This past weekend at NY Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church I was officially stationed as pastor at Copper Hill United Methodist Church for a seventh year. I am thankful to God and to District Superintendent Rev. Alpher Sylvester and Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton for the opportunity to continue to serve as pastor to our semi-rural community. Many my age are long since retired, but my wife and I have not wished to stop the purpose-driven life that we have lived. We like the semi-retired lifestyle serving this appointment offers. And we continue to feel loved and supported by our church family. Even though we know that it cannot continue forever, we are grateful for each year that we can enjoy the grace-filled and fortuitous combination of good health, good relationships with our church family and favor with higher church leadership. And living in the large country parsonage provided is a big blessing as well. The air here even smells like where I was raised in Western New York.
Yet overall, God is sovereign, and so beyond my likes and the vicissitudes of pastoral appointments, I look for God’s purposes in granting this seventh year. That is most important.
I have one more thought. Personally, I can’t help but look at this year as a bonus. As I came to Copper Hill Church my goal was to serve six years. I even mentioned that number in my initial discussions with both the DS and the SPR committee when I was asked how long I wanted to serve. It is hard to believe that six years have come and gone. This is already the seventh summer that my grandson has swung on the big swing set that was in the parsonage lawn when I arrived. In the Methodist Church, it is always just one year at a time. By God’s providence and grace, I have been granted another year to make the most of my role as pastor, responding to our Lord’s admonition, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no one can work”(John 9:4 NRSV).