Dear Risen Lord disciples:
This will be my last post to you as my six months as your “Pastor of Record” comes to an end this month. I’m excited to say that the timing appears to be perfect, as Carol Retz and the Leadership Team are quite close to being able to announce some very good news about an Interim Pastor for Risen Lord!! (Stay tuned…)
While I am sorry that due to my wife’s immune issues, I was not able to worship with you and interact in person with many of you, I hope these weekly newsletter greetings have been helpful in some small ways. I’ve simply wanted to convey to you what I believe: the Spirit is alive and moving among you, and while, yes, there are challenges in this transitional time, there are very bright days ahead for Risen Lord. I have been so impressed with your Leadership Team that I regularly “zoomed” with, along with others of you who continue to move forward in mission and ministry since Pastor Lecia’s departure last December. There are some exciting possibilities afoot as we emerge from the worst of this pandemic, and with an Interim Pastor in place working together with your leaders and you, I am confident about your future.
Let me use the apostle Paul’s words to the Philippians tell you why:
“Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. It’s not at all fanciful for me to think this way about you. My prayers and hopes have deep roots in reality….
So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love (so that) your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover’s life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God.”
(selections from The Message Philippians, chapter 1)
Be well, my friends. You are loved.
Pr. Dave Schreiber