Every year at Thanksgiving Dinner we share a rich tradition in our home that my mom started many years ago. It’s called the 5 Kernels of Corn tradition. At each place setting would rest five single kernels of corn representing five blessings for us to share around the table ...
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Dear Sagemont Church!
It is an honor to share with you the excitement we feel as we enter into this next season of life and ministry together. I thought in this post I would share a bit about Emily and me so that you’d be able to know us more in the near future. Em and I have been married for 7 years as of September 22. We have loved marriage and we believe in it not only as a biblical institution, but as a grace gift from God. We would not be who we are without the other being an agent of God’s grace forming us, loving us, and helping us realize who it is that God has made us to be.
We both come from very loving families who have cared for us and modeled Jesus for us consistently and graciously. Emily’s parents Sam and Sharon live in Wichita, KS where Sam is an engineer and a tremendous bible teacher. He has actually translated the Greek New Testament in his spare time and it is a wonderful translation: The American English Version. Her two sisters Liz and Erica both live and serve in children’s ministries in the Huntsville and Houston areas. My parents, Alan and Melanie, live in Sweeny, Tx where they have served their church for over 25 years. Dad is a pastor of worship and pastoral care and has served for over 40 years. My sister Jennifer Woodard and her husband Richard are in Huntsville, Tx with their three beautiful children. Check them out on Facebook. You’ll laugh and smile a bunch.
The Lord has been so kind to us in the last several years. I have served on staff at several churches as worship pastor and worship leader as well as leading worship, writing songs, and teaching at student events and ministry gatherings throughout Texas and other parts of this region. Emily has served in several ministry capacities as a Graphic Designer, a Camp Director at a Christian Sports Camp near Huntsville, Tx and she served at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention with Lance Crowell who has a strong Sagemont connection.
Emily is so precious to me, and I cannot wait for you to get to know her on a personal basis. Her passion for people who do not know Jesus is amazing. She has such a sensitivity to the justice of God and his ethics for his people. She cares about children and their development. And she is gifted with kids too. When she says something, they listen! She’s also so creative; we have so many things in our house that she has made and she’s always dreaming up new ideas about what she can build, design, or create in our home. More than anything, her love for me has been a healing balm in so many ways. Her commitment to Jesus and to me is so astounding. I’m humbled that she would choose me and share this crazy Gentiles life with me.
The Lord called me to ministry when I was 19 years old and the last 16 years have been a crazy ride, no doubt. Through the years, God has been refining my desires, passions, and gifting. Today I am more passionate about guiding and shepherding the people of God to encounter the Lord in his sanctuary than I have ever been. I love singing more than I ever have and I believe with all of my heart that when we intentionally gather together in his presence, God works in ways that we cannot describe or explain. He brings clarity to the confused, joy to the despairing, next steps to the willing, vision for the downtrodden, faith for the unbelieving, healing for the suffering, and perspective for the oppressed. My goal every time the church gathers is to meet God personally so we might bless him and hear from him. In just the couple of weeks we’ve worshipped together, I can sense that is your desire as well.
I know that is a short run down, but it’s us! We are so humbled that you would call us to be a part of the ministry here at Sagemont and we are eager to see what God has in store for us as a family. May the Lord bless you and keep you until we gather together to worship Jesus on Sunday!
With Warm Affection,
David Gentiles
I’ve been reading through Daniel for the last couple of weeks and noticed this today in study and thought it might encourage you as it has encouraged me especially as it pertains to our desire as worship leaders to LIVE PURE in an impure culture.
In Chapter 1 King Nebuchadnezzar appoints that Daniel and his friends would have a daily ration of choice foods and wine that would have been dedicated to false Gods.. In response we see that:
“Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.” Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables.” Daniel 1:8-16
Dr. Goldingay notes “Daniel and his friends gained success in a way that avoided losing holiness; they proved that holiness is the source of health, and that God was the source of wisdom and the power behind history. (Word & Biblical Commentary, p. 14)
God blesses Daniel’s commitment to pure and undefiled worship (Ps 24:3-5) to God and God alone. Daniel gave the Lord room to glorify himself before a pagan king and nation. Because of God’s work through the resolve of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.. we even see Nebuchadnezzar’s acknowledgement of the one true God in chapter 4: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” v. 37
I’m encouraged today that when we stand and proclaim that the worship of God will be uncompromised, He provides, He blesses, and grants wisdom, knowledge, and strength in the craziest of cultural environments. I’m also floored that when his people resolve in their hearts to LIVE PURE, even kings who oppose the worship of the one true God are convinced by the power of God that he is the one true God.
Blessings to you all as you seek to LIVE PURE before a culture that thinks our God is one of many.. Yet he alone IS.