Dear Centenary Family,
I can’t thank you enough for all the cards you’ve sent as I’ve been recovering from surgery. Your prayers and support mean more to me than you know. I must confess that receiving such attention has always been hard for me. I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve never faced major surgery before and perhaps like some of you, am much more comfortable offering my prayers and support to others than receiving those myself. Pope Francis recently asked the faithful, as he does frequently, “Pray for me.” I realize that confessing our weakness, whether to face challenges of leadership or overcoming a challenge to one’s health, is a sign that we can humbly accept our own limitations and humanity. It is a sign that we recognize our inability to be faithful followers of Christ apart from the prayers and support of others.
All in all, my recovery has gone well. Not to be more descriptive than necessary, one of the side effects of this surgery is learning to control one’s bladder function. That’s gone better than I’d anticipated in some ways, but I’ve still got a way to go and am still somewhat anxious about venturing too far away from familiar surroundings.
I’ve gotten to start on some work I’ve been wanting to focus on during this time. I’m working on planning sermons for the upcoming months and am making some headway on that front. I’ve gotten to do some reading and listening to podcasts about the task of preaching that have been reinvigorating. Regardless of the changes we are experiencing as the church as we deal with the pandemic, the proclamation of the Gospel is the main task of the church, and therefore the main task for preachers. Bishop Will Willimon has made a point of this in a recent book on preaching and leadership. He says preaching is the main way pastors lead. But the purpose of the preaching of those ordained to that ministry in the life of the church is to empower the church—that means all of us—to be able to proclaim the good news to the world! So, regardless of all our anxiety about the form, shape, location, and technologies of the future church, our great joyful, unchanging task is announcing the good news of God’s love to a world in need of healing.
I have felt so fortunate these past few weeks to listen to the wonderful preaching of others who’ve been kind enough to preach in my absence. We are so fortunate to have clergy who are part of our congregation or friends of our congregation and are willing to preach for us.
I’m also starting to do some more research on how the church utilizes technology going forward. There are some good continuing education opportunities I hope to take part in soon with the hope I’ll learn more to share with others in our congregation who might be interested in the ongoing project of exploring how we continue to be both a church that gathers in person and a church that gathers online. I’ve got some writing projects I’ve wanted to pursue for some time and hope to make a start on a couple of those in the next week or two as well.
I’m so grateful for the hard work of our staff and our lay leaders as they help us continue our ministry. I miss seeing you and being with you. I’m looking forward to getting back in the office around August 9 and getting to work with you as we discern what the next chapter of our ministry at Centenary will look like. I know God has important work for us to do.
In Christ’s love,
Matt
