New Appointment

I'm getting better at blogging more frequently. It's a discipline to be learned, and is hardest when I don't feel I have much interesting to say. But last week, boy, did I want to blog...constantly. I couldn't, though.

Monday afternoon, I got a call. Honestly, I nearly didn't answer it since I didn't recognize the number (my phone broke a couple weeks ago, and I lost many of my contact numbers). But I answered it, and that call changed everything. The long and short of it is that I have accepted a new appointment as associate pastor of Calvary UMC in Frederick. Okay, that's the "short" of it, only. Last week was one of the longest weeks of my life. You see, it's not just a call, there's a whole process.

It starts with the cabinet (actually, it starts before that, but for our purposes, the main stuff starts with the cabinet and bishop) who meet, during this time of year, on Mondays. Appointments are a domino effect, so they can't all be done at once. A pastor has to have left before a new one can be appointed. All of this, of course, takes a series of weeks. So last week, the cabinet met and prayerfully discerned that I'd be a good fit for that position. That was partly influenced by a number of things, including (1) that position is already vacant, owing to the previous associate moving on, (2) I noted on my "advisory form" that I felt this would be a good year for a move, both for me and my current placement, and (3) God. Number 3 is really quite important all the time, but especially in this case because no one really thought this would happen. There are few retirements this year, which means few openings, and so I'd been cautioned by my DS (and a letter the bishop sent to everyone) that moves this year were unlikely in all but the most absolutely necessary situations.

So...however they arrived at that decision, I got a call, and the meetings started. First, since it's an associate position, I met Tuesday with Ken, the senion pastor there. Now Ken and I know each other quite well, since he was my mentor during my first three years of ministry. The funny thing there was that when he got a call telling him who had been appointed, he didn't recognize my name! Ken was at the wedding! But at first, he didn't know who he was getting. Fortunately, he seems to actually have been quite pleased when he figured out who they were talking about. Ken and I are definitely different sorts of personalities, but I think we'll work really well together, so that's quite exciting for me. Ken and I met, talked about the position, and decided to go ahead with the other meetings.

Now in all of this, I'm not to say anything. There are many reasons for this, including that at some of these points, there is the possibility for the entire appointment to come undone. Also, you don't want people to find this out through the grape vine. This was one of the hardest parts for me. It was difficult to be around people and feel like I was hiding something. Between meetings I had and rescheduling of events, I tried to avoid being in that situation at all. Meanwhile, my husband Chris was of course quite invested in all this. Though he didn't come meet with Ken with me, he dropped me off and milled about Frederick till I was done. Both of us were excited and nervous. I was a bit more emotionally frantic, so he is fortunately a naturally calmer person!

Next come SPRC meetings in the process. Normally you'd meet first with the SPRC (Staff-Parish Relations Committee) of the church you're going to, then the next night the one of the church you're leaving. Since Calvary had an already-scheduled meeting for Thursday, this made for quite a night! First, Chris and I met with the Jefferson-Doubs SPRC at 7 p.m., along with our DS and conference guide. We were there for about 30 minutes, then had to leave, and drive to Calvary where their meeting had started at 7:30 p.m., and they first dealt with other business scheduled. It was tough to share that I was leaving, but for folks this is not their first pastoral transition...for me, it is. It's certainly a very different experience to go from seminary into an appointment than it is to leave one appointment for another. Folks were gracious at the first meeting, and it was exciting at Calvary and folks were very kind and welcoming. Chris and I are very excited about it all!

That said, it will be a bittersweet few months coming, to prepare for the new pastor (who will hopefully be appointed and announced soon) and to try to leave things well. I will be trying not to do too much preparation for getting to Calvary, since I'm still now appointed as the pastor of the Jefferson-Doubs charge. There will be time enough for that...and at any rate, summer's a good time for these appointment changes since things are generally a bit slower and calmer of a pace. I will officially start at Calvary on July 1.

There are many other things going on, and today I'm trying to wrap my head around the coming months and get a plan in place so that nothing gets neglected. As slow as last week went, I have a feeling the next few months will fly by!