Dear friends,
Towards the end of last year, we shared the news that we would be bidding farewell to Craig Stewart, our founding CEO. We have so enjoyed the last few months of celebrating and affirming Craig in all that has transpired over the past 19 years. We have included a number of these times and reflections in this newsletter, as well as ways you can continue to encourage and affirm him as he begins his new work with World Vision International.
In parallel to remembering and celebrating, we have been hard at work pressing into what we believe God has invited us into in this new season and listening even more deliberately to what this invitation entails. For a number of years we have been asking questions and feeling God’s nudging towards really unpacking what it means for an organisation to embody an African identity – in its practices and work, but also in its structures. This nudging has happened across our various discernment practices. Times spent in collaborative reading of Scripture have guided us into a deeper understanding of how leadership, authority and gifting are understood and exercised within the Body. Our intentional seasons of Corporate Listening and Discernment (CLAD) have been integral in our thinking around our identity and formation as a loving and beloved community called to do the work we are doing together. We are excited to explore the possibility this season opens to forming ourselves and our structures in ways which align more faithfully to our theology, our understanding of complexity and the prophetic imagination we believe God has been fostering within us over the past few years.
At this time, being faithful to what we are hearing means that we are not moving forward with a more traditional approach of finding someone who would “replace” Craig and take up a position of “CEO”. While we will maintain a small strategic leadership team and have done some intentional work around the distribution of leadership roles and responsibilities within our current ways of working, we remain committed to continuing to journey – through intentional rhythms of action and reflection – towards what leadership could look like in this new season. We are eager to share our journey with you and covet your prayers as we press into this season.
While this internal work is carried forward, our usual work continues. Please do let us know if there is any way we can help walk a journey with your church or church group as you pursue what bearing witness to the Good News of Jesus looks like within your specific context and community. You can contact us on info@warehouse.org.za or +27 (0) 21 761 1168 or email any individual staff members (our email addresses are simply our first name @warehouse.org.za). Alternatively, you can contact our head of communications, Thandi Gamedze, or connect with us through Facebook, Instagram and Youtube.
We are so grateful for your ongoing support and the knowledge that The Warehouse community is so much greater than those who form part of the formal “staff”.
With love,
