THE SLOW RETURN OF THINGS I HAVE MISSED

When I became the lead pastor of Cornerstone Winchendon back in April of 2021 my life changed in many ways. The work became very different. The way I work became very different. The way I lived became different.

I said hello to a lot of things:

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Being the church’s representative in community and larger church events, Top level leadership, the ability to have a leading say in the development of church philosophy and direction, preaching every week, an increase in my prayer life, a lot more reading, a solid sabbath

I also said goodbye to many things:

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Singing daily, playing piano daily, writing daily, pleasure reading, movies, unplanned time

It was a bigger transition than I anticipated. It took more energy than I ever considered. Please don’t get me wrong, I love…love…love this life I have. It is God’s pathway for me and the greatest adventure I have ever known.

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The adventure didn’t stop me from being a little sad at the loss of daily writing and the community it had generated. It didn’t stop me from grieving when I realized I had lost my accuracy and fluidity on the keys. And yes I was sad when I lost two notes off the top of my vocal range from not vocalizing daily.

But God has been faithful and as I have worked through this transition I have been able in small ways, slow ways to go back to some of those things that I gave up when I first became the lead pastor.

I have been able to go back to worship leading once a week with The Worship Room House of Prayer right here in town. I could barely move after the first week of leading, but now five weeks in I feel pretty good after just an hour or so of rest after leading. I still can’t sing above and E with any accuracy, but you never know, I might get my groove back someday.

The writing is even coming back bit by bit. I think I have missed that most of all. I have not been able to return to daily writing yet, but little by slow I am building back the community by writing and reading at least four times a week. That is an improvement indeed.

WRITING IS HARD

It’s 7:15 P.M. and I am just sitting down to write. Today was a day of working on all the projects. I finished emptying out my old room and moved the rest of what’s moving into my new room.

I figured it was a good time to go through all my clothes and reorganize my draws. It was a bigger job than I thought to would be, took me most of the afternoon, and I have more to do tomorrow.

Since we are down a Sunday morning worker, and since I have Carrie Hackett preaching this week, I am taking my turn to sit with Mom tomorrow morning. I will be watching the service from home with Mom, and of course folding clothes to go to the Salvation Army.

I am tired now. Mom is really anxious to have me sit and watch TV with her. My heart has been telling me I have to get back to writing, but it’s hard. I used to be so disciplined at posting everyday, at taking at least a few minutes to practice jotting down thoughts and spinning words. I used to be so diligent about reading and building community. But I have fallen away and coming back is not as easy as I hoped it would be.

Over the last several years I have tried several times to start back to daily writing. All my attempts have ended in failure. It’s time to try again. Maybe I will end in failure again. But I have to try. This meme popped out at me the other day.

It made me decide to try again. Writing is hard. Not writing is hard. I am choosing my hard.

WHAT IS THE MOST BUSY?

My personal schedule shifted recently and I took on more meeting ministry opportunities. Up until last April,Tuesday through Friday was probably my most busy part of the week. I did a lot of personal meetings, a staff meeting and at least one prayer service on those days.

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But in the Spring God changed things up. The church needed another set of hands in our boys Doing Life Together Group. Then in August it became apparent that I was going to be taking over a new adult Doing Life Together group along with a return to worship ministry.

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Now Sunday to Tuesday is my gauntlet time. Sunday morning generally starts around 4:30 A.M. This week I did morning service and an afternoon funeral (last week it was an afternoon Chili cook off). Mondays are Bible study, devotional video and worship set. Tuesdays are devotional video, staff meeting and Boys Doing Life Together group. By Wednesday I am ready to drop.

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I have made Wednesdays an actual Sabbath where I am being very strict about not leaving the house.

WHAT IS THE MOST BUSY PART OF YOUR WEEK?

Pastor Arts and Crafts

Pastoring has many complexities. Most of those complexities have to do with personalities and characters. Most of the jobs I actually do are fairly simple. Today for instance, I was pastor of arts and crafts.

Our current outreach for boys, ministry, DLT is making cards for Veterans Day. I spent the morning adding stickers and gluing colored pictures to homemade cards.
This afternoon, Melanie, Kristine and I attended a harvest festival at the Winchendon community Park.
We made a life sized paper scarecrow.
We named him Lillie Lizard
And we are hanging him in our front door in honor of my birthday month

All Hallow’s Christmas Decorating

Halloween is not really my holiday. But it’s a big deal around here so we often try to find alternatives to celebrate the day. Over the years, we’ve done all kinds of things. We’ve done harvest parties, day, trips, to Boston, trunk or treats. One year we even got kids gospel tracks and handed them out along with the candy, anything to sort of Christianize the day.

This year we bought lots of candy, put it in big bowls on the porch for the kids out trick-or-treating, and we decorated our Christmas tree. Amanda made our traditional Christmas tree, decorating food, beef, pinwheels, and veggie pizza. Joe and Kristine bought eggnog and three different kinds of juice and soda, I made an American chop Suey and we feasted. And we put decorations on the Christmas tree while greeting our neighbors as they came around.

It was a great night, and the beginning of a wonderful family tradition

Last Days, First Days

Season changes always create a conflict in me: The last days of one thing, the first days of another.

We are heading into the last days of autumn here in Massachusetts. First frost and maybe snow fly are scheduled for next week.

I had an opportunity to drive down to Wilbraham, for a pastors meeting, this week. The leaves were beautiful. So I took several opportunities to stop on the way home to take some pictures, some memories of the fading season.

Overlooking Quabbin Reservoir, near Amherst, Massachusetts
The Tully. River and Tully Mountain. Tully, Massachusetts.
Tully Pond
Doane‘s Falls, Royalston, Massachusetts
My own backyard

TO THE WEDNESDAY SABBATH

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Ministry has shifted again. I think this shift is at least for the winter. About a month and a half ago I moved my day off from Monday to Wednesday. Mondays became a morning Doing Life Together Group (our church’s small group Bible studies) and a worship devotional session at TWR House Of Prayer.

The schedule is now:Sunday church, Monday teaching and service work, Tuesday staff meeting pastoral meetings and Royal Rangers and somewhere in this I have to make sure my sermon is put together and sent off to the admin staff for power pointing.

The last several weeks I have been working on Wednesdays as I transitioned out of other ministry responsibilities. Last night was my first Ranger meeting and today is my first Wednesday Sabbath for real.

I got up this morning after the last three days of ministry and realized just how much I needed a sabbath.

I have known for many years how important sabbath is for the work of ministry. That said, it has been something I have pushed off many times for the necessity of the work. This new schedule is not going to permit that. I toyed with the idea for a while of keeping a couple of work items in the mix for Wednesdays. The way I feel today shows me just how much I will need this.

WHEN IS YOUR SABBATH?