Friday's Thoughts

This is my last sermon at FUMC; well, at least it is my last sermon as an associate appointed to serve here. I have been thinking about the way each of you have touched my life and have helped to mold me and shape me into the clergywoman I am today.

Those who have challenged me have empowered me to take authority and claim it and stand on it as a minister of God. If we have disagreed, it has made me stronger because I had to listen to you, figure out why I disagreed with you and whether that was valid or not, and then take a stand.

Those who have shared classes and support groups and circle meetings and committee meetings and coffee shop conversations (and so on) with me have helped me to connect to the world around me. Your special touch, in whatever capacity, has enabled me to see connections I never knew before and to connect old ways with new and old people with new. I have learned to pull you all into the same boat and to connect you with other boats sailing on the same sea.

Those who have been with me through all of the good and bad times here have changed me. I am not the same person I was when I arrived two years ago. I am stronger, more determined, and hopefully, I am a better minister than I was in 2007. I owe all of my successes to you and what you have meant to me, and I shoulder any of the failures as my own. I have truly been changed for good because I have been among you for the last two years.

This is a great church. The people here are strong, supportive, courageous, and abundantly generous. Anyone who is fortunate enough to walk with you for part of their faith journey is sure to be truly enriched and enormously blessed. I know I have been.

Peace,
Pam