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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
March
2005
From the Pastor
LEAVING, Part II
At our February 17th Lenten Dinner, Dr. Larry Swain, the new Executive Minister of the American Baptist Churches of Ohio spoke about what the church might expect during the interim period as a search is conducted for a new pastor. He also spoke of the finality of the separation that must occur between the pastor who is leaving and the congregation. It must be a definite break. I have understood this and accepted it but the reality of it came home to me as he spoke. His counsel was, “make it a good ending.”
I concur. I want us to enjoy the next two and a half months. We have nothing to lose or gain except well spent time together. There are no more agenda items upon which we might find disagreement. No more big projects to take our time. No more issues that might cause conflict. There is just us, pastor and people, standing at the end of a long journey together, facing each other, given the time at the end to enjoy each others company.
It should be a good time, a time to linger, a time of leisure, a time at the end of a journey to recapture the joy of the present moment, unencumbered by the challenge of the next project. These will come soon enough. We all need to pause and thank God for what has been, and knowing in that thanksgiving lies the faith to trust in God for what will be for each of us, though along different paths.
My thoughts during this time include as well all those who have passed through our doors but now live and worship in other places. Last Friday Tom and Ruth Stieger stopped by to say hello. They now live out west but were traveling in the area and came to visit. I had officiated at their wedding twelve years ago. When I think of First Baptist Church my memory has in it all these people who once belonged and they to me are still part of what is meant when we speak of the First Baptist family.
Several people have asked me what I am going to do after I retire. In truth I have tried not to think too much about that time. It will come soon enough and I don’t want to dwell so much in the land of the future that I end up being distracted from the present.
I want to see every face before me and silently thank God for that person’s place in my life. I want to walk through the hallways of our church building and sit in the sanctuary and fully appreciate the labor of love that was involved in each new addition and renovation, and that we did it together.
I want to fully hear the present buzz of activity in our church – Lenten programs, dinner theater rehearsals, mission trip preparation, growing praise band. It is all music, a church filled with activity. It sings the vitality of people alive in their faith. I want to savor the sound of it.
As I get ready to leave I am so grateful we continue to have visitors to our church and that some have already chosen to become involved. I am grateful for all the babies I have dedicated over the past year. There have been many. Holding each infant in my arms has been a vision of the future. When we have such assurance of what is to be we are free to fully embrace what is.
I have no input, nor should I, into the selection of the next pastor or the interim or the various committees that will carry out this process. All these decisions belong to you. The one last item on our agenda together, and it does effect the future, is our ending. Unlike some other things we have worked on together it is not so much a project as the way we chose to be with one another during this time. My simple suggestion is, let us enjoy one another. Let us enjoy these remaining weeks we share together.
Let us be in each other’s heart. Let us celebrate the gift of friendship and that unique relationship of pastor to people, and then trust God for all else.
Dr. David W. Andersen
     
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