I’m where I’m supposed to be.
Quick backstory: After several good years in mid-council leadership, finishing a PhD, and settling in to the first home that is ours – I left my position as the Resource Presbyter for Cayuga-Syracuse. I detailed my rationale a year prior to my departure and shared it with the leadership of the Presbytery… so it wasn’t a surprise. Well, it wasn’t a surprise for THEM, although I learned several things during my five months of “re-wiring”.
- The best laid plans…. seriously. Except for a lovely trip to cat-sit at my daughters’ house and a great birthday trip to Toronto with my sister, everything else fell apart in a grand way. I’ve already had my pity party, and if you weren’t invited, consider yourself blessed. It was ugly.
- The ____(A)____ that was going to get ____(B)____ during this sabbath time were ____(C)_____.
A = craft projects, books, writing, research, organization.
B = finished, started, read, written.
C = abandoned, left undone, shoved under the bed.
- When your spouse gets let go from his position of 27 years and ends up spending several months at home with you, you begin to rethink the purchase of a 900 square foot condo.
Transitions have both push and pull components. Staying home another month was simply not a sane option. I’m back in the pulpit in part because of the above reasons. I was pushed back into ministry.
I was also pulled.
I began at Jamesville Community Church as their Bridge Pastor at the beginning of June. Every day I’m discovering more reasons to be doing what I’m doing. My prayer is that my ministry here will be a blessing for the good folks here as they prepare for the person God is calling to this place.
At the same time, I’m rediscovering the joys and frustrations of the pastorate. I’m learning first-hand the concerns of the church in a post-Christian, post-COVID, world. This isn’t the same ministry I left only a decade ago, and yet I continue to trust that God is in the middle of it.
I still don’t know what’s next, but I do know that I’m where I’m supposed to be. For now, that’s more than enough.
The Quirky Calvin-isht 
4 Comments
I am loving this. I share the condo issue. I recognize the A B and C lists. And I am so glad you were pulled back into direct ministry because I think you have so much to contribute in this new world the church finds itself facing. Bravo!
You’ve done a similar thing recently, right? Hoping your learnings aren’t as frustrating as mine were!
Glad you’re back in pastoral ministry even if it isn’t because of the plan but in spite of it. You know what is said that God does when we make plans! LOL
I’m sort of the living embodiment of that saying! 🤣