Yet rather than him run the score up all the time, he was looking toward the future and letting me get some snaps and letting me get some experience, which isn’t always the case with a dynamic preacher and visionary leader like Bob. His humility and his integrity have paved the way for me. I told somebody the other day, if things don’t go well in the next few years it’s not because of Bob Russell. He has laid the foundation and has really done everything he possibly can to ensure continued growth and success for Southeast.
Preaching: Bob, over the years you’ve progressively made Dave more visible over the in terms of preaching. Was there a specific plan to give him a larger role in preaching?
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Russell: Some of that was selfish. It wasn’t visionary. I wanted Dave to stay here because he was playing such a key role and he is such an effective communicator. All kinds of churches came after him and he had good opportunities to go elsewhere. So, I said to Dave early on, “If you stay we’ll give you one more weekend each year, and we’ll give you additional responsibilities.” So he became more visible with the passing of time and he handled that extremely well. The congregation received him well. It was deliberate from the time he first came to give one more weekend a year. One of the reasons it’s gone well is that he’s been really, really patient and supportive. If he hadn’t been that, then there was all kind of potential for conflict, but he’s not only been for visible in preaching, he’s been more visible in other leadership roles. He was on the committee that oversaw the building committee, oversaw the construction of this building. He helped fashion new leadership transition and development, the development team that we’ve had among our elders and deacons. There have been a lot of areas in leadership that he’s played a real key role.
Preaching: Over the last year, how many weekends have you been responsible for preaching?
Stone: When we brought Kyle on in 2002, I think I was up to 22 and you (Bob) were at 28. Together we did 50 weekends each and brought two guests in each year. When we brought Kyle in, to get the congregation accustomed to a third voice we each gave up 5 so I dropped down to 17, Bob dropped down to 23 and Kyle took 10. So that was a sacrifice on our parts because we were both used to preaching a whole lot more, but we saw the value of it and we thought it would take a year or two for the people to really embrace Kyle’s preaching. It took at least a week. It didn’t take very long. We saw it was a good fit and he has great communication skills.