Laying Hands on Clark Richardson
On Sunday: May 22nd we had the privilege of laying hands on Clark Richardson as a pastor. We are super excited to have Clark join the plurality of pastors here at Mountain View.
If you don’t know Clark and Tricia Richardson (along with their sweet family) – 1. Can we highly recommend getting to know them? 2. Read this letter (from Clark) to learn more about their family and the work God has been doing.
Dear Mountain View Family,
What a privilege it will be to serve all of you as a pastor. I look forward to getting to know many more of you over time but am also glad to share a little bit of our story here.
Tricia and I both have the undeserved privilege of having been raised by parents who love Jesus, and we were both saved by grace at a young age. I identify well with Timothy who was infinitely blessed to be raised under at least two generations of believers. My parents repeatedly taught me the gospel and God gave me a child’s faith to respond to Jesus in joyful submission to Him. By God’s amazing grace I cannot remember a time, though I have certainly failed often, when I did not long to please God. I am often astounded by His choice to be so lavishly kind to me by doing His work in my heart so early in life! God’s grace and mercy to help in a time of need has been my staying power and strength. It is by the grace of God that I am what I am (1 Corinthians 15:10)!
During my undergraduate years at Wheaton College in Illinois (1986-1990) I was mentored, discipled, and trained by a pastor many of you know named Tom Harcus – yes, the same faithful brother God used so graciously to plant Mountain View Community Church in 1993. We were sad to see him and Dawn leave Illinois to Colorado, but know now that it was obviously God’s good design! My greatest gift and most amazing support, my marriage to Tricia, happened that same year. We stayed busy with each other, work, and middle school ministry at the church her father helped start years before. In 1995 we were part of a church planting team working on worship, youth, and other ministries for the church plant called Grace Church of the Valley. During those years I also studied New Testament Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and continued to get equipped hands on in preaching and other areas of shepherding and leadership. Through many twists and turns (another story of grace for another day), in 2006 I had the privilege of leading a church “restart” out of the church plant we served. Through an ongoing connection back to Tom, and therefore Mountain View and the Crossway Network, we joined the Network family, renamed the church “Crossway Fox Valley,” and started fresh with new vision and direction. Crossway Fox Valley represents some of the sweetest years of ministry (2006-2018) Tricia and I have experienced together. The church has flourished AND has had its challenges for sure but is on a good path today toward growth and effectiveness for God’s kingdom.
Parallel to and an inseparable part of this amazing journey of God’s grace has been the one-by-one addition of our 5 favorite people on earth, our kids – Jake (25), Kailin (22), Luke (20), Sam (17), and Grace (13). They have been and currently are the greatest joys of our lives!
In recent years God began stirring my heart toward a shift in ministry that I hoped would release me from a lead pastor role where I hadn’t sensed the greatest effectiveness. I was being encouraged and seemingly led toward something that would involve highly administrative gifts and collaborative efforts that would support church planting and church strengthening in a broader way. At the same time, God was leading the 5 Crossway Churches (one of which is Mountain View) to create a shared administrative leadership role that would serve the systems and structures needed to plant churches and to do it well together. In July of 2019 I was privileged to be hired for that role and after 26 years together in Illinois we relocated to Timnath, Colorado. We also joined Mountain View as our home church where we would continue to grow, serve, and minister as a family.
Over the last 18 months I have aspired again to serve in the local church as a pastor and have been invited in by the faithful plurality of men who serve you all so well already. I look forward to shepherding, preaching when needed, coordinating men’s ministry, involvement in LifeGroups and serving in any other way that God might want in the next season alongside my Crossway Network role. Tricia has been delighted to serve in Children’s Ministry, Real Moms, and Women’s Ministry alongside several other ways she loves people so well. We are both grateful to be used by the Lord and look forward to all that He has in store. We are increasing in our love for you all, the Mountain View family, and know that we will only grow to love you more as God gives us the privilege to serve!
Let’s continue as ONE – to make Christ known as we passionately love Him together!
By Grace Alone,
Clark