Honoring the Past
FROM LARRY
As Mary and I reflect on taking a huge leap of faith 20 years ago to start Wellspring Group, we are overwhelmed with God’s kindness to use us to be part of building something as beautifully life changing as Wellspring. Part of his kindness is you — the men and women who have trusted God together to build a legacy.
That legacy is what we’ve come to know as Wholehearted Community: Wholehearted believers coming together to experience and express God’s love to him, one another, and the world.
This is what God created us for and Jesus revealed and made a way for through his sacrificial love.
Through 20 years with our participants, volunteers, staff and board, we’ve discovered how to live wholeheartedly, in community, overflowing with the glory of God. It has not been easy, but it has been worth it to see and hear the stunning stories of personal, relational, and organizational change.
These past two decades, Mary and I have been changed as you have revealed the heart of Christ to us. Many of the most precious moments of our lives have come visiting with you in various settings sharing our lives together, loving and being loved. We treasure those moments.
Mary and I are eternally grateful for God’s overwhelming kindness to walk with you through these first chapters in Wellspring’s story and look forward to seeing how the story unfolds in the decades to come. Square
Passing the Torch
FROM LARRY
Passing the Torch is a symbol of one person or generation passing on something significant to another.
We have a lot to pass on to the next generation of participants. To effectively pass this legacy, we must also share the critical element that is at the heart of everything we do: humility.
The Way of Humility invites the presence of God to flow into and through our lives, touching every connection we have and every experience we develop and host.
As our board has been prayerfully considering a succession plan since 2017, our first concern has been finding someone who exemplifies humility and who lives out of wholehearted community. That search led us to Abby Mandella.
I’ve known Abby since she was a child. As a teenager, she was the youth worship leader at the church I led. She began working at WG in 2010 at the age of 27. Through these many years I’ve seen her in multiple life, family, work, and ministry situations — times of rejoicing, pain, suffering, and victory. Through these years, three elements about Abby became very clear to us as a board.
1. A woman of humility
Abby is passionate about growing into the fullness of God’s purposes for her life, even when those purposes are different than she anticipates, including responding to God’s call to foster, and later adopt, three children.
Through the years, I’ve seen Abby continuously choose to surrender to love in the midst of intense pain, disappointment, and suffering, trusting God to bring forth resurrection in his time and way.
2. A gifted organizational leader
Since 2017, Abby and I have led this ministry together. Through these years, I’ve seen her grow into a proven leader. She is not only skilled, but sensitive to the Spirit and the hearts of people.
She has the spiritual and relational maturity to lead organizationally even in the crucible of intense battle events.
3. Called by God
I’ve consistently seen Abby and her husband, Daniel, make hard choices to answer God’s call. They have indeed seen and embraced the captivating beauty of their part in the Larger Story.
In the 13 years we’ve worked together, I’ve seen the beauty of the glory of God shining through Abby as a human being, woman, wife, mother, friend, partner in the gospel, and now a leader whom God has called, equipped, and anointed to expand the legacy of this ministry into the next generation and around the globe.
I am honored to pass the legacy of my life, the legacy of Wellspring Group, to Abby.
What will I do?
I am transitioning over the next few years to focus on four areas that I most enjoy.
1. Connect
In this new season, I long to deepen my relationship with God, Mary, and my family. As I slow down, I hope to connect more with many of you, particularly those who have helped to build this ministry.
2. Create
I will remain engaged as an integral part of our Creative team that is developing transformational experiences in the Pathway to Wholehearted Community. This team has poured its heart into a creative process that provides a gateway to personal and relational transformation, the completion of which empowers us to equip others to replicate the power of Wholehearted Community.
3. Communicate
I will continue to engage through leading and speaking at Wellspring Battle events and opportunities outside of Wellspring Group.
4. Coach
I want to play an intrinsic part in mentoring and molding our staff to replicate the transformational power of Wholehearted Community. I hope to help raise up leaders and alumni who are humbly and honestly desiring the fullness of God’s purpose and the beauty of Wholehearted Community in their lives and domains.
My greatest desire is to, by God’s grace, play my part in the Larger Story until I see Jesus face-to-face. And as I’ve consistently prayed about passing the torch to Abby over the last two years, I have come to understand that God has used me to prepare this ministry for a major expansion of global impact. I deeply believe that the best is yet to come for Mary and myself as well as the women and men of Wellspring Group.
As we move into this next season together, I am praying for God to give us all a fresh and captivating vision of his larger eternal Love Story and our part in it, particularly through Wellspring Group. Square
Expanding the Legacy
— Go Global
FROM ABBY
As we move into the expanding legacy of Wellspring Group, I have a deep sense that we are experiencing a Kairos Moment, where we’ve been invited by the Father to cooperate with what the Holy Spirit is already doing.
God has given us a clear vision to be a part of igniting a global movement of Wholehearted Community that goes beyond our current constraints. We have experienced transformational impact through 20 years of Battle experiences and are actively developing opportunities to increase accessibility to the legacy of Wholehearted Community. We see this happening through an expansion of experiences along a Discipleship Pathway.
We are called to equip men and women to experience God’s love, connecting in their own hearts and to the hearts of others, overflowing with the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
We can’t do this without you! Square
Read more about the transition on our landing page Partner with us to Expand the Legacy
