lap and it was determined that, hey, Graeme, we need to find something else for you. But through that time over the years worked my way through the ministry and it has been a phenomenal experience. My last role before I left to become a pastor was I was the director of marketing. And through that process I’ve made a lot of connections with pastors and my wife and I felt led to help plant a local church eight years ago. And so we started that journey and through that process of a lot of pastors coming alongside of me said, Graeme, you really need to prayerfully consider about becoming a pastor.
Graeme Wilson: And through a lot of journeying through that experience, we did, I remember now four years ago going and approaching Bill and saying, Bill, I feel this calling in my life to be a local pastor. And reluctantly said I needed to be obedient to God and follow that calling. And so four years ago started pastoring full-time in the church that we helped plant. And that’s what I’ve been doing the last four years and been really ingrained in the local church. I believe in the power of what God does to the local church and it has been a journey to say the least. But along that process, stayed plugged in with the Ministry of America’s Keswick almost on a weekly basis was here and still got lunch with Bill. Bill has been a mentor of mine for many, many years. A friend, I’ll never forget the day that Bill grabbed lunch with me and said, Graeme, I want you to prayerfully consider being my successor.
Graeme Wilson: And I told him no. And that was for a lot of different reasons. It was for just feeling unqualified unequipped, even thinking about my age, I’m 35 years old and so from a human perspective just really wrestled with that and Bill challenged me to go home and pray with my wife and to really seek the Lord. And so we took a season of doing that and both my wife and I said, Hey, we love this ministry. We believe in what God does here every single day, and what we’re going to do is we’re going to submit to a process. And so far since that, that’s where we’ve been of submitting to a process. And the rest is history. In September of last year was approached with accepting the position and I said yes. And it has been a journey ever since.
Jamie Mitchell: There are some unique things, my friends, when we talk about passing the baton from one leader to another, I think you’ve heard some of that Bill and the board had to be intentional, start to plan ahead. Graeme was a unique candidate. He had a background, he understood this organization and they began to talk about what this whole thing would look like. When we come back, we’re going to talk about why we don’t do this well in evangelical circles and try to work out a timeline and process here and stand in the gap today. Well, we’re talking with Bill Welte and Graeme Wilson, both from America’s Keswick in Whiting, New Jersey. If you’ve ever been there, you need to get yourself down there for a Bible conference for a special event. And they are describing their story of secession that they’re living out really just this summer as Bill after 27 years has passed the baton of leadership to Graeme. So Bill, let’s keep the story going. How did you begin to lay out this process? Who did you speak with? You and I have talked at length, the evangelical community does not do secession well, obviously there were board members and others. So where did you start and what kind of timeline did you begin to work through?
Bill Welte: Well, you know that there’s not too many organizations that get to be 126 years old. And while we have an amazing heritage, our desire was that we would never be a monument to the past. But if God allowed to be a fresh and living movement of God for decades to come, unfortunately, many organizations and mostly ministries do not take the time to think through the what and they focus on the Who. And for us, we wanted to make sure we were not just handing off the credit card and the keys to a new leader without us defining what were the guardrails that we felt were necessary to keep our organization and ministry on track. We needed to make sure we knew who we were theologically as well as defining and confirm our core values, our commitment to the word of God, to prayer to our heartbeat, ministry of Addiction Recovery.
Bill Welte: We also wanted to make sure that the incoming leader bought into the core values that our board had established 25 years ago. We know that with new younger leadership, change has to occur, but too many ministries have drifted from their core by not having worked through these mission critical issues. And as I said, that process really started to intensify four years ago. Once we figured out what we were able to work on, the who and in our process, pastor Jamie, we had vetted a candidate, a really, really good man. But it became very obvious as we prayed and as we talked through the process, it just wasn’t the person that we believed that God had for this ministry. Graeme and I, as he said, we continued to meet after he left America’s Keswick, we would meet for lunch. And I always left lunch feeling so encouraged as I watched him grow spiritually and watched him grow as a leader.
Bill Welte: And I can remember a lunch that we had up in town and I asked him a question out of the clear blue, how long do you see yourself staying at the ministry where you’re serving? And he said, well, that’s interesting because Heather and I both believe that God’s preparing us for something different, but we don’t know what that looks like or what the timing is. And it literally went right over my head. I went home that night and in the morning when I was in the shower where God seems to speak to my heart, it was like the Lord said to me, do I need to make it any more obvious? This is the guy that you need to look at and need to pursue. And we had a subsequent lunch and as Graeme shared earlier in the interview, we talked through the process and we asked him to pray through that process
Graeme Wilson: To see what God’s will would be for him and from his ministry.
Jamie Mitchell: Just a couple of thoughts. Number one, and Graeme, you should write this down because this has served me well. Clarity is not your enemy. And what KK has done is brought clarity to what their ministry is and really handed you the keys to success. But also with picking Graeme, it was very clear that the culture of Keswick trumped the strategy of Keswick. Understanding the culture of an organization is important, and those things were all in process. You don’t transfer leadership of 120 6-year-old entity, not that you’ve been around that long bill, but you’ve been around about 20% of it. But the fact of the matter is you have to get the right person to fit the culture. So Graeme, you really start working through this process. There’s a lot of people now that you have to bring into this process and a lot of people who will be affected speak to the person who’s out there who’s thinking about making a move like this. Who are the people that you needed to talk to? What were your initial thoughts and how did you process through this?
Graeme Wilson: Well, I mean those are all great questions. And I do think when you have to navigate decisions like this, I think it is very important to navigate this in community. And so again, I remember Bill having that lunch with me and for me based because I have an amazing godly woman for a spouse, went home and said to my wife, Heather, I said, you’ll never believe the question I was just asked and what was blown away to me. I mean, a defining thing for me is I would say I’ve always been a reluctant leader and God continues to put things before me, but I said to Heather, I was just offered this, this is crazy, right? And she said, I don’t think it’s crazy. I think you really need to pray about that. I can see that in you. That began a process of me talking with some trusted leaders.
Graeme Wilson: And I remember my desire, again, as I said, I’ve grown here. I was discipled here. This is where, I mean America’s Keswick is where my now wife came to know the Lord. I love this ministry. And I remember my early prayers were, Lord, I don’t want to see anything happen to this ministry that’s going to stop what you’re doing here. And if I am not a good fit, Lord, please shut this door. But the cool thing for me is I remember kind of a few weeks in as I was praying about that, my wife challenged me to sit down. She said, Hey, if you were going to do this, what would be some of the things that you would want to see happen at Kek? And so I took that challenge and I started dreaming and within an hour had pages of notes of just all the things that I could see God doing here in this ministry. And that was a sign to me that God was starting to give me a vision of what could possibly happen in the ministry. But I think those are certain important things. You need to seek counsel. You need to see godly wisdom, and you need to ask the question, do you feel like the Lord’s leading you to something and has God given you a dream to see accomplished and then really giving it to the Lord? Allowing the Lord to guide your steps, particularly in a situation like this
Jamie Mitchell: Bill, a lot of people are affected by a decision like this. We get used to our leader. We get used to the way you operate, how you speak to people, they feel comfortable around you. It’s like breaking in a new pair of shoes. You’re so glad that you got the new pair of shoes, but you know that it’s going to be a little uncomfortable. Who are all the people? And how did you find people’s receptivity as you started to talk to different ones? And I know I was somebody at a distance who’s certainly a Keswick stakeholder. I claimed that I’m a Keswick man from way back. So it was an interest to me as well. How did you find people as you shared the idea of the transition and that Graeme would be the one, how did they respond to you?
Bill Welte: Well, I think one of the lessons that I learned was, and that’s why we started talking about it 10 years ago, was people don’t do well when a new concept like that is sprung on them. That is obviously a big issue for a ministry in transitioning leadership, especially when somebody’s been there a long period of time. And so it was really kind of interesting that when we finally announced what was happening, most of our constituency were already on board. Now, I think what played in Grand’s favor besides God’s favor being on his call, was that so many people had watched him grow up. So many people saw him involved. I mean, he started out mixing sound and next was doing marketing. And when Robert Hayes was still with us, there were a lot of things that the three of us did together. So he was one of the faces that people recognized and saw him growing so that when they found out was Graeme, one of the things that the board said was, how do you think our constituency is going to respond to this? And I said, I think they’re going to do great because they know Graeme. And so when the announcement was made, it was almost like a sigh of relief. We weren’t bringing in somebody from the outside who had no clue about the ministry of the culture. He already had an established face credibility with our partners, and that was a really cool process
Graeme Wilson: To watch.
Jamie Mitchell: And having just been there and watched, that was very encouraging. And I concur that, I mean, when I heard that Graeme was being considered and going to be moving in that direction, I was elated because I’d known him, but I was more concerned with, does this person coming in know the organization? And that’s really a key, isn’t it, Graeme? Because you did know the organization, however, you’ve had a learning curve and you got about a minute for this segment. How much have you had to learn these last six months to a year?
Graeme Wilson: Oh, I’ve had to learn a lot. But that to me is the joy of leadership. I would say oftentimes when you step into a leadership role, while these things are important of vision and strategy, I think that the thing to navigate is really leadership is people. And so the last few months of navigating this role is really learning how to navigate people and navigating people with change. No one wants to change. Change is hard. And instead of how to handle that with grace and guide people to where we feel God needs them to be, I would say that’s been the learning curve. And I would say coming at it with grace and just allowing the Lord to lead, I would say those, that’s been my focus of, yes, you always need vision and strategy, but ultimately you lead through people and making people the priority.
Jamie Mitchell: And especially if you have an older congregation or an older organization, change is even harder. And that would be the case at a place like Keswick and Beloved, as you’re listening, many of these older churches, if you’re in a congregation and your pastor’s been there 25, 30 years and now he’s leaving, it will be hard. But the process of succession is multifaceted. You’re dealing with people, personalities, all kinds of issues. When we come back, I want to talk to Bill. I want to learn about the pitfalls and some lessons learned and things that we could pick up to help us be better at passing the baton. We’re talking about that today, Stan at the Gap today. I’m so thrilled to have two dear friends with me today. My history with America Keswick goes back 50 years. As a matter of fact, I was speaking the first summer Bill, we became the executive director 27 years ago.
Jamie Mitchell: And so I’ve watched his leadership over these years. As I mentioned before, I watched Graeme Wilson grow up as a child now into a man of God and being used in so many wonderful ways. So it’s no surprise that someone like myself had questions. Will this secession thing work, bill, you proudly had and have those same thoughts? There’s a lot of pastors, church board members, all sorts of ministry leaders that will listen to this program and they may be facing transition in leadership. You probably have made a list of dos and don’ts through this succession process. What could you share as insight and wisdom for those listening today that may be considering transitioning leadership at their ministry?
Bill Welte: Well, everyone has been watching this process. We get comments from all across the country that people that are familiar with Keswick, they’re watching, trying to see what’s happening. And I commonly get the question, is this really the real deal or are we spinning the story? I remember two months into Pastor Graeme starting in January, the board sat me down privately and said, okay, what are the conflicts? What are the problems that you guys are having? And I looked at them and I said, there aren’t any. And part of that was because we both having worked together for so long, we know each other’s hearts. And so God was really working in preparing that. Now, I’m not going to tell you that there’s not been challenges, but those challenges haven’t been between me and Pastor Graeme, and they’re not between the board. Obviously, whenever there’s a change in leadership, staff have struggles and trying to adapt to a new leader.
Bill Welte: But when God placed the call in Pastor Graeme’s life, it was very evident to all of us that he was the man of God’s choosing. I do have a list. I always tell people now, don’t wait till the last minute to start the succession process. I know in churches, usually that process starts if a pastor’s been asked to leave or a pastor passes away or a pastor gets sick, start the process early. Start thinking about what it would look like if the pastor would ever have to step away from the ministry. What would that look like? Pray, pray, pray. You can’t do this well without talking to God about it and being united as an organization and as a board, as you pray through that process, do your due diligence in identifying the what about your ministry before you do the who think through do lots of research and ask lots of questions.
Bill Welte: One of the things that we did was we talked to other organizations. I spent two years interviewing other ministries, other organizations where leaders had transitioned. And I asked the question, what did you do? What did you do wrong? And if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently? And it was amazing the lessons that I learned from these leaders that helped us to make a better decision here and then make sure that you’ve taken the time to map out a transition plan. It’s not just about you make a vote and then tomorrow the guy starts and you just expect that he’s going to know what to do. Our board chairman and I sat down and we mapped out a very detailed transition plan Now for Pastor Graeme, what was cool, we actually hired him in September, but he started in January as the president, and from January to the beginning of July, he served in that role. And so he and I had a lot of time to work together, and I was able to slowly hand off processes and parts of the organization to him so that when he started in July, it was going to be a great transition.
Jamie Mitchell: Bill, one of the things talking to you now, the exiting leader that I know pastors and others are concerned about, and that is guarding against meddling, especially because you’re still there. You still have a role at Keswick. I want to talk about that for a second, about should a pastor or a leader stay, but how are you guarding against the meddling that may happen and not sticking the proverbial nose into Graeme’s business?
Bill Welte: Well, you and I could probably do a book on bad transitions, right? And I made a commitment early on in the process that I do not want to be a part of a bad transition. My family knows that if I cannot be supportive, then they’re going to come and yank me out and tossed me in the lower lake and let the turtles take care of me. Pastor Graeme and I keep short accounts with each other. I’ve had to learn to keep an open heart and my hands open when you’re doing the same things for 26 years, 27 years, sometimes it is hard to let go, but I’ve continued to pray to the Lord and ask him to give me the courage and the willingness to be able to look at my role with an open hand realizing that this is Graeme’s time to take over the leadership of the organization.
Bill Welte: Probably 10 years ago, I sat on my office. The new president from Columbia International University was here, Dr. Bill Jones, and he was here with my friend, Dr. George Mary and I asked the question, at that time, Dr. Robertson McQuilkin, Dr. Johnny Miller and Dr. George Mary were all serving on the staff at Columbia with the new president. Now, I knew all three men and all three men were very, very strong leaders. And so my question to them was, how in the world does this work? And George spoke up and said, well, I’m going to answer the question. We all love the Lord. We all love the ministry of Columbia International University. We all have been given a lane to walk in, and we all know that the moment we step out of our lane and assume things that start meddling and sticking our nose in areas that we’re not supposed to, our ministry is going to be completed.
Bill Welte: And that was great advice. And not too many guys my age get to stick around. I am so honored and blessed to be able to still be a part of the ministry that I love. It’s been a part of my life for all these years, but I have a lane to walk in and I need to stick to that lane. And I tell Pastor Graeme all the time, I will give him advice when it’s solicited, but I am not going to be the guy who second guesses his leadership unless I see him doing something that’s causing us to drift theologically or to do something illegal. I need to support and respect him.
Jamie Mitchell: Bill, let me just ask this question because there’s probably a pastor out there and he’s in, let’s say his late sixties, his seventies. He wants to do this succession thing maybe as an associate there, and he brings him on to move him up. Just give me, I know there’s no right answer. It’s difficult to stay and to stick around, but it is possible if a pastor is going to stay, what word of wisdom would you have for him?
Bill Welte: He needs to let the new guy be the new guy and to be the pastor, his role should be to support in prayer, encouragement. One of the things that I learned through bad transitions is that when there’s a new guy and an old guy still around, people tend to want to go to the old guy to get to the new guy. And so that’s another thing that I purpose that when people come to me and say, Hey, I don’t like this or I don’t like that. Can you talk to Pastor Graeme? Now, honestly, I have not had that happen, which I’m very pleased with. But my response would be, well, you need to go talk to Pastor Graeme about that. I’m not going to be the middle guy. And I think in the church situation, that’s so hard, especially when the pastor’s been there a long time because there are things that are going to look different. But to be effective in that role, you need to be his biggest prayer supporter. You need to be his greatest encourager, and you need to make sure that the people understand that your support is with the new leader.
Jamie Mitchell: And you have to be intentional. Don’t you bill? Because one of the things I noticed when I was at Kazak this summer is the week long Bible conference, you disappeared on Wednesday you were gone. And personally, it was kind of weird. I had kind of this weird, I even said to Chris, I said, wow, this is kind of a weird feeling. Bill’s not here. But I also being my leadership organization guy said, man, that is so wise because now Bill is gone. Graeme is there leading the rest of the week. We can’t run to Bill, we’re going to Graeme. They’re seeing Graeme there watching Graeme. And it was so encouraging, and I know pastors need to do that. I mean, I think of things like when people come and they want you to dedicate their kid or marry their children or even perform a funeral, when the new pastor is there, it’s his job to determine, isn’t it Bill, whether or not you should be involved in those things or not.
Bill Welte: Absolutely. And I’m not going to tell you that it was easy disappearing because this has been my life, but I really feel like that was the best signal to send to people that this is okay. He is the new leader, and it’s going to be fine.
Jamie Mitchell: And the other thing, bill, as we’ve been talking about this and I’m listening, is procrastination is our greatest enemy, isn’t it? You got about 30 seconds.
Bill Welte: Absolutely. I mean, if we had waited till the last minute, I believe this would’ve been a disaster. And I think that’s what happens in some, again, if you’re intentional about the process, it doesn’t need to send a signal to the pastor that, Hey, we’re looking to get rid of you. But again, statistically, a pastor could die in the pulpit. A pastor could fail morally and be asked to leave. And if you have the process in place, it’s going to be so much easier.
Jamie Mitchell: Hey, succession is a challenge, but if you prayerfully think through the process diligently trust that process, the fruit will be worth all the work. When we finish, I want to talk to Graeme and what he is now feeling as he carries this baton. And I want to hear a little bit about the vision for the next 127 years of America’s Keswick. We’re talking about secession here and stand in the gap today. Well, we’ve been discussing the process of leadership succession with the outgoing president of America’s Keswick Addiction Recovery and Bible Conference. That was Bill Wealthy just finished a conversation with him, last segment, now the newly installed leader, Graeme Wilson. Graeme, we’ve heard from Bill as someone who initiated the process, has been turning over leadership to you. I want to talk about receiving it, and where do you go from here? And I just want to move right to the future. You mentioned something early on that God started to give you as part of a confirmation that this was the direction you should go, some vision for America’s kk. Obviously you’re to pick up where Bill left, you got to do some of the things that are already there. But what is some of the new vision for KK that God has been impressing upon your heart?
Bill Welte: Sure. So for those unfamiliar with the Ministry of America’s Keswick we’re twofold. The heartbeat of the ministry for 127 years has been addiction recovery. And so that makes us a very unique ministry because we balance addiction recovery alongside men and women who are struggling and showing them that Jesus is the answer. But also, we have the
Graeme Wilson: Bible conference ministry. And so one of the unique things that happened as I left and started pastoring in the local church, our church was uniquely located in a downtown community. The local jail was about 500 feet from our church doors, and for really eight years saw on the front lines what can happen in addiction. There were Sunday mornings that we had people wanting to run our church that we had to give Narcan to. It was, you really did see the pain and the ugliness of what addiction can do. And so through that process, I really saw one, the need for addiction recovery, but also the power of the local church and how the local church can step in. And so when I think about coming back, I remember sitting in a board meeting in December. I was asked to just come and attend, not say anything, but just observe.
Graeme Wilson: The thing that God was laying on my heart was it took 120 years for this ministry to reach 20,000 individuals to receive recovery. And as I was praying through that, the thing that the Lord brought to my mind was what would it look like as a ministry if we were going to come alongside 20,000 individuals in the next 10 years? And even when I was writing that in my notebook, I smiled because humanly speaking, that’s impossible. But as I began praying and asking God, God, what would this look like? I smiled because that is a God-sized dream. But if it is of God, it’s possible. And so here’s kind of the vision of what I see where the ministry is going in the future, and this, it’s blending that heartbeat of the local church and our ministry. And so here’s the vision. Here’s what we’ve been talking about, is to empower 20,000 churches to become outposts for support and recovery, equipping them to assist us in helping 20,000 individuals achieve lasting freedom from addiction.
Graeme Wilson: And to experience true life transformation over the next 10 years. One of the huge opportunities, I think, for the ministry is to help and come alongside pastors to help better equip them and their churches and helping those who struggle with life dominating addiction and sin as one of the things and the commitments I’ve done since being back is I’ve met with lots of pastors, pastors of small churches, big churches, pastors who are connected with the ministry, pastors who are unfamiliar. And I’ve asked the question, do you feel equipped to help those who are struggling in addiction? And the broad answer has been, not really. It’s a struggle for us. We need just equipping in that area. And so I see an awesome opportunity to equip churches all around our country to better help those who are struggling with addiction coming alongside and allowing them to be outpost for those who are struggling with addiction, to go to the local church, get help where it’s needed, and where we as a ministry can step in is one equipping.
Graeme Wilson: But if there is a required need for a residential program for those churches to know that we are here to help them to come alongside, and that we will always be functioning as a residential addiction recovery ministry for both men and women. So that’s my heartbeat. That’s what gets me excited to see more people helped who are struggling, and then to continue to see the Bible Conference Ministry expand. I know there have been conversations over the last several years, is a Bible conference still relevant? Do families still want to go to a Bible conference? And the exciting thing that’s happening is, I don’t know, Jamie, I know you talk about this often, but our world continues to get crazier and crazier and biblical values from our culture seem to be fading away. And families are looking for safe places to bring their families and their children to know that they’re going to be taught biblical values and the word of God and a safe place for their family to spend time and to get away and to seek a quiet place. And so we’ve seen tremendous success in our Bible conferences. It is a safe place for families to come to hear the word of God. This summer alone, we’ve seen an 18% increase in attendance. And so I think there’s more opportunity even on the Bible conference end to see greater things happen. And so that’s my heartbeat. I’m excited. I’m passionate. I can’t wait to see what God does.
Jamie Mitchell: Here’s why I changed the interview a little bit, and I had you share the vision before because just shown the example of something that I think is so true with the secession story. You were at Keswick, you were working there, you were serving there. You probably could have stayed there for a while, and many would say, you leaving Keswick, oh, Graeme is left. We see a future in him. But the fact of the matter is, you leaving Keswick for a period of time was a really great thing because God gave you some different perspective away from Keswick, and now God is directing you back with that boatload of experience and that new set of eyes and that additional vision that really makes things even fuller and more developing. And Phil, as you’ve listened to Graeme share his vision, I know you must be pleased it’s building on the foundation, but there’s a truth of that. It was a good thing that Graeme went away for a while.
Bill Welte: Yeah, and I think that that gave him not only a new perspective, but actually gives him credibility because he was able to flesh out in the local church what he saw happening here. We have never been here as a ministry to compete with the church. Our role has always been to assist the church and to kind of come alongside and help in ways that the church cannot possibly do in terms of helping with the dictionary recovery. So his vision for the future is absolutely astounding and amazing, and I can’t wait to see what God’s going to do as we get to now partner with the local church to help them do addiction recovery ministry right there.
Jamie Mitchell: Graeme, if people want to find out about America’s Keswick, tell us how they can find you and how they can learn more about the ministry in Whiting, New Jersey.
Graeme Wilson: Absolutely. So you can visit our website, www.americaKeswick.org. We also have a dedicated website for our Addiction Recovery Ministries. If you know someone who is struggling or want to know more about what we do in addiction recovery, you can actually visit addiction recovery.org. That’s going to go right to those resources. Again, we’re on social media, but you can call us again, (800) 453-7942. Any way you want to connect with us, those are some ways that we would love to get plugged in with you.
Jamie Mitchell: Well, sadly, the clock is telling me another stand of the gap today is coming to an end. Bill Graeme, thank you. Bless you. May God richly bless this secession process. I can say that not only people who know and love you want this to be an abundant success, but I think the Christian community, churches, ministries need more and more stories like this. Friends, whether you pass the baton at home, work, community, or church, it takes courage. And so, as I say, at the end of every program, I host live and lead with courage. So God bless you. See you back in 23 hours for another Stand in the Gap today.
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