When Linda Custer, our Leadership Board Chairperson, announced my July 1, 2026, intended retirement at the end of worship September 28, 2025, she and I both used the phrase, “BUT NOT TODAY.” The changes would be coming but it was enough to just announce it at that time.
Well, this edition of the newsletter covers almost today (May) and now today (June). I am full of gratitude! Just as we are choosing good lives in our Easter worship series, here are some memories and experiences that have been part of our shared good life since July 1, 2020:
- Living through Covid. Our first worship service in July 2020 was the first in-person worship in three months.
- Baptisms and new members
- Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter choirs led by Beverly
- Choir and Praise Team, and guest musicians and vocalists
- Children’s Time in worship
- Blue Christmas and All Saints’ Day services
- Peace Vigil in the chapel with Stephen Ministers
- Compassionate and hospitable funeral meals
- Praying lives and shared prayer throughout our ministry
- Growth, development, and joyfulness of our Worship Tech Team
- Faithful daily ministry with our staff — Jen, Julie, Lauri, Art, Frank, and Leslie-Ericka-Hannah as Christian Child Care Center Directors
- Fill-a-Pew projects from our Missions Team
- Celebrating 175 years as the oldest congregation in Greenville
- Paying off the mortgage
- Leadership transitions: Leslie to Ericka to Hannah in the Christian Child Care Center; Nick to Julie on the Missions Team; Jen to Pete as Lay Leader; Leadership Board membership (new and former members); Jen to Julie as Office Administrator; Art to Frank as Custodian; Jim to Katy and Kary as Pianist
- Celebrating Virginia as a new Stephen Ministry Leader
- Strong and detailed financial leadership of Eric and Lauri
- Remaining a United Methodist Church and navigating disaffiliation discernment in August 2023
- Resurgence of United Women in Faith
- Men’s Breakfast moving from Margo‘s to Big Boy
- The incredible fellowship and enrichment in Thursday Bible study. We met entirely by Zoom (Dr. Paul and Nancy and I in my office) and in the sanctuary before landing in the Conference Room.
- Halloween Open Houses
- Wild Game Dinner 2025
- Partnering with City Church for three years and nine months
- Physical renovation of the Sanctuary in the summer of 2021
- Managing the Scouts departure
- Presenting the Frontier Mortician drama in November 2021
- Raising more than $30,000 for sanctuary sound equipment
- Raising $120,000 for “Raise the Roof” campaign culminating in a Miracle Sunday scheduled for May 17
- Transitioning from Faith Connections to Pastor Chat on Sunday mornings
- Adopting Subsplash for social media and electronic giving. Integrating Zoom for meetings
- Publishing a church directory
- Multiple repairs, replacements (dishwasher, toilets), and staining the deck at the parsonage
I praise God for these and many more memories and how they are expressions of our vision statement that we envision to grow a loving community as we gather, connect, learn and serve.
Just as being the Church makes no sense apart from Christ, and being a pastor makes no sense apart from a congregation, my being a pastor makes no sense apart from Beverly. She and I have been parents, grandparents, and ministry partners through 36 years of active service in eight different appointments. We are the largest congregation I have served. I have grown as a pastor because of your faithfulness, support, our many leaders, and the generous resources you continue to share. As I head into retirement, Beverly continues in her vocation as a medical Social Worker, and you welcome Pastors Adam and Laurie and their son Peter, we are going to be alright because God is leading us; Jesus is the Way; and the Spirit is upon us which is the love we have known all along.
I conclude my last newsletter article with what I first shared in the introductory meeting on January 22, 2020. The best thing I can say about God is GRACE in all the Wesleyan ways we understand it. God loving us before we know it, opening doors by preparing hearts and minds for new relationships; reconciling, forgiving, and restoring us to right relationship through Jesus Christ; and giving us a future with hope as we go on toward perfection in love in this life. We love you and will miss you as God leads us along new and exciting paths that are already blessed by the life we have shared these last six years. Thanks be to God!