Reflections on 25 Years
Reflections on 25 Years
(I want to share some of the remarks I made at the grand celebration the congregation threw for Janet and me on June 8th - minus a few of the jokes and escapades related - and especially for those who were unable to be present on that high-spirited evening)
25 years! It's hard to believe I've been at Dutch Neck 25 years. I really don't feel old enough to have been your pastor for 25 years. (Of course, you have to remember I was only 18 when I came to Dutch Neck!). One adjustment I've made in those 25 years is the gradual resetting of what I consider the upper limit of middle age...every couple years I push up the boundary, so I still consider myself very much middle-aged. Of course, Janet reminds me from time to time that I really don't know many 125 year-old men.
Janet, Stephanie, Nancy and I arrived, with our West Highland Terrier Frosty, on a cold wet February day those 25 years ago. I had been pastor of a church in Philadelphia for 11 years,and I figured that was just about right for a length of ministry - but only if the match were good. Wouldn't a pastor and his congregation get tired of each other after a decade...if not sooner?
Some of my colleagues in ministry, in the years I've been at Dutch Neck, have had three or even four calls to different congregations. What gives? they ask. I tell them that I don't need to move. I stay in place and every 6 or 7 years I'm looking at a new congregation. It's that kind of community. Not a totally new congregation, of course, and that's one of the things I love most about Dutch Neck. There's the ballast brought by long term members who bring the roots and the history to our ministry...and the many newcomers who join us and bring new, fresh ideas and energies to our ministry. What a winning combination for the Lord!
One of my favorites passages of scripture for many years has been Jesus' words to his disciples in Matthew 13:52-53: "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old." I think I've been blessed at Dutch Neck to be called to a treasure that brings both the new and the old to its ministry... where new members are welcomed and invited to share their gifts and perspectives, and the wisdom of the well-established is honored for its value. That kind of mutual respect and affirmation has carried over to our life together in dealing with differences: our umbrella is large; we're all part of the family, diverse yet woven together in Christ's love.
But what has been most spiritually rewarding for me in these 25 years is the privilege of having been invited into your lives at some of the deep places - the times and seasons of life when we are most attuned to God's presence in our midst - and sometimes God's seeming absence. What could be more profoundly moving than to share with you - you who are the Dutch Neck family today, and those who have been part of the family in past years since 1982 - the joy and mystery of childbirth; the sealing of an infant, or an adult, in baptism as Christ's own forever; the faith and questioning of confirmation; the covenant promises and high hopes of marriage, whether young or old; the spiritual challenges and healing touches in illness; the mystery of death and the light of eternity - and all the everyday seasons when we know God's Spirit is there sustaining us.
As I think back over the 25 years, there are a number of developments in our congregation that give me special joy, ones I
don't think of as accomplishments so much as movements of the Spirit that I was privileged to be part of. Our first intergenerational mission trips, that began in the mid-1980's and our special
relationship with the Mission at the Eastward in Maine; our development of some new forms and aspects of worship, including baptism renewal, healing and anointing services, blended worship styles, and Taize-inspired meditative worship - and now our superb Children in Worship program that nurtures young children in the quiet spirit of worship and receptivity to the stories in God's Word; the Vision Initiative capital campaign, in which just shy of a million dollars was dedicated to caring for God's till-then neglected house, making it a place of both beauty and effectiveness for worship and ministry; the establishment of an Associate Pastor position in the late 1980's which meant, for me, the gift of good colleagues in ministry and , for the congregation, a wider range of pastoral gifts and availability.
To that end, I am especially pleased that we have welcomed our first full-time woman Associate, Wendi Werner to this position, who in just a few months, has already sparked new hopes and energies for nurturing our children, youth, and families, and brought many gifts to our worship. It's well-known in churches that sometimes young children confuse their pastor with Jesus or God, especially a bearded, robed male pastor (such as we have known at Dutch Neck). I heard of another church - true story - that had just called a woman to be Associate Pastor for the first time, leading one little boy to say to his mother, "We've got a new God - but this one's pretty!"
Thank you all for this high spirited party this evening. I would especially thank the planning committee that put this together (I half-heard many whispered conversations in the outer office!). And I am so pleased that many members of my family, including my mother Evelyn, a lively 92, were able to be part of the celebration. Also, some Dutch Neck faces out of the past and some of my colleagues in ministry and their spouses from our presbytery, including Stated Clerk Ernest Kimmel and his wife Gaby. We are a congregational family, but we are also part of a wider family of the Presbytery and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) - and may we continue to draw strength from our family connections!
May the Lord hold each of you in the palm of his hand,
Floyd Churn
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