Pastor’s Message for February 2022

Hello – Again!

When I wrote my last “Pastor’s Thoughts” (for want of a better title) in June 2014, I thought that was the last time I would be addressing a congregation as a pastor. But, as in the iconic movie Groundhog Day, here I am doing it all over again. I’m surprised to find myself “back in the saddle again” (as Pastor Vaughn said in his first January sermon). I’m pretty sure Pastor Vaughn and Pastor Byrom are surprised too.

We didn’t expect to be here as your pastors again. Just as Pastor Ross didn’t expect to be called by the bishop in the middle of the Conference year to become our Annual Conference’s newest Superintendent. Just as you didn’t expect to lose so suddenly a pastor that you have come to love.

But, then again, life – especially Christian life – can be full of surprises. As a Preacher’s Kid, I remember the surprise, as a third and as a sixth grader, coming home from school to learn that we were moving to a new church. I remember the surprise of a “girl” coming to the parsonage to borrow a key to the church and me falling in love with and (4 years later) marrying her. I remember the surprise as a PK, who always fought the very idea of being in Christian service, realizing one day in graduate school that God wanted me to be a minister. And I remember many more surprises over the course of my 72 years. Some of these surprises were painful, some were immediately joyous, some took some time to be accepted, and some that began painfully became the best things that ever happened to me.

So, here we are in a time of great anticipation about the surprises yet to come. What will we all do together over the next six months? How will we grow as a family of faith? Who will the bishop send here to work with us and care for us and love us? When will we know? What does God have in store for us? The future is an exciting place.

In the meantime, here we (Dave, Dean, and I) are, glad to be with you – again. Let’s see what God has planned for us to do together.

Grace and Peace,
Dave Wilson