My first Sunday at Christ Lutheran seems like forever ago and yet just yesterday! My time as your interim pastor has been very different than what we all expected back in February as we have navigated this strange and difficult time of pandemic together these past months. It has been hard not to see your faces and be able to build relationships in-person with you all but I am grateful for the technology that has allowed us to still worship together and gather in the Spirit for bible studies, confirmation, the adult forum, committee meetings and our coffee hours on Sundays. I give thanks to God for the email and phone calls that have also kept us connected and for all of you who have been a part of the phone team or volunteers that have been checking in on your fellow congregation members.

We have journeyed together in this time of transition and of much change in our daily lives, our church, our community and our country. We have been in a liminal time, a time of reflection on the past and on preparation for the future. As a congregation, you have been discerning the next steps of the story and mission to which God is calling you and are awaiting a new pastor with hope, joy, curiosity and maybe some anxiety of what this next chapter will bring. I have also been preparing for the next chapter of my life, where I will be embarking on the adventure of motherhood. I am also filled with hope and joy, curiosity and yet also some anxiety as I step into the new and unknown too.

Yet, we know that as we step into this new chapter, God is with us both and that God’s presence and love will never leave us. We can trust in God to be our guide in both the known and unknown paths of our lives. And as my call as your interim pastor ends in a couple of weeks, God will go with us all into these new chapters.

On Sunday, July 19, Pastor Kendall Summers will begin serving as your bridge pastor. Like a bridge, she will help you cross the space between the end of my interim ministry and the call of a new pastor. I am working with her, congregational leaders and staff to ensure that the transition goes as smoothly as possible. She is excited to be in ministry with you all and I am grateful God has called her to be with you this last stretch of the journey towards calling a new pastor.

Our chapter together may be shorter than the other chapters in the story of your congregation and perhaps a little more intense considering the circumstances! I hope our ministry together has prepared the ground for the seeds that God will sow in your next chapter as a congregation and for the Kingdom life that God calls all of us to be a part of in our daily lives and relationships. I look forward to our final two Sundays together as we celebrate this chapter and move into the next with courage, hope and faith in what God has in store for all of us. Thanks be to God!