Pastor Myles Thompson
Hello Members and Friends of Head of Christiana,
As summer draws to a close and we round the corner into fall, I’d like to thank all of you who have participated in our conversations with Rev. Dr. Len Hedges-Goettl. Having been present for each of the groups, I think it’s fair to say that most of us considered it a helpful and enlightening process. I hope you all have had a chance to read Pastor Len’s report that I had Nancy email out. We will have a chance to discuss Len’s insights and our experience of his work with us at our salad luncheon after worship on September 27th. But, before then, I wanted to talk about some key takeaways from the experience that have sat with me, that I would invite us all to meditate on as we move into the fall: faithfulness, vocation, and trust.
Time and again in our groups, members would mention that there have been moments when they’ve considered leaving the church for one reason or other. And yet, and yet, and yet!—they keep coming back! For whatever reason(s), this congregation has become home for you, its members. The faithfulness you demonstrate in your service to the church, even in your just being a part of this body, even if it always hasn’t been easy, is a beautiful thing to behold. I believe that whatever your reason for calling Head of Christiana your home, there is a reason you’re here, and there is a reason we open our doors week after week and year after year. Which leads me to my second keyword: vocation. Each of us here, from decades-long members to me, your year-and-a-half in pastor, have been called here. There may be what you might call “proximate” causes for this, whether it’s the convenience of living across the street, or the Presbytery suggesting I consider this congregation for my first ordained position. But, as Presbyterians, we believe that God is ultimately the one who calls us—calls us to faith, calls us to faithfulness, calls us to the communities that we call home. And part of our common vocation, our common calling, in this congregation, is to practice a genuine, heart-felt ministry of welcome. Of acceptance. Of radical hospitality. Fellowship here blurs the lines between a free association of individuals and, dare I say it, family? That is an increasingly uncommon thing these days, and it is a truly wonderful thing.
It’s easy to lose sight of that if it’s what you’ve known for years, but not every congregation feels like family. Not every church feels like home. (Not even every “good” church). Based on our conversations with Len, I believe that that is our calling as a church: to practice the radical hospitality that we’re already so good at, to lean into it, and continue to be a worshiping community where anyone can belong and feel like they belong. And so we get to my final takeaway: trust. I trust that the God who has been with this congregation for over three hundred years is with us still, and will continue to guide us, to walk with us, and abide in us, into the future. I trust that by listening to the Holy Spirit’s call on our lives, to be who we were made to be and how we were made to be, God will bless this church, and, through it, bless our community, empowering us and inspiring us to truly love our neighbors in an age when most people just want to build a longer fence or a taller wall, even as their increased isolation and loneliness are slowly, but surely killing them. And I trust in the faithfulness that God has graced each of you with, the faithfulness that inspires and strengthens me to do my job as your pastor, to partner with me, with one another, and, ultimately, with God, in discerning how he is calling us to be a welcoming, loving, faithful congregation in the eternal and universal body of Christ into the next three hundred years. Amen.
In Christ’s Peace,
Pastor Myles
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