I’m very pleased to announce that our friend and colleague Harmony Hensley will be taking on a greatly expanded role with Key Ministry in 2012 and beyond.

Harmony has felt called to take on a newly created position of Director of Ministry Advancement. She’ll be assuming a role on our core ministry team alongside Rebecca Hamilton and Katie Wetherbee.

From the beginning of our ministry, we’ve been very intentional about wanting to provide not just resources to churches, but to also offer relationships. Doing ministry with families of kids with disabilities is extraordinarily challenging. Putting on an event like Inclusion Fusion or speaking at ministry conferences is great, but there will be times when church staff and volunteers just need to be able to pick up the phone (or log into Skype) to talk with a wise and experienced person for ideas or advice about a challenging ministry situation.

The task of building an organization to deliver personalized consultation and support to church staff and volunteers in dozens of major cities to accompany our rapidly expanding training resources is a daunting task. We figured a pastor known for leading “Team Big” would be up to the task. We’re looking to Harmony to lead our efforts to develop the systems and resources necessary to provide personalized support to churches everywhere. Her job will be to grow the ministry and give it away.

Our team is very grateful to our friends at Cincinnati Vineyard for helping to shape Harmony into the leader she is today. I’ve always felt God’s presence when we’ve been at the Vineyard. She’s had the privilege of working with and learning from a number of outstanding pastors and volunteer leaders. Similar to the early church at Antioch (Acts 13:1-3), the leadership of the Vineyard have been very generous in sharing of their “best and brightest” for the purpose of reestablishing God’s Kingdom. I hope and trust that Harmony’s upcoming transition represents the “end of the beginning” of Key Ministry’s relationship with the Vineyard.

I remember speaking to some folks from our team after first meeting Harmony at the Accessibility Summit. I said something to the extent of…”Whatever ministry team or organization gets Harmony is going to dominate the field.”

Game On!