Introductions

After a somewhat unsuccessful attempt to maintain a blog for my church, I've decided it's just plan easier to keep one that is more personally mine. It will no doubt be similar to what I was writing for Jefferson UMC, where I serve, but also be a bit more casual, and thus, be more easily maintained! I just prefer speaking for myself rather than publishing "announcements" of upcoming events.

I must say I'm quite thrilled that Easter is over. It was wonderful, don't get me wrong. And at Jefferson, our kids and youth performed at the 9 am service, and it was awesome. But the short time between Chrismas and Easter this year was brutal. Really. And to be planning a wedding in the midst of that was rough!

So now, it's nice to be on the other side of it, but of course there's always something, and now is no different. My hope is that this blog will allow me to share with you some of what it's like for me, now as a young adult, female pastor in the United Methodist Church. I'm engaged at present, though my first two years, I was solidly single (like not dating, or anything...pretty much working 80+ hours a week!) And my now fiance...well, that's a whole other story I"ll have to write about later, but it involves me interviewing him for his current job!

Things have been crazy since I graduated from seminary in May 2005, then started serving as lead pastor on the Jefferson-Doubs Charge the next month. I have an assistant pastor serving at Doubs-Epworth UMC, and so I spend most of my time leading Jefferson UMC. We've seen some great growth, but our area is growing quickly and finding ways to reach the new people is challenging as we balance the things people are used to in the congregation. The interpersonal dynamics of any church is, as any pastor knows, challenging, and it reveals itself more and more the longer you're at a place.

I'll keep this blog up as often as I can, and I may end up posting more than once a day...so check back in, send your suggestions, and we'll see how this goes.

Oh, and if you're wondering why the blog is called "the Divine Passive," when I took Greek in seminary, I was intrigued by my professor explaining that when the passive form is used in the Greek, like "He was led to the desert," ("was led" being passive) is was called the divine passive...like it was evident God was known to be there as the one doing the action, even though "God" was never mentioned. That always reminds me, then, of how God is at work in our lives and our world in so many ways, even it's not stated, or sometime even clear. So that's how I think we live, in the midst of the divine passive...God at work!

:-) Sarah