Worship Sundays at 9 am
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December has arrived and Advent is beginning. Well, more accurately, the coming of Christ has not ceased. Every week in our life together I see ways that Christ is alive in your lives and in our community. Our worship is alive and energetic, our witness to our neighbors and with our guests in worship is vibrant and strong. I am so eager for the life of Jesus to be revealed among us. I also notice that as I get older I hunger more and more for a deeper and richer flow of Christ’s coming in my life as much as in our community.
I am also reminded of John the Baptist’s comment about the coming of Christ’s activity that his disciples notice. John says, “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30). John feels like this is his faithful response; embracing the good news of Jesus. His work was to prepare the way and then stand out of the way as it begins to take hold.
So, too it is for me. 2020 will be for me a year of transition. I will be shifting to retirement or semi-retirement with a different balance between my family life and my active faith life in ministry. I have shared this need for transition in my life with our Good Sam Council Leaders and we have begun dreaming and planning just how this transition will take place. We are partnering in this endeavor just as we did when I was called to come to Good Sam 10 years ago.
For now, I will be reducing my time at Good Sam by ⅓ beginning this January. In the short term, you will not notice much of that change as I will be here each Sunday as always. I will reduce my office days to three days a week (Monday through Wednesday). As the year progresses your Council and I will be talking, exploring possibilities and making plans that will allow me the transition I need and bring to life the possibilities for life and ministry to which Good Sam is called.
In the meantime, may we ask for your prayers while we pray and dream and seek the coming of Christ in all these things. Will you please invest yourselves faithfully in watching for Christ’s coming in our worship and with your neighbors. Together we can witness and herald the wonder and grace of Christ’s coming among us both in our ministry in Lexington Park and in our individual lives of faith and hope.
I am thankful for our ministry together and even more for the faithfulness and surpassing grace of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus.
Your faithful Servant in Christ,
Pastor Mitch Watney