Last week marked my ten-year ordination anniversary. As I looked back at the community of Emmanuel Baptist Fellowship who ordained me, my heart was filled with gratitude for their vision and their support. They first called me pastor and they truly taught me to be a pastor.
As I look at pictures of that special service, I grieve those who were so instrumental in helping me answer the call to pastor who aren’t here on earth anymore. I am also filled with joy in recalling all the ways pastoring has challenged me and changed me. Ten years later, I can still say I love being a pastor and there is nothing about being a pastor that I don’t like, even business meetings 🙂
I never thought God would call a small congregation to renovate a hair salon to become a church. I never thought I would return to the days of my first ministry internship and lead youth to witness the ways God was calling them. I never thought I would be called to design and lead outdoor worship for a significant time period in the middle of a global pandemic. And I won’t pretend to know what the next ten years will hold. Instead, I will spend this wild and wonderful life proclaiming all the ways the Divine is whispering for us to pay attention.
I will forever be grateful to the my beloved partner who looked at me and said, “You’re a preacher. You know that, right?” His words led me to this beautiful, unexpected vocation and discovering all the miraculous ways that God is with us each and every day.