Wesley Grove United Methodist Church
Transitions
“….for the former things have passed away. And he who sat upon the throne said, "Behold, I make all things new." Rev. 21-4:5
Dear brothers and sisters,
Greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is great joy and honor for me to become your pastor. I look forward to this new adventure in ministry as we serve our Lord together.
I know how stressful yet exciting time of transition to the new leadership is and would like to share a few thoughts on this subject as we start our journey together.
Preparing to the new appointment I took some time off to center myself spiritually and rest physically. I went with my family to Mexico where I had an opportunity to visit a unique place called Xel-Ha (the place where water is born). One of the most amazing things that I saw there were estuaries, places where fresh water of rivers pours into the salt of the ocean and forms a shallow tidal basins.
One thing fascinated me most about estuaries: despite the fact that life there must adjust to the continuing fluctuations of tide, temperature, and salinity, estuaries are the liveliest and the most fertile places on earth. Change that takes place there gives an enormous opportunity for new development and birth. It is interesting to note that a tide is a necessary force to maintain a dynamic relationship between the two waters and without it estuary will loose its uniqueness.
I often think of human life transitions as estuaries where edges of two entities come together, wrestle with each other, allow tides that represent Holy Spirit to do God’s work and give birth to something distinctly unique.
There are a lot of things happening in this process of transition. Michael Watkins, well known expert in the field of leadership development, once wrote, that “transitions are periods of great opportunity…But they are also periods of acute vulnerability. It is time when we are thrown off balance as we anticipate the beat of the future.”
In addition to that, for me personally, transitions are times of constant prayer and discernment of God’s will for the future, in this case for our future together. It is also time of listening to the stories and giving affirmations to the great things that God has done through the ministry of Wesley Grove people in the past. But foremost it is time of dreaming about even greater things that God calls us to do together as a community of faith in the future. Transitions are indeed full of great opportunities for transformation, if we let creative energy of the Holy Spirit to carry us to a mountain great and high (Rev. 21:10).
It is my hope that as our waters blend together to form new estuary and as tides that God sends us help us to maintain dynamic relationship, a lot of exciting things will happen: the healing of the old wounds will occur, trust will be build, risks will be taken, God’s Word will be proclaimed and disciples will be made.
In this time of transition I pray for patience and gentleness as we form our relationship. I pray for courage to be open and honest with each other in this process. I pray for holy boldness to dream big vision for the future ministry together in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May the peace of the Lord be with you,
Pastor Victoria Karakcheyeva
