Message from the Pastor - Welcome Pastor Donna
On Sunday March 17 it was announced that the Rev. Donna Dempewolf will be taking the helm here at NUMC on June 30th.
Donna and I have worked together for years and we came into ministry at roughly the same time; she has a corporate executive background coupled with a passion for ministry leadership development. Her track record in our annual conference makes her a magnificent fit for who NUMC is, who you are called to be, and who you are called to serve. I could not be more pleased with this news.
If you would like more information about Donna, we have printed brochures in the church office with biographical information and ministry career highlights - I encourage you to stop in and grab one sometime soon.
She and I will be in touch and she will have visited one of our Super Wednesdays to get a feel for our character and general chaos those nights! That said, do not assume she knows everything that I or Pastor Jerad have done or the ways we did them - nor that everything Pastor Jerad and I have done and the ways we did them should continue! This will be a new era for the church, and I am glad for the fresh eyes that are coming to join you in ministry to the greater Northfield community.
As for me: by the time you receive this, I will have begun my new position at Interfaith Action of Greater Saint Paul as their director of Opportunity Saint Paul, a program connecting faith community volunteers with anti-poverty programs and agencies in the east metro area. Pastor Jerad remains on call as your appointed clergy, and he has both me and our retired clergy supporting him during these transition months. I will continue working with him as a volunteer for youth group on Wednesday nights. As for Sundays, my last Sunday preaching will be April 14th. Our formal farewell will be May 19th; we will be around through graduation Sunday June 9th, and we move June 11th.
Transition periods are always messy and lousy with loose ends - it is fitting that this moment coincides with the post-resurrection period of the church calendar, between the empty tomb and the ascension and Pentecost. The disciples are understandably trying to make sense of what Easter means, and why Jesus both is and is not with them, and wondering what happens next. While I am certainly not Jesus (!), I think the congregation would do well to think of itself as the disciples in the same "in-between" time.
So what did the disciples do in that messy space? They went fishing, they gathered for meals and fellowship, they talked and talked and TALKED about what it all meant, they bore witness to the miracles they had known, and they looked toward the future unsure, but together. They kept their eyes peeled for where Jesus might appear, because it was clear that the old rules no longer applied to how Jesus was going about his business in the world.
So while I am no Jesus, you are certainly the latest in the great communion of saints - you are today's disciples. Keep your eyes open for where Jesus appears among you; gather at the table; bear witness to what God has done in and amongst you; face the future with wonder. Lean into the truth that you already have everything you need to do what God calls you to do. And embrace Pastor Donna with readiness to be about the new thing God is doing here at NUMC.
Blessings, Pastor Rachel