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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
April
2005
From the Pastor
This past week in what I would not have believed possible, Krista, our church secretary, compiled and presented me with a loose leaf binder containing all the Pastor’s Pages that have appeared in this newsletter for the past eighteen and a half years. It fills the binder.
I have not yet dared to look inside but someday, unhurried and undistracted, I will. I hope it is not simply vain glory that makes me curious and I am very curious. I want to read what I have written for a sense of perspective over the years we have spent together.
For me, each Pastor’s Page has been a letter to the congregation. I have seen them as reflective pieces, sharing with you from my vantage point as pastor. I have written about my own journey of faith, reflections on the church, current events and world affairs, all with an eye to understand these things in the light of God’s Love for us.
Rarely have I used the Pastor’s Page to promote a program or activity in the church and when I did it had to be connected to some wider purpose or search for understanding.
I have wanted the Pastor’s Page to evoke thought or reflection. I have tried not to use pat phrases or religious jargon without explanation or interpretation. I have tried not to mention the weather too often. Mostly I have written about subjects that fascinated me but always with an eye on the congregation.
For me, the great journey of faith has been along two pathways, the mind and the spirit, and in my Pastor’s Pages I have tried to affirm both as means whereby our faith is deepened and we are drawn closer to God. Sometimes I have focused upon the more intellectual side of our faith and other times upon the spiritual dimensions of our faith journey. Both the brain and the heart, the mind and the spirit, can nurture our faith, enlighten and inspire our journey and lead us closer to God.
One other subject that has occurred periodically has been the subject of worship. I have tried to use the Pastor’s Page to explain what we do in worship and why we do it, but even more so to write of what worship is and the experience of it. Worship enthralls me. I think it is the only place left in our society where we can still speak of mystery and awe and also experience it.
Two people deserve special mention in this my next to the last Pastor’s Page: Krista Pelland and Scott Weaver. Krista edits our newsletter and Scott edits the website, the two places where the Pastor’s Page appears. I think we take for granted the excellent quality of both – I know I have. The graphics, style and content of the newsletter and website should be a window into the life of our church and they have more than fulfilled this mission.
The next pastor may take an entirely different approach to the Pastor’s Page or may decide not to write a monthly column at all, and that is okay. We each have our own approach and means of communicating but as I end my tenure at First Baptist I wanted you to know that though it may seem like a simple thing, writing the Pastor’s Page has been for me not only a means of connecting each month with the wider congregation, but an indulgence, a guilty pleasure for which I am truly grateful. I am realizing what always is, blessings are everywhere.
Most sincerely,
Dr. David W. Andersen
     
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