Adventures with Pastor Andrew from "The Quincy Quill," July 2016

I am about to do a new thing;
    now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
    and rivers in the desert. – Isaiah 43: 19 (NRSV)

It is a great joy to be writing to you and serving as your newly appointed pastor!!  I definitely feel God doing a new thing as I continue transitioning from four years of living in Washington, DC back to California.  It’s also a new thing going from being a seminary student to pastor.  But, here we are, beginning something new and embarking a new adventure together.  Being a pastor is something I thought about here and there early on in life, but always managed to keep putting it off each time.  Nevertheless, God catches up and so after many years of avoiding God’s call, broke down and went to seminary and long story short, here I am and ready to serve. 

One of the ways that I see life and faith is seeing it as an adventure.  And I love a good adventure too.  When our district superintendent, Dave Samelson asked me if I would consider serving here in Quincy, all I could say was WOW!!  Talk about being in a place where adventure abounds, especially since I love being in the outdoors and in the community.  That is where I feel God’s presence the most, in nature and community.  I look forward to many adventures with you during our time together, wherever God will lead us.  Sometimes, our adventures may be straightforward path through the desert, while at other times, our adventure in faith is much like driving some of the mountain roads, twisty-turny, climbing, steeply descending, and sometimes ending in dead-ends or u-turns.  But when we fully trust in God, those dead-ends and u-turns can sometimes show us something new that God is doing and in the same breath, the stumbling blocks can become stepping stones.  I look forward to hearing about the adventures in your life of faith as we spend time getting to know one another. 

As we embark on this new adventure together in worship and fellowship, we will be spending the month of July first asking, where do we begin?  Then the rest of the month, we will be talking about loving God and neighbor, something John Wesley frequently preached and something that I take very seriously.  I look forward getting to know the neighborhood and town as we build essential relationships with each other and build upon the existing relationships we have with the community.  And more importantly, I look forward to getting to know each of you!  Please do not hesitate to come by the office if you are in the area and say hi, even if you’re just passing by the church.  And if I’m not at my office in the church house, you will likely find me at a “remote office” at the Natural Foods Co-Op, Midtown Coffee, or one of the other cafes nearby.  Like one of my favorite authors, Ernest Hemingway (also quite the adventurer), I love spending my time in cafes, as it’s also a way to spend time in the community.  However, you will probably need to remind me of your name several times, but I promise I will try to know your names in a timely manner.  I look forward to embarking on this new adventure together and look forward to seeing you this Sunday!!  Are you ready for this new adventure??  I am.  Let’s go!! 

Peace & Blessings,

Pastor Andrew