In Real Life from First United Methodist Church of San Diego, California, United States for Friday, 29 May 2015 "What Is Church?" by Pastor Greg LaDue, Director, New Life Center
For about a month, I have been aware that many things I am doing pastorally I am doing for the last time.
Whenever things come to an end, we are aware that certain things will be done for the last time. On May 20 I presided over my last Vespers service and that was hard. That service has been a place where I both worshiped and led worship. This Sunday, May 31, Pastor Elbert and I will share in our last worship with you.
Some time ago I read Barbara Brown Taylor’s Book, Leaving Church--her journey of leaving the parish ministry. I understood her sense of longing for the familiar and yet the call to a new place in her life. I am not leaving the church, I am leaving a community that is the church.
Church in not a place, a building, and especially not an institution. Church is connection to God, self, and those in a community. We share communion, not just in bread and wine, but a common union in the darkness of life when loved ones die, when children are born and the light returns; when people are joyous and when they are sad. We share this with each other and with God as a community that share the knowledge of, not just the belief in, something larger. We connect with each other and with God and we celebrate and mourn together and are connected for eternity. God is our shared point and we carry each other with the knowledge and trust in each other. We hold, cherish and carry each other’s lives and souls.
For sixteen years I have been among you and for eight years I have been deeply privileged to be a pastor to you. You have been my community. You have supported and believed in me when I did not believe in myself and I have been allowed into sacred space with you. I have been allowed into your lives. Nothing is more sacred, meaningful or bonding than this and I deeply appreciate it.
What I will always remember is the candles each of you held Christmas Eve that lights the world and your faces. What I cherish is each face that comes to have water placed in the shape of a cross on your forehead and to be reminded of your baptism and each set of hands that reached for the bread I held as we shared in communion.
What I will always remember is your dedication to something deeper. And the love I have felt from you that affirmed me. I cannot thank you enough for the friendship and connection that is community. May God continue to lead each of you in seeking that which is most meaningful; connection with God and those who seek God together no matter where we are. God bless you always.[Pastor Greg LaDue, Director, New Life Center]
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