“to be robust again is to leave the excuses we have made not to risk ourselves and to find ourselves alive once more in the encounter.”
–David Whyte, Consolations

I have been walking into the same building to come to “work” for 29 years. But today feels different. And new. And scary. And exciting. I am humbled by and grateful for the call you have extended to me to serve as Senior Minister.

When I was 20 years old, I sat on the middle step of the shag carpeted stairwell of a home in Houston, Texas where I was house sitting for the summer. I didn’t know what to do. The teenage boys in the church youth group I was leading as a summer intern were giving me fits. They were testing my limits. I held my forehead up with my palms as the tears watered the shag carpet. I wanted to quit and throw in the towel on that job, on those boys and on the whole idea of ministry. I don’t know what happened exactly. But when I stood up, determined to go back to church and keep ministering to that rag tag group of teenage boys, I knew that it meant I was going to go to seminary and becoming a pastor. Something in that encounter with the silent holy presence of the living God propelled me. And I felt alive.

When I wonder if I can live up to the high calling to be your pastor, or whether I am robust enough, I then remember that you are a remarkably robust congregation. I remember about 15 years ago when I led a church mission trip to Honduras. We were hosting a pop-up medical clinic in a rather crude building with few medical supplies. Suddenly a lady was wailing loudly in the street in front of the clinic. I went outside a learned that a young mother wanted to have all of her teeth extracted. Oh and by the way, she has AIDS. I sat down with our medical team. What should we do? I don’t want to risk anyone’s health or safety. My team refused to discuss it. “We are doing it. She will be our next patient.” I was stunned. But the team was moved to tears as they learned the woman’s story. Her husband was abusive and unfaithful. She was trapped. They encountered something of the living God in helping her find some relief from the daily pain.

We cannot begin to imagine what God has in store for us as individual people nor as a congregation. But we go together now on a new journey. I pray that we will leave our excuses behind, risk ourselves, and find ourselves alive once more in the encounter with each other and with God. For a robust church deserves a robust pastor. And God no doubt waits for us.