Crossing Over - December 28, 2022

This last week of the year is unique.  School is out. Work is slow for most. We are groggy from Christmas gatherings.  And, perhaps, somewhat reflective about the last year even as we anticipate the next one.

As my second year at Mountainview concludes, I have been reflecting on how Ruth Ann and I feel settled into this community.  It took a while since we came mid-pandemic, but we now have a sense of who is who and how things work.  

We are thankful for the strengths of this community.  The number of people engaged in ministry is excellent.  Kids Ministry is running with a mob of leaders and Pastoral Care is being done by a multitude of people whether staff, council members or other volunteers and people working behind the scenes.

The organized nature of this community is also a strength.  I suspect that is why 'Trick or Canning' is such a success.  It ticks off a lot of boxes:  it requires order and efficiency, and it is a one-off event that meets a real need.  It also has the momentum of success.

The staff team here is also a real strength.  This is a large congregation and one of the benefits of size is being able to have specialized staff members in different areas.  We as a staff team, work at understanding the different gifts each of us bring to the table so that we can work in a complementary fashion.  The blessing of being able to function well as a staff team is immense.

On the flip side, the challenge of being a large congregation is that nobody knows everyone and everything that is going on.  It is easy to get lost in a large congregation.  The Lead Pastor cannot know and care for everyone equally in a community this size.  So, to update you on that, I continue to work my way through our lists and directories visiting people until I know who everyone is at least at a basic level.  Once that is done (I hope by the summer), I will focus on visiting, welcoming and getting to know new people as well as supporting the people who support you.  This will be a shift.  Up to this point, I have intentionally NOT visited the leaders as I quickly got to know most of them by working with them.  Moving forward I will work with this in mind: the better I support the leaders, the better they can support you.

As we cross into 2023 we will move from learning about caring encounters to engaging in practicing them.  I look forward to celebrating with you that God has given us the gifts and connection to be able to lean into any kind of conversation.  I believe that the way forward for us as a community is to be a place where real differences are talked about, perhaps stumbled through, and where mutual love and respect grows none the less.

Blessings to you and your family as we cross over to the new year.

Pastor Erick