Trust the Proces

This past Sunday I submitted my resignation as your Pastor to the session of the church. It was a very emotional time for me. My tears were met with understanding, support by the ruling elders on session. Likewise so many of you have since expressed your love and care through emails, phone calls, or face-to-face chats. I am so grateful to each one of you! As one of you said, “let’s meet this situation with as much grace as possible.” And you have!


As I have emphasized before, I am not leaving under duress or any hardship. Quite the opposite. I dearly love this congregation. You have been a blessing to me and to my family. I have nothing but appreciation to express to you. My strong bond with you only serves to make this transition harder. But I also must say that since my announcement, I have been filled with peace. And as I have preached before, if what we are doing brings peace, then we can be assured that we have been led by the Spirit (Phil 4:7).

So many of you have confirmed me in this choice, affirming my decision and need to do what is best for my family. Thank you for those words of support.

The session and I will work out an official end date soon. Right now we are eyeing mid-October. At the same time you will begin to see some of the workings of the “next steps” outlined below.

Sometimes the process will seem convoluted and slow. I would only offer my perspective, that any church—Presbyterian or otherwise—has intentional processes in place that are there for a reason. And I might offer some spiritual wisdom: how we get there determines where we end up. There are no shortcuts. Trust the process.

In the meantime we are moving ahead with our fall programs, Pastoral Resident Patricia is astonish-ingly competent and graceful, and our new Gathering Room is under construction. Worship, Deacon Prayer cards, Emmaus and small groups continue on. In all of this, even in transition, our faith is shaping us. God is for us. Jesus is with us. The Spirit is in us. Amen.   David