We're Back!

I was at United Methodist Annual Conference last week.  All the pastors in the Dakotas get together, along with a certain number of lay people and the Bishop and District Superintendents.  We do all kinds of things.  We worship together, we pray together, we learn together.  There are lots of speakers and lots of music.  We listen to speakers together.

And the yearly appointments are made.  As you may know, in the United Methodist system pastors are not hired by the local church.  They are appointed by the United Methodist cabinet, which consists of the Bishop and the District Superintendents.  That’s why I’m here--because they appointed me.

Now don’t take that the wrong way.  Wanda and I are very happy to be here.  We hope to stay here for many more years, and we’ve made that known to the cabinet.  And they try to be accommodating when they can be.  But the point is that it’s not, in the final analysis, my call.  It’s up to the cabinet.  And so, I am pleased to be able to tell you that Wanda and I have officially been appointed to serve the Gettysburg, Onida, and Agar United Methodist churches for another year.

This will be our eighth year here.  That’s a long time for a United Methodist pastor to stay in one spot.  And in some ways, we feel like we’ve been here a long time.  That’s because all of you have been so good to us and have accepted us and have cared for and about us.  You made us feel welcome from the day we came.  This parish felt like home to us immediately, and it continues to feel like home.

In some ways, though, it feels like we just got here.  Even in our eighth year, we continue to meet new people.  We continue to make deeper connections with people whom we only knew casually.  And we continue to try to find new ways to reach people for Jesus Christ.

That’s what our new Sunday evening worship service is about.  The Gettysburg United Methodist church will be holding services at 7:00 every Sunday evening in the fellowship hall, starting June 24.  This will be in addition to our Sunday morning service.  It’ll be an informal service.  It’s open to everyone, but it’s especially for people who can’t make it to church on Sunday morning, for whatever reason.  We want, again to meet new people, to make deeper connections with people, and to find new ways to reach people for Jesus Christ.

That’s something that will never stop, of course.  No matter how long we’re here, and no matter how many people we reach, there will always be more.  That’s true of all the pastors and all the churches here.  It’s what Jesus told us to do--go and make disciples.  And we need to continue to try to find new methods and new ways to make those disciples.  We need to find ways to share God’s word and to show God’s love to everyone we can.  That’s the job of everyone who claims to be a Christian.

So, we’re glad to be back.  And one of the reasons we’re glad to be back is that there’s still work to be done.  So let’s get to doing it, together!