December 17th

Gifts from these 7.5 years

It’s hard to believe that my time as pastor of Calgary First Mennonite Church is coming to an end in only a matter of days.  These last months and weeks have felt like a blur.  And while these last seven and a half years have also gone by in a flash, it’s also hard to remember what life was like before ministry.  Add in the usual—and in some ways unfortunate—busy-ness of this season and it certainly makes for an emotionally complicated time.  

So as is the case when one stands on the precipice of something new, I wanted to take a moment to look back and reflect on just a few of the many gifts I received and experienced during my time at Calgary First and Mennonite Church Alberta:

The most obvious gift was this congregation at Calgary First Mennonite Church; these particular people who visibly gather around our worship of the crucified and risen one.  These followers of Jesus called me, and ordained me.  They opened up to receive me, encouraged me, and held me accountable.  They (en)trusted me with speaking words of God, as I learned to trust them to speak words of God to me as fellow priests.  In this community, God’s wisdom was discerned, either slowly or quickly.  I’m not sure if I was a “pastor” when they called me but by the grace of God, they collectively played a role in shaping me into one.  And they did so by being my friends, in the truest, and holiest sense of the term.  We have been partners together on the journey of being a community of Christian faith, held together by a covenant bond in the body of Christ.

One of the incredible gifts of being a pastor is the expectation from my congregation that I will be a learner, always.  Whether its about scripture, or theology, or liturgy and worship, or pastoral care, there are always “growing edges.”  It was not expected that I know everything, but that I am curious and willing to learn.  There’s not many professions that include an expectation simply to read about the faith, not to mention support furthering education and training.  It was expected that I grow and read and learn and pray, so that I may share that learning and growth with this community that they may learn and grow as well.  What an incredible gift.

It has truly been a gift to be invited into the heights and depths of humanity with people inside and outside of my community.  I can attest that more often than not, those moments do not immediately feel like a gift.  But they settle deep and if they are understood to be critical opportunities for a pastor and a church to put our faith into action, they enrich us and our journey with God, and become resources for God’s wisdom.  Over these years, it has been a gift to be invited into the most vulnerable spaces of life, illness, death, loss.  And it has been a gift to struggle the full human spectrum of conflict, division, failure, repentance and forgiveness.  I have been invited to anoint with oil after a devastating diagnosis, to consecrate a marriage, to bless a new home, and to hold peoples hands as they say goodbye to their loved ones.  This is the fullness of humanity and it all has a place with God.  As a pastor, it can be the hardest thing to do but that is often what makes it worth it.

I could go on and on about the gifts I have experienced these last seven and half years.   I have not even dived into the gifts of prayer; of reading the word in community; of delivering Christ’s invitation to the table of communion; of walking people into the waters of baptism.  These will all carry on without me but I have been blessed to my core to be able to do them as a pastor.  I wouldn’t give up these years for anything.

Even though I am leaving professional ministry and entering the world of labour relations with the Christian Labour Association of Canada (CLAC), I know I am still called.  My calling has never been about a job, as important as the office of pastor is.  The calling has been to the church of God, to the body of Christ, to the gospel.  And I give thanks for the gift of a church who expects lay people—as I will soon be—to be called to the work of witness and ministry in and outside of the church.  

So, as I celebrate Christmas in less than a week, I will be giving thanks for the gift of Christ’s incarnation by giving thanks for the body of Christ present in the church today.  I am thankful for the gift of pastors.  I am thankful for the gift of having been a pastor.  And I am thankful for the gift of every single beloved person who makes up this body locally and beyond.  

Blessings to you all this Christmas.