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Church Leadership Forward Look Journal Joy Notes

Liturgy of pastoral transition

A blessed day at church

What a wonderful pair of worship services this morning.  Attendance was high (211) and excitement was higher as we sang from hearts that needed the reminder; I Walk by Faith and worshipped our heavenly Father on Father’s Day with choruses and hymns.  I played trombone with the worship team so it was not a quiet morning.   I apologized to all the fathers for choosing Father’s day as my last Sunday.  And we did take time to honor the fathers present too.  One of the awesome moments was when the children and teens prayed for me.  What an absolute joy to see them advancing in discipleship too and to be blessed by their prayers.   At the end of second service, knowing that I am a fan of his organ playing, Richard Filmer played a special for us on the organ.  It was excellent.   At the end of both services, Larry Nemitz,  Vice Chairman of the LBA, and Pastor Eric who is succeeding me, and I read a liturgy of transition.  It is very rare in churches to see this happen.   Most of the time there is a span of time between the leaving of the old pastor and the coming of the new.    It was a highpoint as well.  I have always prayed that God would grant a good transition at the end of my tenure here.  I believe that prayer is definitely being answered.  I am including the liturgy we used here.

 

Liturgy for 2013 pastoral transition

Larry Nemitz:   This is a special moment in the history of our church.  We are profoundly thankful for what God has done through the ministry of Pastor Kelvin and JoAnne.    Pastor has led many to give testimony to their faith through Christian baptism as the Scripture instructs us.    He has encouraged our collective worship through regular administration of the sacrament of communion.    He has faithfully taught us from God’s Holy Word to love God, love others and make disciples.   And he has mentored us by personal example, small group instruction and public exhortation.    He has presided over moments of joy in our lives such as marriages and the naming of children and he has stood with us in times of trial and sorrow too.

Congregation:  We are deeply grateful to God for sending us Pastor Kelvin and JoAnne to be faithful stewards of their gifts in this place and to exercise well the role of congregational leadership among us.

Pastor Kelvin:  It has been my privilege and my joy to serve as your pastor, with God’s help, for these last 22 years.   You have been a blessing to us too.

Larry Nemitz:   While we are happy for you upon your retirement, we admit that it causes us grief to let you go away because we have learned to love you both.   Yet in the providence of God we know that for everything, there is a season.   By his grace, God has planned another chapter both for you and for us, which we are ready to enter into.    Yesterday at district conference Rev. Dr. Eric Paashaus was officially stationed as our pastor for the coming year.

Pastor Kelvin:  It has been my privilege to be a mentor to Pastor Eric and today it is a great joy to see him stepping into the role of leading pastor here at Community Wesleyan Church.  Eric, as symbols of the transfer of stewardship of Community Wesleyan Church, I offer three ordinary gifts.   One is a key to the front door of the church.  It is a multi-faceted symbol.  It reminds me that often the pastor’s contact with people is the front door to the family of God.  It reminds me also that the pastor is the one who is ultimately responsible to God for the welfare of the church.  Then second, I hand to you a Bible.  It is a reminder to you and to the congregation gathered here that at your ordination service a Bible was handed to you by the denomination’s leaders and you were commissioned to take authority to preach the word of God.  God is now giving you a great opportunity to fulfill that entrusting.    Finally, I give you a towel.  It is a symbol of the Biblical truth that Jesus taught us all that we are not here to be served but to serve.   This is one of the great secrets of a successful pastorate.

Pastor Eric:  It is with joy and with an awesome sense of responsibility that I accept your gifts.  It is a privilege for Magda and myself and our children to become the pastoral family at Community Wesleyan.  We covet your prayers.   We look forward with great anticipation to what God intents to do among us as we work together with God.  He is the same yesterday, today and forever!

Larry Nemitz:  On behalf of the local board and all of God’s people here, we welcome you as our pastor and pastoral family.   We look forward to laboring together in the kingdom of God.

Congregation:   We heartily welcome and accept you as our pastor and pastoral family.   God helping us, we will pray for you and listen carefully to the Word of God preached through you.  May God richly anoint you with his Spirit and guide you as you lead us in following Jesus.

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Church Leadership Forward Look Journal

Plans for our remaining Sundays at Kirkville

The remaining weeks of our time here at Kirkville will be busy ones.  We have saved a few weeks vacation to help us have time to pack and visit our family in CT and western NY.   I am also doing some reading in preparation for my new part-time position at Copper Hill UMC.  You know what I always say, “If the leader is not growing, the people will not be growing either.”    This chart tells you when I will be preaching here and who will be preaching when I am not.   Thank you for your prayers during this time of transition.  I am praying for you too.

 

Community Wesleyan Service Plans May 5- June 16

  Special Day Speaker Message Scripture Other Events that Day
May  5 Missions Sunday Don & Cheri Floyd     4 PM  CLASS 201
May 12 Mother’s Day Pastor Eric  Jesus and the Problem  John 6:1-14  
May  19 Pentecost Sunday Pastor Kelvin Secrets of Spiritual Power Luke 3:21,33;  4:1-15 MBK Christian Unity Svc. 6 PM
May 26 Memorial Day Weekend Pastor Eric      
June 2   Larry Nemitz     4 PM  CLASS 301
June 9 Communion Sunday Pastor Kelvin How Shall we Live? 1 Thess. 3:11– 4:11; Titus 3:3-8 Retirement Dinner 3PM
June 16 Father’s Day Pastor Kelvin Be of Good Courage! Deut. 31:6 Reception following services
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Church Leadership Forward Look Journal

State of the Church address

At the semi-annual church conference, I changed the format of my usual report and instead presented a “State of the Church” address.   It was meant to summarize the achievements of my pastorate and describe the position of our church today as I view it.   I am attaching it in pdf format.

The State of the Church

Having reflected on it now for a couple weeks since I wrote it, there is one section that I should have added to the innovations section.  But we take it so much for granted today and know that there is no going back so I did not think of it.   The item I should have noted concerns all the technological advances we have made in using the computer since I have been pastor.   I arrived at the end of the typewriter era in Kirkville.  During my tenure, all record-keeping has been computerized; we used the computer to keep records and generate mailing lists.  Our current database expert volunteer is Josh Basile.  Of course, all correspondence and bulletin preparation has been computerized.  Currently we are using Word and Publisher 2010 to accomplish our work.   After Mahlon Moon’s thoughtful memorial gift of the the projector and screen in memory of Tillie, we entered the era of projected song words, PowerPoint slides when needed, mission slide shows without carousel trays, downloaded video clips, movies on the big screen, and most recently now, joining in a national simulcast.   All this has required consistent upgrading through the years as technology advanced and equipment wore out.  Finally, with a great deal of help from Steven Sgroi, we have become a church with a viable web presence.   We now have our own domain name  –  kirkvillewesleyan.org, on which we maintain our church website, publish three or four blogs and  have the capability for a sermon database in printed or video form.  In addition, again with Steven’s help, we are now on Facebook.   Our web presence is of increasing importance today as people check out churches online before visiting and expect some technical savvy when they arrive too. Ben Mackey oversees the team that makes possible our projection and sound ministry on Sundays.   Also, thanks to Ed Maum, we enjoy an in-house network.   Thank you to all the other volunteers too who make all this happen.

Finally, I would recommend an important parallel anecdotal account of the current state of our church.  If you read my wife’s book, God With Us; Fifty True Stories of God’s Faithfulness, you will see that it reflects who we are as a congregation very well.  So many of the stories describe the ministries of our church co-incidentally as she relays the first person testimonies.   Overall, a very powerful picture of our community of faith emerges.