People are calling me “Pastor”—and to be honest, it’s a little strange to get used to!
Sarah and I had anticipated someday entering into a pastoral life but we had assumed it would come much later on—after we’d gone back to school, started a family, and I was teaching somewhere with my Masters. Again, we had this sense that it was probably coming, but we just didn’t know the timing. Well, the time has arrived! We feel a deep sense of honour and humility at the request, and our church has been wonderfully encouraging and supportive.
As I reflect on how the Lord has brought us back to Dryden, for this season, I am struck again by the reality of God’s care and provision. He is trustworthy and he is good. He knows what we need before we are even fully aware of it.
That is often how I’ve described my first year at Eston. I didn’t realize how this community—this rag-tag bunch of college kids—would transform my life. How much I needed that. The whole experience satisfied a deep longing while also whetting my appetite for more of this life: studying, praying, worshiping and growing together. In the midst of all this living I began, slowly, to discover who I was. What was my place in all this? What did God have in store?
I realized that I loved writing and teaching adnd that got me thinking about doing a Masters. But I also discovered that I loved spending one-on-one time with people—especially in our dorm life. I tell people that my first experience in pastoral living began as an RA in our college dorm. We were given the responsibility of cultivating spiritual character and atmosphere. We built relationships and we helped our friends live out their Christian lives. Throughout this time I was being cultivated as a person… I was becoming pastoral.
During the summers between Bible college I worked at a tree nursery and returned to that job when we moved back to Dryden in 2010. I eventually became an assistant grower. My job was to walk thirty-one greenhouses every day: watching their growth, looking for diseases and learning when to give water and fertilizer.
One morning I was walking the greenhouses (this was after we had been approached to pastor the church and were thinking and praying it through) and I felt the Lord tell me, “It’s time to move from tending trees to tending people.” What's the difference? Tending people involves being present in the lives and situations of people. Ordinary, everyday people. It means taking the time to walk alongside those who are hurting. It means providing nurture and sustenance so that growth and maturity can occur. It means learning how to walk out our lives together in community—as family. Although I’ve changed jobs, I’m living out the same vocation—and it’s all a part of who God has been crafting me to be since my childhood, through College, and through my marriage!
This past Sunday I preached from John 20 where Mary encounters the Risen Jesus in the garden of the empty tomb. I shared three desires I had for our church as we transitioned into this new season: first, that we would be compassionate and attend to one another in the midst of suffering; second, that we would learn to explore and embrace the Resurrection life that we have been given through Christ; and third, that we would live in the context of biblical community. For me it all comes back to people and to life--relationships.
I want to encourage you! Know this: that when God shaped you in your mother’s womb He blessed you and crafted you to be you; He has called you and set you on a path that is good and beautiful and will honour him. Find rest in that assurance. We speak often of inviting Jesus into our lives, but the reverse is also true: that when we enter into a saving relationship with Christ he invites us into His life. What that means is that every facet of our living: sleeping and waking, bathing and breathing learning and teaching, healing and grieving, working and playing, laughing and loving—all of this living draws us into His grace and grip, orients us to draw closer to him in again and rekindles our imaginations to see Him at work in our lives and in our communities. Who you are, your demeanor, your character, your passions are all a part of what he calls you to. In short, who He has created you to be is an essential part in understanding what He callsyou to do. Pay attention to His leading. Engage the journey. Enter into living--for here is hope and rest and the Peace of One who will never leave or forsake you.
Sarah and I had anticipated someday entering into a pastoral life but we had assumed it would come much later on—after we’d gone back to school, started a family, and I was teaching somewhere with my Masters. Again, we had this sense that it was probably coming, but we just didn’t know the timing. Well, the time has arrived! We feel a deep sense of honour and humility at the request, and our church has been wonderfully encouraging and supportive.
As I reflect on how the Lord has brought us back to Dryden, for this season, I am struck again by the reality of God’s care and provision. He is trustworthy and he is good. He knows what we need before we are even fully aware of it.
That is often how I’ve described my first year at Eston. I didn’t realize how this community—this rag-tag bunch of college kids—would transform my life. How much I needed that. The whole experience satisfied a deep longing while also whetting my appetite for more of this life: studying, praying, worshiping and growing together. In the midst of all this living I began, slowly, to discover who I was. What was my place in all this? What did God have in store?
I realized that I loved writing and teaching adnd that got me thinking about doing a Masters. But I also discovered that I loved spending one-on-one time with people—especially in our dorm life. I tell people that my first experience in pastoral living began as an RA in our college dorm. We were given the responsibility of cultivating spiritual character and atmosphere. We built relationships and we helped our friends live out their Christian lives. Throughout this time I was being cultivated as a person… I was becoming pastoral.
During the summers between Bible college I worked at a tree nursery and returned to that job when we moved back to Dryden in 2010. I eventually became an assistant grower. My job was to walk thirty-one greenhouses every day: watching their growth, looking for diseases and learning when to give water and fertilizer.
One morning I was walking the greenhouses (this was after we had been approached to pastor the church and were thinking and praying it through) and I felt the Lord tell me, “It’s time to move from tending trees to tending people.” What's the difference? Tending people involves being present in the lives and situations of people. Ordinary, everyday people. It means taking the time to walk alongside those who are hurting. It means providing nurture and sustenance so that growth and maturity can occur. It means learning how to walk out our lives together in community—as family. Although I’ve changed jobs, I’m living out the same vocation—and it’s all a part of who God has been crafting me to be since my childhood, through College, and through my marriage!
This past Sunday I preached from John 20 where Mary encounters the Risen Jesus in the garden of the empty tomb. I shared three desires I had for our church as we transitioned into this new season: first, that we would be compassionate and attend to one another in the midst of suffering; second, that we would learn to explore and embrace the Resurrection life that we have been given through Christ; and third, that we would live in the context of biblical community. For me it all comes back to people and to life--relationships.
I want to encourage you! Know this: that when God shaped you in your mother’s womb He blessed you and crafted you to be you; He has called you and set you on a path that is good and beautiful and will honour him. Find rest in that assurance. We speak often of inviting Jesus into our lives, but the reverse is also true: that when we enter into a saving relationship with Christ he invites us into His life. What that means is that every facet of our living: sleeping and waking, bathing and breathing learning and teaching, healing and grieving, working and playing, laughing and loving—all of this living draws us into His grace and grip, orients us to draw closer to him in again and rekindles our imaginations to see Him at work in our lives and in our communities. Who you are, your demeanor, your character, your passions are all a part of what he calls you to. In short, who He has created you to be is an essential part in understanding what He callsyou to do. Pay attention to His leading. Engage the journey. Enter into living--for here is hope and rest and the Peace of One who will never leave or forsake you.