16: Wesleyan Denomination Chat

**Brian Smith** (0:06)
Hey, welcome to what could be our first episode of a podcast with this setup called Why Westlin, or Merging Churches Post-COVID, or what else can we call this podcast?

**Josh Siders** (0:26)
Making it up as we go.

**Brian Smith** (0:29)
Or planning in-person events and then shifting to the livestream focus.
So, yeah, this tonight is our Wesleyan Church Denomination Chat for Tallgrass at The Well. And so, Tallgrass Church and The Well are in the process of merging. So we've been in this process since March, really, since Josh and I had a first conversation over coffee at Public Hall here in Manhattan. And since that first conversation, the ball has been rolling forward and it hasn't stopped. So we are in the process of merging our budget starting January 1 And we're having all the conversations. I think Pastor Sarah described it as a zipper. We're kind of zipping together increasingly as we go here. So we're very excited about it. But we did have some from Tallgrass Church who had questions about The Well's Wesleyan denominational affiliation. So that's what this meeting is about.
And we have a bunch of questions already, cold or, that's not the right word, procured. We may have some others come up here. And so we'll have plenty of time and space to hear about those questions. But I'm very thankful to have Brian Smith with us. He's lead pastor of Westview Community Church here in Manhattan, Kansas. Wesleyan Church.
Yep, give it up for Brian. Yep.
And Nate Rovenstine, lead pastor of Connect Church in Lawrence, Kansas. Lawrence, Kansas, but also district superintendent for the Kansas District of the Wesleyan Church. And both of these guys have been involved in this process of Tallgrass at the Well exploration of Better Together, moving into merger very early on. So we're very thankful for both of them. Especially thankful for Nate driving up from Lawrence to be with us this evening. So well, the first thing that was on my mind was, I just wanted people to get to know you guys a little bit. So if you would both mind, I wouldn't mind sharing just a little about yourself and your ministry. And just share with us a little bit.

**Nate Rovenstine** (2:38)
So I, Nate, as you said, Nate Rovenstine, my wife Janet, we've pastored in Lawrence since 1987 I think the math on that is 34 years. And we have three daughters, all who grew up in Lawrence, who grew up in the church.
We moved there. The church was a church development project and sort of a church plant, really, a church renewal. And God's been good and we've enjoyed our time there.
My three daughters are all married.
My oldest daughter, Chelsea, lives in Wichita with her husband, who's the pastor at First Wesleyan Church there. My middle daughter, Jamie, lives in Colorado with her husband, and she's a teacher out there. And my youngest daughter, Kylie, is a co-pastor at the Olathe Wesleyan Church with her husband Dylan. And I have four grandchildren who are just the delight of my life. A couple of years ago, we took on the additional role of being district leader here in Kansas. We're kind of changing our model in the district and trying to move to a less- so to save money at the district level, it's allowed me to transition out of Connect a little bit, in sense that we've raised up some younger staff that have taken on a lot of my responsibilities. So I'm about 50-50 in my responsibilities between both organizations. So for now, I think that's enough. That's a little bit about me. I'll certainly probably answer some more of it later.

**Brian Smith** (4:03)
I've been married for 34 years to my wife, Kara. We have two boys. One's a pastor up in Illinois and one is here in Manhattan. They're getting up there in years. That means I am too. So anyway, I'm kind of a late bloomer. I was an unchurched kid in a Catholic home and fell in love with a Baptist girl, and that really messed me up and put us on a journey.
So for the first eight years, I came to faith in my thirties. I worked in health care all these years. A lot of years as a paramedic and as an administration, hospitals and things like that. I felt a calling a number of years ago. This is starting my seventh year already, my goodness, at Westview as lead pastor. All that journey through late life and so really enjoying it. Westview, I think it's a church that never sleeps. We have seven missionaries from our church around the world. We just birthed out a sex trafficking ministry that's rock and just started their second home. Just it's a neat place to be. It's a really outward focused church that's, but it just never sleeps. So it's been a joy being there. I also get to serve with Nate.