The Call

Lucknow CCRC

This morning, the Lucknow Community Christian Reformed Church called me to be their pastor. It seems a little surreal.  My was name put before folks who are, and have been, part of my life, some of them for fifty years. They overwhelmingly supported a proposal to have me to fill a position left vacant in June when our former pastor, effective and very well loved, moved to follow a call to another congregation.

This church, is my home church. I grew up in it;   been part of it for all but a few years since 1963. I preached for the first time here when I was seventeen, coached by a forward thinking youth elder, supported, way back then, by a council who must have seen something in a young man to allow him the pulpit.

I’ve been active in this church, served on it’s council as an elder through some hard times, which led to times of blessing. I was blessed to be part of the youth program for many years, and through this ministry taught weekly and led youth services. It is the folks in this church who helped me to recognize God given gifts, encouraged me to develop those gifts and ultimately use them. They’ve walked along side me and J as health issues led to career changes and ultimately a return to school. They’ve continued to be supportive as I have preached these past couple of years at times when the full time pastor had to be elsewhere. And now, they’ve offered to hire me as their interim pastor, a bi-vocational interim pastor on a two year contract, to lead them in this period between full time pastors.

Today’s call is the next step on a journey toward ordination, the place where this road I am on seems to be leading. even more so today as a door is thrown wide open, inviting, even encouraging me to walk through to the next steps on this trip.