With Love, Josh and Jacqui
You might have heard a little murmuring here or there that our beloved Josh and Jacqui moved to Riverside – that’s Riverside, California btw, not the one a few T stops down the green line. In light of their move, it seemed fitting to us that they would share some of their parting words to us here in Boston as they head into a new chapter of their lives. So, in their last few days, we conducted an interview where in true Josh and Jacqui fashion, they provided their candid, cheeky, and challenging last words for Reclaimer College Church.
So Josh and Jacqui, why Riverside?
Josh: the 2021 CPIs were too much for us.
😒
He was obviously just kidding (right, Josh?). But really, it was seeing that here was a church that had a felt need for a full-time lead couple, and choosing to move in obedience towards that need. As Josh so poetically puts it, “Riverside needs a full-time mom and pop to be the full family and grow and reach its full potential to what it once was.”
It’s choosing to claim God’s family as your own, and not just seeing this church all the way in California as random or removed, but to claim those people as God’s people, and therefore having everything to do with you. After all, had it not been for people in California, Texas, Seattle, Maryland, North Carolina, and New Jersey, this church would not have come about!
When did you realize that moving to meet the need of a church was something worth uprooting your life for?
Jacqui: I don't think it's just for Riverside, but I guess I committed early on to go where I'm needed and as a full-time lead, I have the flexibility to do so… and I'm international so no place in America is my home anyway.
It isn’t always that the place God sends you is a place you feel strongly about or already very burdened for. As you commit to saying yes to God, you experience your heart expanding. And here is where you also experience God’s heart more and more as you stick to your commitments. Thank you, Josh and Jacqui for, in even this way, leading the way with your obedience and commitment to God and His people.
If you were to come back in a year, what would be your hopes for Reclaimer Church?
Josh: The beginning of a student-led movement.
Jacqui: Yeah I would want to see students hosting bible studies or really taking ownership of their campuses and bringing the gospel to people.
Josh and Jacqui’s farewell
Boston Winter Discipleship Retreat
Northeast Vision: Dartmouth
Woah. You heard them! As they head out to Riverside, we each get the opportunity to take ownership over this city and to continue taking what we’ve received and sharing it with those around us.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Let's keep fighting the spiritual battle together, even in different time zones! We were just at our first Riverside service, and I shared about you all, and how when we move, we're not severing ties, but our tears can forge bonds across thousands of miles that may one day weave a great net to save many souls. And I invited the students to join in weaving this tapestry together called the church. We will pray for you all, and look forward to hearing updates, seeing pictures and having you visit SoCal!”
-Josh & Jacqui