Jeremiah's Field - Hopeful in spite of reality

Monday, April 23, 2007

The Fallow Field

Yes, it has indeed been forever since I've posted. It turns out that transitioning into a new church is a heckuva lot more work than one might reasonably imagine. The last time I posted was All Saint's Day and I'm pretty sure that's the last time I worked somewhat reasonable hours.

Older, wiser pastor-types try to tell new pastors, "Whatever you do, don't try and change stuff your first year in a new church. Even if the church says 'We want change,' they don't really mean it." So, like the n00b that I am, I started changing stuff left and right. Major changes were done on the church newsletter and the weekly bulletin/order of worship. One gift that I've always felt I had was that of making good documents. Thankfully, those that have commented have been really, really positive. I'm always somewhat concerned that those who don't like the change, if there are some, are just keeping it under their hats until an opportune time. I think a lot of pastors have a touch of paranoia. Maybe it's because Jesus' own disciples betrayed him. Maybe it's because of the horror stories they hear about "pastor abuse." Maybe it's just because we're human like everyone else. But The Beacon (the new title for our newsletter), and the new bulletin are both great, if I do say so myself. Only problem is now that I've ventured out of MS Word in favor of Publisher, the church secretary knows dang little about how to do almost anything with them. So, in effect, I've about doubled my workload. Smooth move. But, boy, do they look good. Minor changes were made to the liturgy, both on "regular" service of the Word Sundays and Communion Sundays. Little grumbling, mostly positive comments, see above...

As if this weren't enough extra stress, I'm buying a house. S-T-R-E-S-S-F-U-L! Hope and I were going to wait until this summer to start seriously looking. But then I saw this house on the second day it was on the MLS listing. I usually hate the phrase "dream home," but it's really how I feel about the place we're buying. It's a dream home for me. You can go check it out on here. We close in two weeks on May 7th.

In other news, we adopted another degu about six months ago named Missie. She was really old when her other family brought her here after her boyfriend, Speedy, died. She's not doing well at all. We've had her to the vet quite a bit lately which has taken up what little free time Hope and I managed to have together, not to mention a fair chunk o' change. We love her a lot, but it's been emotionally draining.

Hope and I are going to General Synod. We bought our plane tix last week. We're coming in Thursday for the 2030 clergy stuff and leaving on Monday. I reserved a room in the Hilton in January, which was smart, 'cause otherwise we'd be in the hinterlands. I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of old friends and making some new ones. Speaking of old friends, Hope and I went to two ecclesiastical councils yesterday for some of our Eden Seminary friends: Eric Fistler and Meredith Anderson. Both handled the examination very well and did Eden proud. I'll try not to wait so long before posting next time. Stay tuned.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

50 years BOLD

Today was a good day. As part of All Saints' Day, Community Protestant Church commissioned its confirmation class and asked God's blessing for their journey. Classes started on Wednesday and I've got to say, I'm excited about our journey. They've had mentor-based classes during the interim and the congregation had a rough time with it. Early reports from the parents indicate that the kids had a great time in our first class and dubbed it "cool."

Which brings me to the point of my post. This week was crazy in many ways and completely full, but it wasn't that busywork kind of full. It was stuffed with the fullness of God and the amazing joy of an entire congregation living as saints. From the death of our church's longest standing member to the birth of a new baby, from our church bazaar and barbeque to our capital campaign presentation, from our adult education night to our confirmation class - everything has reflected a church that desires to be more than a place to spend an hour on Sundays. I'm amazed by the depth and breadth of faith in my congregation. I count myself blessed to be among them.

To cap the week off, Hope and I watched the UCC webcast kicking off our denomination's 50 year anniversary. On the whole, I was impressed. I liked that they had remote links to three churches across the country and some of the YouTube videos. The webcast was thankfully devoid of the endless grandstanding speeches that can result whenever you get a bunch of pastors together. I felt it mostly celebrated what is right with the UCC, but I must admit that I would have liked to have seen a more prominent role for scripture and more talk about Christ, in whom we find our unity. We would do well to remember it's Christ who has brought us this far and Christ who will lead us into the future. It's weeks like this one when I see my church being the LIVING body of Christ that give me hope for the next 50 years.