Steve, Pastor Roger VanDerWerken, Me

I got quite a special treat today.  I came out of my office and was told there was a very important message.  Roger Vanderwerken, his daughter Christina and their friend Steve were on their way to see me.  Roger was the first pastor I served with when I graduated from seminary.  We worked together at Memorial Baptist Church in Cortland, New York.   He was/is a great guy with a heart for Jesus who loves to help people grow in their understanding and relationship with God.  One of Roger’s greatest strengths, and one of the things that helped me grow the most during the time I spent with him is the fact that he is very secure in who he is.  There are no games, no need to worry about people “stepping on toes”, we shared a common vision and were able to work towards it  very well together.  Roger helped me see and develop my strengths and I would not be the pastor I am today without spending those four years with him.  He left Memorial Baptist to return to the Navy and has served as a Navy chaplain for many years until recently retiring from the navy and now serves as a disciple making pastor for a large church out in California.

Christina and Dan

Christina was in Jr. High, maybe a freshman in high school the last time I saw her.  She has grown into quite the amazing young woman!  She is one of two masters trained biologists (there is a special name which you would be impressed with but escapes me now) in the state of California who study algae.  It was great to catch up with her and to see how she has grown and matured.  Steve was one of Roger’s friends who would pop in every now and then when I was at Memorial…it was nice to renew that friendship as well.  I appreciate Steve letting Roger and Christina “get away” the day before his daughter was going to be married…Roger was in town to perform the ceremony.

We had a great lunch together in downtown Kennett Square, talked like we had never parted company…when in fact we had not seen each other for over 10 years.  It is great to have such friends, to be able to build that kind of community…it is the kind of community and fellowship I hope to build during my time here at First Baptist.  Roger, Christina & Steve…I wish you nothing but the best and thanks for thinking of me and taking the time to stop by and say hello.

Today at 7pm I walked out of Corning’s Concord fiber optic plant for the last time.  In February of 2008 I showed up in Locust NC with no job, no home…nothing but a very real sense that God had led me to this place for a period of time.  I worked a couple of smaller, part time jobs until in May I was hired on at the Corning plant and began to learn about the process to make fiber optic cable.  I went from preaching and walking with people in times of need to being concerned about shutting a manufacturing plant down due to loss of airflow, water pressure or a power outage.  I have learned a lot about myself these last six years…most of all I have learned how God has been present to provide for me every step of the way.  There were times I have wanted to walk away, throw in the towel and at those moments I was given just enough strength to continue on.  I was granted a rare opportunity to see the world through different lenses, to live in a totally different way and it has helped shape me for the next season of life and ministry.  I am glad it is over…I am thankful for the opportunity…I am thankful for the way God has used Corning to provide for my family these past six years.  Driving out of the parking lot for last time was a bittersweet experience…I will miss some of what I left behind…most especially some of the friends I made as we worked side by side to produce the worlds best fiber.  Next time you are online or using your smart phone to check email…think of the people who work 12 hour swing shifts week after week, month after month, year after year to make it happen.  So often we take things in life for granted without ever giving any thought to the efforts and sacrifices of others that make so much of what we enjoy available.

Grace & Peace,

Dan

There have been a pair of Cardinals calling our yard home for the past month or so.  We have watched and tried to find their nest but they have been good at keeping it a secret.  Today I was working in the den and heard a racket in the front yard, I ignored it for a while.  After about ten minutes my head started to pound so I went to see what was causing the noise.  I found the mother cardinal with one of her offspring in our bird feeder.  The baby was constantly chirping, demanding to be fed.  Mother would pick up a few seeds and put them in the young birds mouth.  After a little while the father showed up, chased them both off…it looked like he was trying to get the young bird to try and fly.  I went back to work and about ten minutes later recognized the same racket outside as the mother and baby cardinal had returned.

I got some okay pictures through the living room window.

As I examine my life today, and look forward to the transitions that will occur in the days and weeks ahead it feels as if I am caught right smack in the middle of two familiar biblical themes.  The first comes from the writer of Ecclesiastes when he says,

“What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.  Is there anything of which one can say,  “Look! This is something new”?  Ecclesiastes 1:9-10

What has been done will be done again…we have packed our home into boxes before, we will do it again.  We have loaded a moving van before…we will do it again.  We have moved into a community knowing very few people before…we will do it again.  We will make new friends, start new ministries, find new jobs, shape a  new life in a new part of the world…nothing new under the sun.

And yet the writer of Isaiah says,

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.   See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”  Isaiah 43:18-19

Forget everything you know…I am doing a new thing!  You may think you know your way through what is to come but if you would simply trust in me you would be surprised at where I take you…at what you will experience.  This is something new, you have never seen or even dreamed about what I am up to today.  Are you willing to fully trust, to believe that I want nothing but the very best for you?  Forget what you know, do not dwell on the past…my Spirit goes before you making “a way for you in the wilderness.”

[Read more…]

FBC Kennett Square

Today I accepted the call to be the next pastor of First Baptist Church, Kennett Square. I have been talking with the search committee for over six months as we have sought to discern God’s leading, guiding and directing. Our family is excited, nervous and looking forward to the challenges that come with packing up and starting afresh in a new community. I will be starting in early June with Nancy and Rayann following in early July while Joseph heads to NC state sometime in August. This summer will be marked with times of transition and change for our family…can’t wait to see what autumn will bring.

The article, Helping the “Healthy” crossed my screen this morning. In it Craig Barnes raises the point that our churches have developed plans and programs to reach the prodigals and help them return to the loving arms of the Father but there is another group out there that just a badly need to experience the love and forgivenss of the Father. A group who may find it harder to experience that amazing love simply because they aren’t aware of how much they really need it.

“…not being a flagrant sinner is a particularly seductive means of rebellion. This was essentially Jesus’ point to the Pharisees. Those who have notbroken the rules may be farther from the Father’s arms than those who’ve broken most all of them. Sin is anything that separates us from God, and nothing does that quite like not feeling the need for mercy.”

Remaining separated from God because we have luled ourselves into a sense of complacency or self-sufficiency by believing that we are “good people” who do “good things”. It may be our own thoughts or the words of others around us…but when we begin to believe that we have life all figured out and have put our house in order we no longer find ourselves in such radical need of experiencing the love of Jesus. [Read more…]

A lot of people have been asking really good questions about why I have chosen to work outside of formal pastoral ministry for a season.  It is a very personal decision, which I find difficult to explain in ways that others understand (or accept).  The best language I have found, at this point, to help people understand is the language of the two C’s.  What follows is the last newsletter article I wrote for Church in the Acres.

Three days from now I will be starting the first journey down to North Carolina.  I am filled with feelings of excitement, anxiety, sadness, loss but most of all there is a sense of peace that we are following God’s invitation for our family at this time.  Recently I was reading that we should not be surprised if people do not understand our decisions and actions as we seek to live in obedience to the Spirit’s leading in our lives.  Too often the only way we can begin to understand or process what God is doing in another’s life is to try to make sense of their behavior based upon our own experience.  The truth is that while there may be themes which are similar, or seasons that most people seem to progress through it is impossible for any of us to fully understand what God is doing in someone else’s life.  As I have sought words to help explain my journey and the decision Nancy and I have made to leave Church in the Acres I found myself talking about the two “callings”. Calling, with a capital C and calling, with a small c. [Read more…]