As I have visited with pastoral leaders around our synod over the past year the question has come up, “What seem to be the common threads that these leaders report about their vocational life?” Each visit is singular in its content and each leader has their own unique relationship to their call. Still, what I have heard is a deep love of the heart of the ministry of the church in word and sacrament. Leading worship and preaching seems to rise to the top of most lists.

This seems almost too obvious to be noteworthy, but for this. It is the way this love is described that tells the story. More than one pastor commented on the hands of parishioners, the hands which receive the bread of life. The very act of noticing these outstretched hands indicates to me the kind of intimate relationship that exists between pastor and people. And the act tells the larger story that I have heard from every leader I have talked to. This ministry – this vocation – it is about love, given and received. This vocational life, to recall the familiar Johanine term, is about abiding in love – the love between pastor and people and abiding in the larger love of the One who comes down from heaven for the life of the world. It is a great privilege to be a witness to this love.

In these fall days, when the church ratchets up its activity level once again, it is not a trivial thing to recall how in the midst of rally days, stewardship efforts, resuscitated committee life, and more we are all abiding in the one great love, which bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Peace

Pastor Lee Goodwin +