Bittersweet. That seems to be the right word for this
announcement.
After eight years of faithful service and leadership at
Mercy Street, Carlton Oby and his family are heading to Tyler, TX to lead a
mentoring ministry called Gospel Village. He will be missed. That is the bitter
part.
The sweet part is that this is a chance to spread “the Mercy
Street way” and really allow Carlton to spread his leadership wings and have a
big influence in a divided community.
See, Gospel Village was started by Grace Community Church four
years ago and is modeled after Mercy Street. In fact, we have been consulting
with them from the start. We have even sent some of our team to help train
their folks in Tyler over the years. From the start, I said that they would
reach a point where they would need to start a separate entity with a full-time
leader. Well, they reached that point and called me to see if they could talk
to Carlton about the job. I reluctantly said, “Yes.”
And Carlton reluctantly said yes too (he said no twice
before saying yes). He will be heading to Tyler at the end of August.
Carlton joined the team as the first Mercy Street High
School Mentor Coordinator in 2005, and later became the Associate Executive
Director and Director of the Leadership Institute. In that role, he has crafted
a program from scratch that very intentionally and intensively invests in
students who demonstrate leadership potential. He also, on his own initiative,
created a Mercy Street Alumni Association to track with the students after they
graduate from high school and to help them continue in their respective
journeys.
However, Carlton filled more than a role at Mercy Street. He
represented what was possible to our young men–a young, African American man
from the community who had graduated from college, was the faithful husband of
one wife, and a great dad to his kids. It is something that was deeply needed
when he joined the Mercy Street team. Carlton in many ways typifies what we
desire for our Mercy Street kids—that they would come back to the community to
make a difference. That is exactly what Carlton did. He made a difference.
Carlton has proven to be a faithful, loyal servant at Mercy
Street. His dedication to the kids, his desire to see them come to faith in
Jesus and grow in their faith has been unquestioned and relentless. His ability
to relate to the kids and connect with them on a deeper level is truly
admirable. I am truly grateful for him, his leadership, and his friendship. He
will be missed, but not forgotten.
At Gospel Village he will be leading a city-wide effort to
have mentors for every student in XX targeted schools. The groundwork has been
laid for some really exciting things to happen. In fact, Gospel Village has the
full support of the Tyler School Board and many of the prominent leaders in the
city. Carlton will continue to build on that foundation and begin to implement
a strategy to create “mutually-transforming relationships” in Tyler. He will be
building bridges that need to be built in order for the gospel to flourish in
both North and South Tyler. Hopefully his time at Mercy Street has equipped him
with a few tools for that task.
So it is with happy/sad hearts that we say farewell to
Carlton and his beautiful family. I know they will make a big impact for God’s
Kingdom in Tyler.
We do have some exciting plans to continue the important
work of the Leadership Institute and Alumni Association that Carlton started,
but we will let you know more about that next month.
- Trey Hill
Executive Director
