Looking Ahead With Gratitude

Dear Saints of Grace Lutheran Church,

What a joy it has been to serve you and to serve God alongside you in this transitional season as a bridge between your called pastors!

Together we celebrated all six of the festivals of the church year, we shared the stories of the faith in worship, in your homes, and in hospital rooms, and we accompanied beloved brothers and sisters in the faith to God’s right hand.

Some of you have spoken of this season as a time of healing, a time of being regathered and refreshed. It is good and hard work for a congregation to finish a good season with a good pastor, as you did with Pastor Schwick, and it is good and hard work for a congregation to discern God’s invitation for the next season, as you are doing with the call committee, council, and congregational vote (yet to happen at the time of this writing). Thanks be to God that you did your work so well and faithfully and that you’re feeling healed, regathered and refreshed as you step into the future.

What a blessing that your prayers and plans for the next season come supported by the wind, fire and new language of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and Jesus’ calling and sending of the disciples in Matthew 9-10! And what a blessing to get to sing together our thanks for the Spirit’s gifts for Grace’s ministry lo these many years and for all the years to come:

Lord, you give the great commission

Lord, you call us to your service

Lord, you make the common holy

Lord, you show us love’s true measure

Lord, you bless with words assuring*

Thanks be to God for this time together. May God continue to bless you richly, dear saints of Grace,

Pastor Robin Brown

*ELW 579 “Lord, You Give the Great Commission,” Text: Jeffery Rowthorn, b. 1934