42 Really Important Things!!!

Dear Friends:

I want to begin by thanking you all for so warmly receiving me (and my family) this past year.  One of the best gifts you can give another person is to allow them to be themselves.  And you are giving that gift to me.  And I pray that I can return the gift.

I did not come to you this past July with a plan entitled “42 New Things Jared Thinks are Important.”  That is tempting for all of us pastor types, but not very healthy.

In a book of meditations for pastors given to me by a friend, I read this:

When your congregation despises you, it is a great sorrow. 

When your congregation holds you in awe, it seems somewhat better. 

When your congregation praises you far and wide, it seems even better still. 

But when your congregation hardly notices that you exist, you have become a pastor. (William Martin, The Art of Pastoring).

Can you see what is being said?  The pastor is not to be the focal point of a congregation’s life.  The pastor is not to be the most prominent or most interesting feature of a congregation’s life.  What’s most alive about our congregation is the way all of you continue to embody the message and work of Jesus Christ in your own lives.

I came into a family that had been through lots of change.  And I could feel that.  I sensed that gladness and hope were stirred together with anxieties, with fatigue, and with some lingering frustration.  But even now, just a few months later, I have felt the wariness and worry begin to recede.  And in its place is a growing sense of calm, a grounded confidence, and more laughter and delight. 

This is nothing I have done.  I wouldn’t know how to make that happen if I tried.  But my being here has allowed all of you to be yourselves.  Having a new pastor in place has enabled you to get back to your own life and work, to settle into the grooves of your own calling.

I’m new, and so maybe you do “notice” me.  But after I’ve been around for awhile, my hope is that you hardly know I exist.  “Oh, Jared?  Yes, he’s our pastor, and he’s around.  He’s a good cheerleader, but you know, we all do this work together.”  I’m sure I will overhear this at some point.  And when I do, I will smile.

May God’s Spirit continue to lead us forward, deeper into the love of God and our neighbors, further into our best selves, and all of this to the praise of our great God who makes all things possible.

Jared.