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A Word of Thanksgiving

During July 2013, I began a new spiritual and professional adventure. I was called to be Pastor of South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Centerville, Massachusetts. After two decades of seminary teaching and creating programs to nurture pastoral excellence for novice and seasoned ministers, I experienced the divine lure to move forward to full-time congregational ministry. Like many congregations, this historic Cape Cod church is seeking to join tradition and novelty in responding to seekers and pilgrims. As I began my ministry, I was inspired to share the holistic vision of the Letter of James as a challenge to explore new ways of being Christian in the twenty-first century. This text emerged from a sermon series on the Letter of James, given during August and September 2013. I am grateful to this open-spirited congregation for its support of my spiritual leadership and willingness to hear the ancient stories of grace and healing in novel and innovative ways.

I am grateful to Henry and Jody Neufeld, publishers and editors, who encouraged me to fashion a small testament from a handful of sermons. I am thankful for the loving support of Kate, my spiritual companion of over thirty five years, who inspires me to live out my faith in the quotidian adventures of marriage and family life. Marriage and family life is the crucible inspiring us to become doers and not just speakers and hearers in the ways of wisdom.

I give thanks for my teachers and mentors, John Cobb, David Griffin, Marie Fox, Richard Keady, Bernard Loomer, and John Akers, and fellow companions in the pathway of Jesus, Patricia Adams Farmer, Anna Rollins, Suzanne Schmidt, Ed Aponte, and Kathy Harvey Nelson, whose faithfulness inspires my own quest to join vision, promise, and practice in service of God’s quest for Shalom. To these and others, as well as to you my reader as you seek to walk Christ’s ways of wisdom and healing, I share the words of Dag Hammarskjold:

For all that has been – thanks.

For all that shall be – yes.

May you and your congregation be blessed in your quest for holistic spirituality for just such a time as this.