Hello Gloria Dei!
We recently had a Lent trivia competition at one of our staff meetings. Did you know that the word “Lent” means spring? Some of us knew this, others of us didn’t, a few of us were disappointed to find out it was such an ordinary word. That’s it?
That’s it.
In the church, we sometimes talk so much about new life that new life starts to be rather ordinary. Oh, that’s it? We might say, to hearing the Good News again. As if that’s it.
In 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul writes about new life. He says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being.” New things! We who are fed regularly with good food sometimes forget how good it is to have good, nutritious food, but here it is: God makes all things new! Good news that is good and nutritious.
Two years ago, I was called to serve Gloria Dei as the Executive Pastor. It’s been a good call for me! I have appreciated being able to use, stretch, and grow my administrative skills and to support staff in the fine work that they do here. I have enjoyed and learned from my pastoral colleagues and fellow staff. I have found satisfaction in being a part of hiring processes here, delighting in finding new and gifted people to join our Gloria Dei team. At the heart of it, though, is always the proclamation of the Gospel and the gathering of God’s people. I treasure the work of the Gospel and getting to proclaim it alongside the people in this place.
But look – a new thing!
Last Sunday, Southwood Lutheran Church in Lincoln, Nebraska, voted to extend a call to me to serve as their senior pastor and I have accepted that call. I have accepted it not because I do not want to be at Gloria Dei – I enjoy my role here! – but because the need for pastors with experience to serve in senior roles is great. I have experience and can serve in such a way and so I am listening to that need and the call of the Southwood congregation. With a lot of prayerful discernment, I have decided to go.
I will be at Gloria Dei through Easter and the end of April. Thank you, Gloria Dei, for welcoming me and allowing me to serve here for a time. Thank you for being a church that sends people (all of us!) to proclaim Good News wherever we are. We are a church that goes. And so we do! It speaks well of a church when a pastor does not need to leave or even want to leave but is equipped to leave and, responding to a call, serve somewhere new. Gloria Dei is a sending congregation!
Wherever we are, though, we can trust that God will continue to make all things new, which frees us to cling not to the old for our safety and security but to Christ, in whom all things are made new and our life is secure. No matter what! An extraordinary promise that happens in our ordinary, everyday life. Thanks be to God.
See you in church.
Peace,
Pastor Heidi
