“For I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing.” Jonah 4:2
How did I learn that God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and ready to relent from punishing? Yes, I read it in the Bible. But that’s not how I learned it. I learned about God by watching you.
This past week, when I was tidying up in my office, I glanced up at my certificate of Ordination that hangs on my wall. The date on the framed document made me stop and do some math.
March 14, 1999.
This month, I conclude 20 years of service as a minister, set-apart and ordained to proclaim the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I remember that Sunday evening service well. It had snowed that afternoon and I was worried about people driving to the service at the First Baptist Church in Asheville. The domed church on Oak Street in Asheville had been my home church while I was a teenager, and in college, and during my years in seminary. The people who gathered around me and placed their hands on my head and shoulders knew me and loved me, and I still feel their touch and their prayers to this day.
The community of faith that gathered to ordain me to the Gospel Ministry gave me a warning, however, as I began my career as a vocational minister. They told me to remember and to cling to God’s love and grace in the midst of hardship and difficulty.
This proved to be sound advice for I found that congregational ministry can be hard. Now, in full disclosure, I must confess that my early days in church leadership were rocky. I was more reactive to circumstances and challenges than I should have been, and I was frequently immature in my responses to the demands of full-time ministry. What kept me afloat in those early years of ministry were individuals in the churches that I served who were Godly, and who practiced Christ in their daily lives.
By Godly, I mean that these church members were gracious and merciful to me when I took the wrong tact in my ministry, or when I bumbled or neglected important tasks. These colleagues, mentors, friends and broader members of the faith supported me with a steadfast love that I neither earned nor deserved. Without this Christ-like love, I would have left the ministry many years before.
Without question, the First Baptist Church of Sylva has shown me what God’s steadfast love looks like. I have seen God’s grace and mercy in our church’s commitment and care for members of our community. I have felt God’s love in our church’s desire to provide hospitality to those who are hurting, grieving, and in need. I have seen God’s face in our church’s willingness to give second and third chances. I have been humbled by our church’s practice of caring for others when most others wouldn’t. I have been warmed by the loyal friendships at our church that have been nurtured through the years. First Baptist is gracious to a fault, as generous as my stately grandmother, Mabel Priester, and as Christ-like as any congregation I’ve ever been privileged to serve.
Thank you, First Baptist Church, for teaching me—and our community--about God’s steadfast love. I feel strong in Christ because of you.
And I’m certain that others do, too.