Thank You, Joel

There were a lot of thank-yous said last night, but one man was a bit left out and y’all noticed. 😉

I’m not great with words on the spot (which is why Joel does all the talking) and honestly, there wouldn’t have been enough time to thank this man properly anyway. So, without further ado, let’s fix that.

Joel, you’ve dragged me along on a journey I fought every step of the way, a journey you could see the potential of long before I could even begin to comprehend how it might work. Being my overly expressive, “say-everything-I’m-thinking” self, I never shied away from sharing exactly how much faith I lacked (and let’s be honest, I’m still working on that 😬).

Yet even as I passive-aggressively begged to quit, even as I drove you absolutely crazy, you never wavered in reminding me that I had a home here, baggage and all. You refused to let me run from the hard stuff and pushed me to grow through it instead. Because of your influence, I’ve experienced more growth in my faith, my confidence, and my understanding of what it truly means to live out the gospel than I could have imagined. And I know I’m not the only one who feels that way.

You spoke last night about how you named collect.assembly because you wanted to bring people together, to make music in community. You felt called to that, and wow, are you ever living that calling. The way God has gifted you to inspire unity and bring people together is mind-blowing.

You’ve given me (and so many others) a sense of belonging and the intimacy of a true church family we didn’t know we were missing. Thank you for your patience, your inclusiveness, and your relentless pursuit of connection. Thank you for the way you gather people, give them purpose, and make them feel seen. The weight of what you carry in doing that is rarely recognized or thanked enough, and while I know you don’t need or ask for recognition… too bad. I’m doing it anyway.

I’ve never met anyone with your capacity to take on so much and still excel at every single thing you touch. When the rest of us are barely keeping it together, we tend to lean on you, not because it’s fair, but because we trust that somehow, you’ll make it work… and you always do. You carry all that responsibility with such calm strength meanwhile the rest of us are visibly losing our minds. How?!?! And even when you do take on everyone’s burdens on top of your own, you never settle for “good enough,” you always strive for excellence. Thank you for always going above and beyond. That quiet steadiness and devotion in you is both inspiring and contagious. I’m sorry (mostly) that we lean on you so much, but I’m also in awe of the way God’s glory shines through you in it.

People might say you somehow keep pulling off the impossible, but we all know it’s God working through you. Thank you for letting His Spirit flow so freely in and through your life and for being a vessel of His grace, strength, and love.

Thank you for bringing us together. Thank you for leading with humility, creativity, and unwavering faith. And thank you for showing us what it looks like to live fully surrendered to the One it all comes from.

We see you, Joel.

We’re grateful for you.

And we thank God for you.

Every.

Single.

Day.

We truly can’t say it enough.

Thank you, Joel 🫶

By Morgan Groenewald