#230 Starting Again

I am just under a month into my time as pastor at Calvin Christian Reformed Church. In some ways, beginning ministry in a second congregation is much less intimidating than starting up the first time around. I have five years of experience now. I've learned a lot about who I am as a pastor and what my strengths and weaknesses are. I've developed some rhythms and learned how to handle a pretty good number of situations—sometimes learning the hard way, sometimes learning from conversations with fellow church leaders. So while my context is different, I have a better idea of what to expect and what to look out for this time around.

But again and again over the past few weeks I've found myself thinking of one thing that I can't bring with me from my previous work: my knowledge of the congregation. Starting up at Calvin has helped me realize just how much I knew about the people in Kanawha. I knew basic things like names and jobs of course. But I also knew about family trees and personal histories. I'd learned what was important to different church members, the things they cared about and worried about. I knew who liked to be visited and who didn't really like to sit and visit, which people were big talkers and which people needed a little more prompting to settle into a conversation. When I stepped into the pulpit and looked out at the congregation, I saw a group of people I really knew. Hopefully that knowledge helped me do a better job of preaching to them specifically. Lately when I get up to preach, I almost feel like I'm preaching to a group of strangers. Someday I'll really know the people I regularly preach to again, but this kind of knowledge takes time. So I'm back to work, making visits, listening to stories, taking mental notes during brief conversations after the service and around town. Remembering how good things can be gives me a little extra incentive to gather information and learn about these new people. I'm looking forward to knowing them, too.

Grace and peace,

BMH

P.S. Lanie and I tracked down one more ice cream cone sculpture: