Charge Conference Love Letter

When I walked through the magic doors back in May 2008, it was love at first sight. I loved West End United Methodist Church, and love her even more today.

I love the grandeur of the architecture—the solid foundations and walls, the beauty of the cobalt blue stained glass windows and the way the light playfully shines through with the diverse colors reflected on the stone walls. Add to that the way the organ makes the sanctuary an instrument unto its own, plus the choirs and quality of worship—well, it is a breathtaking reflection of our transcendent God, who fills up spaces with sacredness.

I love the value West End places on spiritual education. The congregation had great foresight and intention by building its education wing with utmost priority, choosing to work on the sanctuary secondarily, at great personal sacrifice in the midst of economically dark days.

I love the value of mission, and the vast resources we invest in people, through our gifts of time and money to organizations, the dental clinic, Bethlehem Center, Habitat builds, Room in the Inn, our work with the prison and its families. The list is as long as our heart. Where there’s a need, we will step up to the plate.

And I love the grace that radiates from our congregation through her core values, particularly that God’s love is unconditional, and that all does indeed mean ALL here at West End.

So here’s the rub. I loved West End with such a passion that I excluded all else from my life. I believed that was a grand and noble thing to do. When I arrived from Texas, I threw my all into this position. Every waking moment was spent thinking about Christian Formation at West End. When I wasn’t in the church building, I was at home on the computer working. Looking back, I think West End was glad for all my care and nurturing, because they were tired, having come off of some rocky, emotionally draining times when I arrived, and were more than happy to let me do the work. That’s not the healthiest of balances, however. I was too busy to see the bigger picture—making sure the Solid Rock Café was lively with lots of program offerings for Wednesday nights, shoring up a waivering Disciple Bible Study ministry, collecting resources and figuring out ways to strengthen the adult Sunday School classes. I’m proud of those accomplishments, because the hard work has

1) Re-established a strong Disciple ministry, where students are not only learning about the Bible, but teachers are pushing them to apply the information in transformative ways. Today, I’m extremely proud of the classes we have—the epitome of the power of safe places for vulnerabilities to be shared and where true growth in discipleship can happen.

2) Developed a way for Sunday morning class leaders to share resources and class offerings with each other through a weekly e-Notes correspondence, that includes curriculum ideas, teacher helps, missional opportunities, inspirations, and a weekly prayer.

3) Developed an Adult Resource Center on the third floor filled with study books, video series and other materials from which to draw.

4) Started two new Sunday morning classes, saved at least two more from imminent death, and with the growing young adult classes, we are seeing close to 239 adults in a class on a given Sunday morning compared to the 160 number back in 2008—which is a hefty increase of what I think is close to 50% per cent in four year’s time.

5) This past year we held a women’s prayer retreat, and at least two lives were changed in a dramatic way during that weekend, one being called into ministry.

6) We also had a short, but powerful and touching Blessing of the Animals service in October, which brought out many tears and lots of doggy kisses!

7) And last but certainly not least, seeds were planted for a ministry that will also transform lives in powerful ways, that being the development of the pilot program for Covenant Discipleship groups. 35 people studied under the tutelage of Dr. David Lowes Watson, and it looks like come December 5^th, with the continued help of our intern Jonathan Carle and our new affiliate, Steve Manskar (who heads the ministry at the Board of Discipleship!), we will have three solid covenant groups, all of whom will dedicate their lives to acts of compassion, justice, mercy and worship. I can’t begin to tell you what the fruit of that kind of depth of Christian living will bear out, but it is most exciting.

I share all of this good news to let you know how very blessed I have been to do ministry here at West End. If I had it to do over again, I would have shared the hard work—it has taken its toll on me, and that came as a great surprise when I found myself fairly exhausted, which was not healthy for me or for the church in the long run. That’s been a hard lesson learned.

Wise persons say if you love something enough, you will love it enough to let it go. When Michael and the chair of the Staff Parish Relations Committee came to me in early August to let me know that my salary was needed to help restructure the staff for the stronger, you can imagine my grief. One doesn’t love something so passionately to give it up easily, but I have come to realize that if I love West End enough, and if I trust God will take care of us both, then of course I can let her go. You see, in my passion for West End, I had forgotten that as a pastor, I am just a midwife, not the mother of the baby—and West End is not my baby. There are necessary endings, and this is one. As Thomas Merton once said, now, since all things have their season, there is a time to be unborn.

I am not sure where God will send me at the moment—or the United Methodist Church, for that matter. But I trust God, and I know you will too, as you are a faithful congregation. I will always love you and give thanks for you.

Let’s bow our heads:

Today we give thanks for it all,
Though we do not understand much of what we see,
We surrender anyway....
We trust in the Goodness of Life,
We open to the One that breathes us,

To the One who has given us one more day
To feel so alive and free.

Grace and joy,

Julie