Dear Church Family,

Eight years ago today I began to serve as your pastor.  I preached my trial sermon in late January 2015 and the congregation subsequently voted to call me as pastor. Isabella was in the second semester of fifth grade at the time, and she was able to finish the school year at her elementary school in Hanover County.  We put our house on the market the first week of April and it sold the first day.  The new owners rented the house back to us until the summer, when we were able to purchase a house in Midlothian.  We moved into it that July and Isabella would start middle school that fall. 

It was as if everything happened in a whirlwind.  It’s amazing to think that three years of middle school and four years of high school are in the past.  Now we are parents of a college Freshman (GO DUKES!).  We are enjoying this chapter of life and are so thankful that Isabella is thriving in college.  I find it hard to believe that she is nearing the half-way point of her second semester!  If the past is any predictor, her college years will go quickly like middle and high school.

These eight years have seen many challenges if you think about it: a divided political landscape, structural racism and its manifestation in society, Charlottesville-2017, gun violence, three years of COVID-19 which took my dad’s life and over two million Americans, the twentieth anniversary of 9-11-01, many natural disasters, the Russian war against Ukraine, the refugee crisis and much more.  COVID-19 only exacerbated the decline of the American church and it has been an uphill climb for many, ourselves included.  When you consider the political, racial, cultural and social division, and cynicism over these last several years, and add the COVID pandemic, it is like trying to lead a church with everyday post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD). 

All of this has happened in a relatively short period of time.  And there is no magic formula to get over it.  We have to trust God to get us through it.  But we must not simply ask God to help us get through it.  We must do our part.  This means to focus on the basics of loving one another, caring for one another, helping one another and worshiping with one another.  We must ne sensitive to the needs of our church staff who have faced the brunt of these storms.  We must be sensitive to the anxieties of laity as well, many of whom have stood alongside our staff during these challenging years.  Our church members have sustained much grief in all of this.  Just working harder and being busier is not the answer.  Neither is this mindset sustainable, nor kingdom focused. 

As I reflect on all of this, the one word that comes to mind is “compassion.”  We just need to have compassion on one another – plain and simple.  During this Lenten season, will you pause and pray for your church staff, leaders, and for all the churches of Jesus?  Will you have compassion?  Will you give the benefit of the doubt?  Will you have some grace? 

Please live out the new North Star guiding statement for HRBC: “Loving, understanding and empathizing with our community . . . and the world.”  Let us begin within the church so that the outside community can see a positive example of a kingdom-based Church.  What a difference it will make!

Thank you to those of you who pray for our church and staff daily.  Thanks to those who have prayed for my family and me these eight years!  It is felt and appreciated! 

In Christ’s care,