Pastor Dan - January 2019
Happy New Year!!! Yahooo!! Well… that’s my celebration for the New Year. I’ll just go to sleep at my regular time now that I’ve gotten that out of my system. I never have been one to stay up late and watch the clock click over to a second pass midnight. I don’t intent to be a New Year’s Grinch, but there’s just too much newness throughout the entire year ahead to focus energy on that one second. I would rather continue to keep the spirit of Advent preparation in envisioning newness ahead than to spend time on the inevitable, in this case the inevitable is that the year 2019 will be upon us.
May 1st, 2019 will mark 20 years of my serving as a pastor for the people of Mount Zion. I can’t help but reflect upon the “state of the congregation” in 1999 and the “state of the congregation” today. One memory which comes to mind is the second or third Easter Sunrise service I led here. We used to have the service in the “dirt” lot in the back of the church. It was really cold that morning and several members drove into the back of the church and remained in their cars. We brought Communion to them in their cars. The first drive through Communion service at Mount Zion!! That “dirt” lot is now our parking lot and the back of the church has now become the front of the church. Like many of us, we have seen so much newness visit Mount Zion and in that newness, we have seen the Lord’s hand and presence at work in and with this congregation.
I do wonder what newness will visit my life in 2019. I also wonder and pray about newness at Mount Zion for 2019 and who will introduce Spirit led newness into our lives as a congregation? I do know that newness, if fact, will visit and I must ask, “Will I be ready to embrace it or be a hinderance to what may unfold?” Over the years, I have noted in the life of a congregation that newness seldom comes from committees and five year visioning plans, but most often comes from the spark and the imagination of one Spirit filled voice. That one voice shares with another and then those two share with others and then, seemingly out of nowhere, a ministry and outreach comes forth in a new way.
When the calendar turns from one year to the next, we all seem to carry a hope that our lives can be different. We may want to read more, or eat healthier or exercise more, get out more, take better care of ourselves, be more gracious to others, etc. I pray the hope of better lives and living is most powerful when we wake with each new day. We may fail one day, but that doesn’t determine the outcome of the next day, especially with Christ nudging us to new ways of seeing and living for our lives and the lives around us.
May the Lord bless you every day in this new year of 2019.
In Christ’s love and service,
Pastor Dan