My Dear Church, from September 11 through 23, Lord willing,
10 of us will be on a great adventure called The Journeys of Paul. Many of you know I’ve made regular trips to
the Holy Land but have been unable to go in recent years. Now we have this
opportunity for a similar spiritual pilgrimage following in the footsteps of
the Apostle Paul through Turkey, Greece and Italy. I feel very blessed to be
able to lead others on this trek and hope to take you along with me someday
soon.
While we are away, crisis pastoral care and funeral duties will be handled by our
Evana regional pastor Ernie Hershberger. He preached last January and did a
fine job and I am excited to have him come back and preach on September 13th.
Michael Amstutz, Director of MCC Connections will preach on September 20.
In 20 years there has only been one time I’ve been
out of the country and missed a funeral and I still feel bad about it and so I
would like to offer an option in case someone passes away while I am far away.
I would suggest going
ahead with calling hours and the next day having a private burial and then
delay having the funeral to after I return. In recent years I’ve had lots of
variations on funeral timelines. One individual passed away and the family
decided that they would have the funeral on this person’s birthday which was
months away. This worked out very well and I believe it could work well for
other families who would choose that option.
If the family chooses to move ahead with the funeral while I
am away, please understand I will take no offense and would bless you in doing
whatever is best for your family at the time. As I said before Ernie is more
than capable.
Since our secretary Kathy will be on adventure, Velma
Shetler will be in the office during regular hours and handling all of Kathy’s
responsibilities. Our head Elder Brad Miller will also be on the trip, so
Elders Katie Immel and Ron Steiner will be handling our Sunday morning worship
times and other pastoral care issues as they arise.
The other thing that will be happening while I am away is a
discernment ballot for my next contract which ends December 31st. I wanted you to know that I am aware and
bless this process moving forward. I have been praying and discerning as to my
calling here with you and I feel God still has exciting things for me to do, so
I am open to hearing your call for another 5 year commitment.
I would just ask for you to prayerfully discern between now
and when the ballot is taken as to whether you continue to believe that God is
calling me to be your pastor. All those who have committed themselves to
membership should be a part of this discernment. This is a beautiful thing when
we seek God’s will together. The Pastoral Relations Team will be coordinating
this effort.
It’s hard for me to imagine that in January I will have
completed 21 years of service here with SMC. These times have been filled with
glorious mountain top moments as well as dark valley times in the shadow of
death. But God has been faithful through it all. I am thrilled to see new
things happening and new faces showing up because I know God is not done with
SMC inviting people to live the saved life in Jesus!
Any questions or concerns between now and Sept. 10 let me
know :)
Amen, Todd
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