See the Church where the Land meets the Sea? It calls me…again.

A new adventure for Hacking Christianity.

I come back to the water, no matter how hard I try.

It was recently announced that I will become the new Senior Pastor of Edmonds United Methodist Church, a waterfront community north of Seattle. The Bishop expects my appointment will begin on July 1st, 2024.

I’ve served as the Senior Pastor for an incredible seven years at Seattle First UMC. Our third daughter was born here, my public voice was sharpened here, and my pastoral presence has been bettered by working with the amazing laity and staff in the congregation. I learned a lot about collectively casting a Vision and then accountability in meeting it. We endured the COVID-19 pandemic together in a way that only a techy pastor and staff could, and have since thrived in our return to in-person worship.

It’s heart-wrenching to leave the people I love dearly and the city of Seattle that I’ve grown fond of. I’ll be going to a larger community church that is a pillar of their community, with a child care center, a food bank, a history of social witness, a crazy amazing organ, and a Reconciling presence. Also, four pastors have gone from First Seattle to Edmonds (or vice versa) over the past two decades. I suspect I will feel right at home.

Everything is by design

Pastors moving and changing churches seems to be a cruel way to do church: transitions are hard and ministries can lose momentum during them. But it’s a critical component of Methodism’s success in colonial America and a critical need in today’s age of individualistic, make-your-own non-denominational churches (and now entire denominations).

Rev. George Cookman in 1839 says:

When pressed with the question, ‘What is the grand characteristic, the distinctive peculiarity of Methodism?’ I would answer, It is to be found in one single word, ITINERANCY. Yes, sir, this, under God, is the mighty spring of our motive power, the true secret of our unparalleled success. Stop the itinerancy, let congregationalism prevail for only twelve months, and Samson is shorn of his locks, and we become as other men” (Russel Richey, 246).

I agree. It’s a shared life as a UM Minister.

The Voice Inside Sings a Different Song

The image above shows the locations of my ordained ministry career. Over my 18 years of ordained ministry, I will have served five churches in four different conferences: from Catholic-heavy New England to solid Bible Belt Oklahoma to the secular “None Zone” of Oregon and Washington.

I feel unmoored at times, but I’m glad for the variety of experiences. It helps me to bring the evangelical drive to the secular parts of the world, and a progressive perspective to the Bible Belt. And I bring both of those to The Abundant Zone in the northwest, where locals know that social witness and discipleship go hand-in-hand.

See Her Light Up the Night…

The biggest shift in my practice of ministry will be going from a Cathedral to a Community church.

• Community churches are enmeshed in the “taste of the place” and draw their membership from their neighborhood or town, basically a few miles around the church building. There may be large percentages that come from further out, but community churches draw from…well, their communities. This doesn’t mean they are small: many are quite large! Just that their geographic community shapes their mission.
• Cathedral churches draw from afar as people travel long distances, past many similar churches in their communities, to attend that church. The vast majority of my congregants do not live in the community around downtown Seattle. Sometimes I call these “donut churches” as they draw from a big circle around the church and very few close in, but over the years we’ve narrowed that gap in my own congregation.

For the past 12 years, I’ve served Cathedral churches, ones that have their public witness and ministry shaped by the whole of the area. It helped me craft messages that reached across contexts, though community-building is much harder with a spread-out congregation. But even in that difficulty, I learned that relationships have to be intentional. You cannot accidentally create community in a cathedral congregation when you rarely will run into other church members in your local store (unless you are the pastor and you wear sweat pants JUST ONCE–ask me how I know!). But intentionally caring for relationships in a cathedral church (and failing some relationships along the way) will help me care for relationships in a community as well.

So my biggest shift in my ministry will be going from a Cathedral church experience to a Community church experience.

One day I’ll know, how far we’ll go

Methodists have the long goodbye and the long hello.

For the next three months, I’ll be in the process of saying goodbye to my church, while also being watched from afar by the new church as they check in on my public life in social media (it’s already started!).

It will be a time of finalizing projects, finding good hinge points for ministries, empowering laity to take on some of my roles, and laying the groundwork for their new pastor. And, within reason, keeping in mind the new church so we can start our new relationship strong.

Prayers for Seattle First Church over the next 100+ days and especially beyond. Blessings.

(Section titles inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda’s song ” How Far I’ll Go “)