God Will Guide

I am a young pastor, and while I have been associate pastor for several years, and an interim senior pastor for a while too, I have never before held a full time senior pastor position. I should be quaking in my boots, but I’m not.

We don’t have a place to live yet, we don’t know the area, and we don’t have a way of getting our stuff to San Francisco. And we leave in a month. Yet I am completely ok with that. Before we leave I need to finish a year-long animation project, pack our apartment, clean, finish a master’s class, and prepare for the new church. But I am completely sure that God will lead me through this insanity I like to call a life.

Maybe if you knew how I came to this church you’d understand. When I first applied for churches I really felt that the ones San Fran and Sacramento are in were the ones I needed to apply for first. I also hedged my bets and applied to some 30 other districts, though. Before I sent out a single application I prayed that God would not leave me hanging without any options, but would lead me to where I was supposed to be, and I felt that God would do that.

When I got the call from the District Superintendent (high mucky muck) for the San Fran (Northern California District Church of the Nazarene, technically, but San Fran Dist is so much easier to type) I was told of three churches that were open and without praying, immediately wrote off New Start (where I am the pastor of now). I didn’t pray, didn’t think, just wrote it off as a bad fit.

And so another door opened up, with a decent church, but not the right fit for me. Then another option opened and immediately the first one closed. This continued for five months, with each church a better fit, but still not that good, and right before one possibility ended another would begin.

Then one day I was sitting waiting for a different DS to call with the vote of a church board when Dr. Calhoun (DS of Northern California…. Etc) called with the idea that perhaps I should take another look at New Start. I knew that another door was opening up and 15 minutes later the first DS called and before he said a word I told him the church voted close, but just barely against me and he agreed (though he was quite shocked I knew that).

After going to meet these people and interviewing with them and talking with them I cannot imagine a better church for me. The people are awesome, the situation is good, the setting is nice, the theology and culture are things I am comfortable with, it’s just amazing. And I am sure that God provided one opportunity after another until I finally came back around to where I was supposed to have been in the first place. And if God can keep my hopes up and lead me for six months because of my stubbornness, I am sure God can help arrange a simple move across country.