In June, I had the opportunity to share with my fellow parishioners at Faith as we began the process of saying goodbye to our pastor - Judy Boroto - and seek God in a spirit of transition as we welcomed Jody Topping to our world.
For me, it was bittersweet in that, although I had only been a member of Faith for a short period of time, my leadership skills, preaching skills, and relationship building had grown exponentially because of the amazing support, dedication, and tenacity of Pastor Judy.
I was able to re-write my calling, articulate it my district committee, obtain certification, and get (almost) straight A's in seminary while attending to the responsibilities of my job, my family, and my church at the same time! And I owe a majority of this effort to Judy's skillset.
In June, I explored and was welcomed to intern at Shepherd of the Valley UMC under the direction of Deb Schauer, a local pastor with many years of experience who is leading a well-established church with a faithful congregation seeking to live out their faith with a Wesleyan spirit.
All of this required change and transitions. Transitions for Faith who was sending a pastor into a new chapter of her life and receiving one of my best friends who is looking forward to serving the church and community with passion.
There has also been a transition for SOTV as they receive me into their care, giving me the opportunity to try new ideas, succeed & fail (but learn from those opportunities) and share my heart as I help them continue in their engaging ministry.
There's also been change for me as I transition to another church, support my son as he takes on developing his gifts and graces in ministry within Faith, and continue to grow under the prayerful support of some talented clergy.
As I reflect on the context of scripture, we see a spirit of change in a variety of forms. However, what I noticed in those stories as well as my own, is that God is always present, trying to ensure that God's will is express and actioned so that all may benefit in the process.
I also believe our faith and denomination is in a period of change, but I also think we need to take dynamic steps so that we may transition and evolve into a church that is called to fulfill our calling to make disciples for the transformation of the world.
What I am writing here is not another speech or another sermon, but an observation that, in spite of the uncertainties we find in our lives during a period of transition, change is always happen, and the best we can do is ride through that change, engage scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, & do what God is calling us to do.
