Michael Collodi

I am very excited today to share the news that I have accepted a new job as the Communication Minister at the Greenville Oaks Church of Christ in Allen, Texas. I am looking forward to starting this new position next month and returning to a role in full-time ministry.

In this job, I have four primary roles (yes, these are right out of my job description):

Director of Communications - Promote and the tell the church's story (internally & externally) through various communication channels.

Creative Director - Use design, film, and writing to support the vision and mission of the church with a high-functioning creative organization.

Technical Director - Utilizing audio, video, and lighting technology to ensure that services and events across all ministries are executed efficiently, effectively, and strategically.

Information Technology Director - Oversee the development, implementation, maintenance and use of information technology to support and further ministry at the church.

The best part of this new role is that I get to return to full-time ministry. I have discovered that this is the field about which I am most passionate. I am overjoyed to work with the great staff at Greenville Oaks and assist in their ministry to serve the church and community of Allen. I am eager to work daily with the leadership, staff and congregation to toward their vision and mission.

The Backstory

Last Sunday, November 19, the announcement was made public at Greenville Oaks. This means I can now talk publicly about this job and share the news with my friends and family. I thought this would be a great forum to share some of my professional ministry experiences and their impact on my decision to return to a full-time ministry job with a church.

I have been working for the Greenville Oaks church for about 2 1/2 years in the part-time role of the Worship Service Production Manager. This meant that I managed the operation of the audio, video, and lighting systems and lead the operation teams that serve for each worship service. Basically, I run the production booth on Sunday mornings, making sure that the production technology (audio, video, and lighting) runs and planned and supports the worship services.

When I first started talking with the church leadership about serving, the discussions and offer focused immediately on the Worship Production job, but also included a conversation about the ultimate job in communications. These were intentional discussion topics, planned by the leadership team. They did this for two reasons:

First, the church was currently in a state where only employing me a part-time role made financial sense.

Secondly, and much more importantly, they wanted to allow me the opportunity to “dip my toe” back into ministry and work without a long-term commitment. This would let me get a better understanding of the culture of the church and what it would be like to work with the church's staff and congregation. All of this information and experience would help me figure out my feelings and desires about returning to ministry again. This was necessary is helping me to resolve my feelings about working in professional ministry after the experiences of my last ministry job. (We'll return to that part of the story later.)

In the over two years that I have worked at Greenville Oaks, I have had the chance to really get to know the church's staff and many its members; get a better feel for the vision of the church and what they want to become; and understand what my role at the church would be in a full-time role and how it would fit within the culture of the church. I have grown to love this church: its vision, culture, and values; its people, staff, and shepherds; and waited for the opportunity to expand my role of service.

So when, in the later part of 2017, I was informed by the church leadership that everything was in place to invite me to join the church staff in the full-time communications position, I quickly accepted. Which brings us back to today.

But to fully tell this story, I need to share my other ministry experiences in a previous job and the impact it had on this process.

My Professional Ministry History

I had previously worked as the Communication Minister for the Prestoncrest Church of Christ in Dallas, TX. This was the church that I started attending back in 1999 with my wife. My children were born and experienced their elementary and middle school years at this church. Needless to say, we were very invested in this church.

I came to join the staff in 2007 after years of serving as both a volunteer and a deacon, supporting the use of AV worship technology, maintaining the web presence, and providing IT support. I was able to persuade the leadership of the need for a full-time staff position to support an increasing use of media, communications, and technology within the church's ministry efforts.

In the summer of 2013, I was informed that the elders had decided that my services we no longer desired at the church and I was let go. That ended my first venture into the world of professional ministry.

Truth be told, I admit that I had become disgruntled over the final 12-18 months in my role at Prestoncrest. My understanding of the leadership culture of the church was different that which I preferred. I found that the direction the church was moving and the regular operational decisions of the leadership was differing from my choices. We were growing apart; and that causing internal frustration for me.

Please know that my intent here is not to bash the Prestoncrest church or it's leadership. In fact, I loved working with the staff there and remain very close to many of them today. I just had philosophical differences with the style and direction of the leadership. It was not a matter or right and wrong, it was a matter or preference. But success depends on all members of the team pulling in the same agreed direction. We weren't and didn't. Prestoncrest is a good church, filled with good people. They serve their congregation and community passionately and appeal to many Christians with their style and methods. I accept my role in that separation and have moved past it now.

As you might imagine, being let go by a church can be a pretty challenging experience to handle. When the church, which you are taught will love you unconditionally, tells you to leave, there are significant, difficult repercussions. I became very cynical of certain churches.

The Interim

Fortunately, I did realize that I would need time to heal, and allow those skeptical feelings to fade. My family was very understanding and supportive. We took advantage of the freedom to visit many churches around the DFW area. I enjoyed those experiences and was able to experience many different worship styles. This was helpful in the development of my worship technology capabilities, proving an exposure to various styles and preferences, from very traditional to modern and contemporary.

After a year of searching, we found the Christ Fellowship church in McKinney, Texas. They provided a place for healing for me and my family to fall back in love with the church. I loved their mission, their values, and their methods. I eventually moved back into a place of service there, assisting with production on the video team. This was summer of 2015, the time when Greenville Oaks called, asking me to serve in the Worship Production role.

What's Next?

Aerial video of Christmas lighting displays around the Dallas Metroplex. It includes the Dallas skyline, with the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge; Christmas in the Square in Frisco (friscomerrymainstreet.com); and the Vitruvian Lights in Addison (vitruvianpark.com).

New Year's Eve day was an unexpectedly exciting for my family.

On the way home after 4 days of fun vacation at Carlsbad Caverns National Park, we had a high-speed rollover accident on the way home on the ice just outside of Seminole, Texas. Miraculously, we survived relatively unscathed. Both Stacey and Nicole had cuts on their heads and bumps and bruises. Stacey also had a significant laceration on her ear. (I did not take, nor will I be sharing a picture of it.) They had them treated and stitched up as we spend the day at the Seminole hospital. Michael and I have nothing more than sore muscles today and a bit of seat belt burn.

Our car, my beloved SportTrac, is now destroyed, doomed for the scrap pile. But we feel grateful for this car, which provided a life-protecting shell that took the brunt of the energy from the wreck, limiting what we were exposed to. Most of our belongings are working and are still with us. Our computers and camera gear survived and are still functioning. Only one of our phones is still in a working condition. We still have most of our clothes and shoes.

Throughout the day and overnight, I have not been able to help but to replay the crash over and over in my head. Once we started to slide, I quickly realized we could be in big trouble. I repeatedly yelled for everyone to hold on, before and during the wreck. The seconds during the rollover will stay with me forever. You hang on as tight as you can, trying to be as stable as possible. But you just wait for what you think will be a crushing blow to your head or body. Fortunately, that blow never came.

Once we stopped moving, I started to assess my body, determining if I was hurt, and then checked on the rest of my family. Stacey was stunned and bleeding, but she was conscious and responding positively. Michael said he was fine and was unharmed. Nicole didn't respond or move for about 10 seconds. In hindsight, we think she had been temporarily knocked out. That 10 seconds was horrible, trying to determine if my daughter was dead, trying to keep my mind under control. But then she came to, moaned, and moved her head. She was alright. We then began to talk to her to asses her injuries, their severity, and to keep her calm.

At that point, Michael called 911 to get emergency personnel (who were out in force that day on the road dealing with 15 rollovers on the day) on their way. Other drivers also had stopped to help. People found my (broken) phone and my wallet on the ground and brought them both to me. The paramedics arrived and cut both doors off of the passenger side of the car to get Nicole and Stacey out of the car. After climbing out my broken window, I was able get Michael's door open. We then assisted as they got Nicole and Stacey out and into the ambulances. Before I knew it, Stacey was gone and Michael had left in the ambulance with Nicole.

I proceeded to try to collect the most important of our stuff and it was spread across the path of our wreck. The cover on the back of the truck had come off, dispersing everything all over the place. I gathered the computers and camera gear, which had the photos and videos from our trip, along with all of the information and memories that we keep on our computers. The firemen then brought me and our stuff over to the hospital.

While we are especially grateful for our health today, I want to share how we've been ministered to by the kind and generous people of Seminole: from the firemen and paramedics at the wreck site; to the staff at the hospital; to fireman Pete who got us a hotel room and took our bags over to the room so they were awaiting us on arrival; to the chaplain (Bill Wiebe from Gospel Mission Church) who prayed with and for us, picked up our remaining belongings off the debris field of our wreck and drove us around so that we didn't have to walk from the hospital; and my friend Michael, who is driving out here this morning to get us and bring us home. All of these people have been Jesus to us, whether they knew it or not. They went so far above and beyond the call of duty.

Most of all, God is good all of the time! I don't understand what happened or why, good or bad, but we praise him!

How do you process an experience like that? How do you respond to a near-death experience for you and your family? I don't know the answers to those questions. I do know that we will be wrestling with them for a while. For right now, I'm just glad to have my family together, safe and sound. Last night, once we all got over to the hotel, we cried and prayed together. We thanked God that we are still all alive and together. So the answer, today, is to hold fast to those you love.

Today, we work to get home. Tomorrow, Michael is scheduled to fly to Bolivia with his soccer team to play in a tournament. We are trying to get him there in time to go on that trip.

Tomorrow, we go onto the next logistical things as we recover from this event. We schedule follow-up doctor visits. We work with insurance companies to figure out to replace our car. We go back to work, to school, to church, to practice. We clean up, we get up, we continue. Why? Because the sun came up this morning; life continues; and we keep on living.

Looking Back - Michael's First Match at GK