A New Start

This week is our first week as part time staff at Mercy Church. I keep getting asked if I'm excited and I'm not sure exactly how to answer. There is certainly a sense of excitement in stepping into something new that seems such an answer to prayer. There is also a certain sense of apprehension. I think the best comparison I've been able to come up with so far is that it's kind of like meeting members of your spouse's family for the first time after the wedding. There's a sense of understanding that we are joining a family and the usual concerns about what they will think of us and how well we will get along.

There's also the initial unease, mostly on my part, of giving structure to the ministry and setting up routines that will help us communicate with volunteers and other staff so that we're not always living this week to week, moment by moment existence where ministry is concerned. I'm all for flexibility, but a healthy framework allows for greater freedom to be flexible. Right now we aren't aware of what processes are already in place and so it's hard for us to just step into the flow of things this week and feel as though we are on top of things. I know this will get better, but I'd like to make a good first impression.

This change for us is a bit different in one other way; nothing else is changing. Since God called us into ministry, it has been a central focus for us. Ministry change has, to this point, meant greater changes (a move to Indiana, a move to South Dakota). This time, nothing else changes. We are living in the same house, working in the same places for our primary sources of income, Xander will be going to the same school... The only difference is in the area of our greatest passion and purpose.

I'm sure that my apprehensions and feelings about transition will be resolved shortly as we begin to enter into the life flow of a new Church family. More than anything, I feel grateful to God for helping us tread water for the last two years in sometimes choppy seas so that we could come to the point where we feel as though we are taking the first steps into why we were called here in the first place. I feel like our feet have just hit the sandy sea bed and we're making our way to the shore, a few awkward steps at a time. Soon we'll be on dry land and can begin to explore our new surroundings.