Now What?

It looks like I'm the NEU mann at Berea Lutheran Church in Richfield Minnesota!  As of July 1st, I am serving the congregation as their full-time Interim Pastor.  I am so excited to be back in ministry full-time!  Driving semi-trucks and big motorcoaches was cool for a little while but not really what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.  Since the time I was about three years old, I've loved the church and I've loved being a part of its ministries from the time I was a choirboy at my home church in Roseville, Michigan.
Berea offers me the opportunity to work with a well, established congregation that is in the midst of major transition.  It is a congregation that is looking for what they are calling, "missional leadership."  That amazing word is one of the popular buzz words in the Church today.  It has as many definitions as there are Christians who are willing to discuss it.  Since two pastors have declined their call to serve Berea, the call committee is returning to the drawing board and the leaders have asked that I spend this transitional time as their pastor.  So, over the next few months we are going to seek the Lord together and discover the movement he is making in this group of Christian brothers and sisters.  I bet we'll make more headway on the definition of "missional", in the process.  Friend's, I covet your prayers.  My role is to prepare the congregation for its next pastor.  Earlier this week I sat at the desk in "my" office and began with the question, "Now what?"  I had not anticipated this part of my life or this strange new role.  But, I want to start answering that question this week, on the basis of God's Word.