A bit of a neat way to end off the year's posts, I have been able to think back to not just how this year went, but how the last decade has been for me.
I was blessed with the privilege of connecting my youth to some youth from NEAC this week, and I'm so thankful for the little collision of worlds. One thing God has pressed on my life over the last few years is that church is done as a whole. Just because I'm at Newbern doesn't mean I'm stuck here, or if I'm an NEAC member, I'm not allowed to see church outside of that. Even when I formally became pastor here, I never saw my ministry being just with this one church. Obviously, with the bigness of everything and just how life goes, I haven't been able to establish working relationships with many other churches so far. But it's always been on my mind, ever since my internship, that churches within the same community base need to work together. I've been able to meet several of the pastors near by, but none of us have been able to foster these relationships into something that I'd like. The Church body needs to be on the map in the community and city, so I really don't like that there are so many of us that are isolated and secluded from the people around us.
Yesterday morning, I had one of the more bizarre experiences that I've had so far in my brief tenure as a pastor. In wanting to help the NEAC crew get to my church, I, along with a few drivers whom I'm very thankful for, went to the Skytrain to pick up the group. However, there were a few things that caused them to be about 45 minutes late, so this meant I would be late. So the drivers waited at the station and I just watched the clock tick by. I notified the senior pastor and my worship leader that I'd be late, and they were cool with it.
9:15am... 9:30am... 9:45am.
I'm now late for my own service. But my bigger concern was for the group. I already felt bad that they felt bad for being late. They just got off a 15 hour bus ride and arrived at 7am, how could they possibly have any energy? I don't like being late for things, but this time it was out of my control. So finally, we get everyone together and I try to make it to church as fast as I could in the pouring rain.
We get to church, I walk in and everyone is singing. I literally get to the front, put my stuff down, take my jacket off, the song finishes, and I'm walking up to the front. Talk about the thrill of being one of those celebrities that are fashionably late and make their entrance in style! That's basically what I did. So I compose myself, look up, and see that my congregation has basically doubled in size. And this is when I got excited. I'm generally not a fan of the super big churches with huge gatherings, but something about the increase in numbers really got my blood flowing and levels of joy increasing.
Needless to say, my message probably blew some chunks as I didn't even get to get into the mindset of what I was to preach that morning; but at the same time, it probably wasn't as bad as I thought it'd ended up. The NEAC group is here for Winter Conference this week, and I hope that they will have a great time at the conference. I love it when people I know come for visits because it really reminds me that they still know I exist and that they'd be willing to take the time to check up on me and see how I'm doing.
To bring everything into perspective, I'd found myself thinking back to all the times people ask me why I chose Newbern. This is another one of those questions that I have no idea how to answer. It's amazing, really, because I've recently stumbled across several of the churches that I was in conversation with to potentially work at before Newbern came on the radar. In other words, I basically had forgotten that I'd even spoken to these churches about the opportunity to work there.
So of course, this gets me thinking, "Why Newbern?" I look back briefly at these other opportunities that I had, and I always spend a few seconds to wonder why I didn't pick those but picked Newbern. Aside from only a confirmation that I probably understand, there's really no way for me to explain why I chose this church over the others. It's actually interesting because I look at some of these other churches I had talked to, and there were a couple that are highly regarded churches in the C&MA with many flourishing ministries. Instead, I chose Newbern, a small church that's basically been a family over the last 40 years who have turned all their friendships and brotherhood into a church. I have confidence that I'm supposed to be here and that there is work that I need to do here, and that's really all that matters now.
Hypothetically, you can also imagine what life would be like if I picked a different church to work at. How different would my life be? How different would Newbern be? I know that the "what if's" drive some people crazy because they don't see a point in dwelling on them. For me, it's always cool to dream a little bit, as long as I don't lose focus of where I'm at and what I'm doing.
So in the end, it's crazy to see how several opportunities get served up to us in life and to be able to look back at the ones we decided to reach out and grab. God's been very consistent in helping me decide which ones to take. There's been times where he's left it up to me, and he's completely supported and provided for me whichever path I chose. Vancouver was what I chose, but I get the feeling that God had lead me to picking it from the beginning. So, meaning that even though I was at a point where I was sure God gave me a choice, there really was only one choice - and I'm glad that this is where it lead me to.
Looking into 2016 and beyond, the process of how these opportunities unfold is something I need to remember and put my trust in. God's slowly been revealing to me the start of another searching process that may include many new opportunities; so I need to be diligent in seeing the signs in how he will help me figure this out this time around.
Happy Holidays!
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