Pastoral changes always carry a lot of complexities,
but the easiest ones come when the church enjoyed a great
relationship with the previous pastor. It is clear that
this congregation holds deep affection and appreciation
for the Rev. Kerry Smith. She did wonderful work for you
and being able to move forward with that work frees much
energy for the course before us. Thank you for making
this first step easy and enjoyable.
I also want to give special thanks to the
Trustees, and especially Mike and Cathy James, Tim and
Vicki Jones, and Bill and Pat Johnson, for all the work
they and many others have done to make the parsonage ready
for us. That is also a huge gift to me and to Keith and
we are grateful.
Where do we go from here? Obviously, this
is a community and a church in a lot of transition. Actually,
it is reported that Adam said to Eve, upon their expulsion
from the Garden of Eden, “My dear, we have entered
into a state of transition.” And we’ve never
left it!
Nonetheless, there are rapid changes in
this community and those kinds of changes provide unusual
opportunities to do great and life-changing ministry.
This is a church full of good people with a healthy mix
of ages. What joy it is to see all these children around
as well as mature and seasoned leadership. In so many
ways, this church is a pastor’s dream. Obviously,
and this is hardly news, we’ve got facility issues
and I know these already are being addressed on many levels.
My service to you will always be centered
around this question: How will we, as a community of Christians
who are called to ministry with Krum UMC, hear and obey
the voice of the Spirit of God? In my experience, we will
hear this voice both individually and in community. We
will discern God’s direction most fully when each
of us brings all that we are to the table, speaking to
each other with great love the truths about ourselves
.
We also need to keep communication channels
as open as possible. This includes good face-to-face conversations,
open meetings permeated with trust and honesty, newsletters
like this, the website and email. I am also asking you
who use email with regularity to sign up for the email
list. You can do this on the website here.
I will also be sending out a message next week to everyone
whose email address we have with an invitation to join
the email list. It’s an easy and automated process
and once we have this built, we can use it for more frequent
all-church communication which is much less expensive
than postage.
Thank you for the opportunity to serve
with you and for the Kingdom.
In the grace and peace of Christ,
