Anniversaries

Twenty-Five years ago Susan and I drove out to Lake Stevens to see what the community was like. I was about to interview for a position as an associate pastor. This would be my first call. We both remember driving down Lundeen Parkway surrounded by trees and passing a little gas station across from a park with the same name as the street. We drove up and over the hill and into a quiet little town with a church with a strange name, Ebenezer.

The interview must have gone well because a few weeks later we waited for the news of the congregational vote sitting on a picnic table at Lundeen Park with the sun dappled on us from the trees overhead. I joined Richard Edmonds, who just at that time celebrated his own 25th anniversary of his ordination, that July as his associate. It was a good call and he was a good mentor.

Now we are both here at First, 25 years later, me about to celebrate my anniversary and RIchard his 50th. Much has changed during this time. We no longer bog up the phone lines dialing in to the internet, in fact we carry the internet around with us on our phones! Incredible!

What has changed the most for me during this time is my understanding of what God is calling the church to be in the world. I was trained to be a curator of tradition and developer of programs and I was good at those things. But tradition without mission does not proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. And a "build it and they will come" mentality does not lead to raise up disciples of Christ.

What God is calling us to is to develop healthy relationships with our community around us. Family relationships need to go deeper, neighbor relationships need to be pursued, social work relationships need to be developed and more importantly our spiritual relationship needs to be disciplined.

I am excited for our Vision 2025 to be applied because it addressed all these changes and challenges us to become more intentional in our work together. I give thanks to God for my 25 years in ministry, but I give thanks to God more for our shared work together.