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Hello Christ Lutheran Church, With great joy I can introduce myself as your new pastor! If we've met, then consider yourself among the gracious and kind people that have attracted me to saying "yes" to a call at your church. If we haven't met, I look forward to when that happens and hope to be blessed by (and a blessing to) a new relationship. I found inspiration and motivation for beginning my call in the Christmas Eve sermon I heard this year. In summary, the preacher focused on the role of angels in the Christmas story, namely their encouragement to "not be afraid" to Mary and other characters. This guidance to not fear isn't cheap. It doesn't wash away the anxiety, the situation, the predicament in which Mary finds herself, but instead reframes her experience in light of God's promise--to break into our world and dwell among us. Among the many emotions I feel about starting as your new pastor is a sense of anxiety. Yes, I feel eager with anticipation for the adventure to come, confident in my vocation and rooted in hope at Christ Lutheran Church--but new things are also uncertain, intimidating, and anxious. Perhaps as you welcome me anxiety is among the variety of emotions you're feeling--and that's ok. As we all begin a new chapter in our lives of faith may we be rooted in the promise behind the Christmas angel's encouragement to not fear--the promise that God is in and among us, with us before and after, and leading us into a new life together. Please don't be a stranger, I look forward to what is ahead, Pastor Jacob Greeneway |