Happy Anniversary

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. – James 4:13-17

I moved into my apartment last year on August 1^st in order to give myself a month to settle in the area, and get acquainted with my surroundings before I started here at CPC. I was extremely nervous to start this new job. Especially being a young pastor with this church being my first call. Something I have taught myself to do though, it to look towards the future. I do this before I enter into anything that makes me nervous. I ask myself, “How will I be feeling about this in a year?” What this question does is it allows me to put things in perspective. Because, sure, things can be pretty hectic and you can be pretty freaked out when you start something new. But eventually you settle in, and things get easier and you become better, and before you know it, a year has passed. So, in order to do this, I started a “Bible in a Year” plan, saying to myself that I would look back on the year at the end, and show that I had nothing to be worried about, because God has got me.

Well I finished that plan last month; I am writing about it this month though because September is our anniversary together! How exciting. I have, and still am, thoroughly enjoying my time as pastor here at CPC. All of you have been a blessing to me during my time here. I have grown immensely in ways that I have never expected to and I believe that our church has grown as well. However, the way I pictured this year going was nearly opposite of what I expected. Not only did a lot of things change in my personal life, but of course we have had crazy changes in the country and in the world. There is no way that the George of 2019 would ever have seen any of this coming. While thinking of these things it reminds me of what James says in his letter.

James in his letter is warning his congregants that, often, too many of them count their chickens before they hatch. This is especially true when it comes to business ventures, but also for everything else. He points out that this type of thinking put us at the center rather than God. Only God knows the future, and when we make statements about what the future holds as though we control it, we end up putting ourselves in the place of God. As we move forward together, we have to cultivate a spirit that is willing to not put our plans first, but rather to put God’s plans first. To be willing to roll with the punches and be dynamic in our response to changing times. So far, I think we have done this admirably and I want to encourage you all by saying that I am humbled and in awe of how we have handled the Coronavirus as a congregation. Yet Jesus says, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” So, there is always room for improvement. That being sayd let’s all say together that “If God wills, we will be back together soon.”

One last note before I close this letter. Like I stated earlier, I am immensely honored and humbled by being the pastor of CPC. I want to thank each and every one of you who have walked alongside of me and pushed me to grow. I am immensely thankful for all parts of the ministry: the worship, the laughing, the crying, the rebukes, the disagreements, the agreements, the challenging, the conviction, the cards, the exchange of presents, and of course the meals. Perhaps the meals have been the most rewarding. I just wanted to say that I love you all and, if God wills it, I look forward to many more years of fruitful ministry here at CPC.

In Christ,

Pastor George

Happy Anniversary Pastor George

We have been blessed to have Pastor George shepherding us through this past year. Our prayer for Pastor George for the upcoming year comes from Colossians 1:9-14.

Pastor George, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. We ask for your continuing wisdom to fall upon Pastor George this upcoming year. We ask all this in Jesus name, amen.