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Glenda Simpkins Hoffman
I love this time of year. The weather is warmer, the days are longer, and trees and flowers are blooming everywhere we look. It’s always a joyful time of year after the dark, cold days of winter. Like many of you, I have been taking long walks around my neighborhood enjoying the redbuds, pear trees, daffodils, and tulips. I’ve even gone to Riverbend Park to see the bluebells. God’s creation is a wonder to behold that fills me with joy and gratitude. These pictures of new life around our church are especially meaningful and a symbol of hope for our future together. I’ll have more to say about that in a moment.
In the northern hemisphere, the beauty of spring coincides with the celebration of Easter, which is the greatest of all joys as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. But we must never think that the resurrection is just a symbol of new life. The crucifixion and the resurrection are the center of our faith. We are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone. Jesus is God in the flesh, the second person of the Trinity, who lived a real life, and then died and was raised again to life. Easter Sunday is always one of my favorite times of year, and I don’t think I will ever forget this year being with many of you outside in our parking lot on a bright, beautiful day.
Not only do I love spring and Easter Sunday, I do love the season of Eastertide that begins Easter Sunday and continues until Pentecost, which this year is May 23. This is a season of the church year that is really about processing the meaning of the resurrection in our daily lives. That’s why we will be focusing on the resurrection texts in worship.
This is a season to name our place in our journey with God. I like to name the liminal space between the now and the not-yet. It’s a time of transition when we are moving from one place or one state of being to another. This season in 2021 has even more meaning for so many reasons—not just for me personally but for the world and our church.
Many vaccines are meaning administered and the hope of moving to a new season of life post-COVID. It will not be the same, but there will be a forward-moving change, and that brings hope.
This week we are bringing people back into our sanctuary for worship. It will be a small number of people to start with, but it’s a move in the direction we have all been waiting for this past year. It will be awhile before we are back doing all the things we did in the building, but we are moving forward into a new season with longed-for changes, and this brings hope.
And what is most exciting is that we are on the cusp of meeting the new pastor. The transition committee has been meeting for over three years. Pastor Pete James announced his retirement two years ago this month. The nominating committee recommended and the congregation elected the PNC (pastoral nominating committee) almost two years ago in June of 2019.
We spent some months in the early part of this year looking back, giving thanks, and celebrating the long ministry of Pastor Pete. In the season of Lent, we processed what it means to let go and let God as we entered a time of transition adjusting to a new experience without our long-term pastor. We are now living in the liminal space between and betwixt as we wait to learn about the new pastor.
Now the time has come for the PNC to present the candidate they have discerned is God’s choice to lead us into this new era. On May 2 we will hear the new pastor preach, and a congregational meeting will happen via zoom directly afterward. I don’t know about you, but I am encouraged and excited. It may feel like it’s been a long wait, but that’s the way of the kingdom. We wait on God to unfold his plans and purposes in his time.
I am deeply grateful for the brothers and sisters on the PNC who have given so much love, time, and energy to the work of discernment. I thank God for their diligence and faithfulness in doing this all-important ministry on behalf of all of us in the congregation.
Like you, I anticipate with joy hearing more from our PNC in the coming weeks and welcoming the new pastor whom God will use to help lead us. In this Eastertide season we look up to our Lord with praise and gratitude and look forward to the new era of life and ministry for our church with great expectation and hope.
