Through the course of this year, I have been marking a series of “lasts.” A week ago, I presided over my last communion service as your pastor, and this is my last Pastor’s Pen. This season, as my ministry here at TCC draws to a close, has been a time of reflection and evaluation of the past thirty-two years of sharing in ministry with you, and the past forty years as a part of the TCC family. As should be expected, there have been good seasons and difficult seasons. As I sit quietly before the Lord and review these years, I am well aware there are many ways in which I have fallen short, and I am grateful for his mercy, and your mercy, in my shortcomings. I also rejoice that there are other ways in which God has used the gifts he’s given me to build up the body here at TCC and encourage those who have come and gone through these doors through the years. Through all the ups and downs, and failures and successes, the one thing that has been constant is that God is faithful. He is faithful in our joy and faithful in our sorrow; he is faithful to use us in spite of our weaknesses; and he is faithful to continue the work that he has begun among us as a congregation as times and seasons—and leaders—change.
I am also grateful that God has placed Pastor Brian here, to continue to lead TCC forward as you continue to grow up together in Christ (Eph. 4:15). Pastor Brian has been a faithful companion and support in ministry, and I have been tremendously blessed to have him by my side. Not only has he been a support to me, but I have also been able to witness for myself the godly man of character he is. He and I have spent many hours together, many of them in prayer for you. God has given him a passion for the things that matter most, and I have every confidence that, under his leadership, TCC will continue to thrive. He loves you with a love that only Christ can give, and his desire is that you should have more of the richness of Christ, and experience more of the fullness of Christ in your lives, and more of the joy that comes with a life that is poured out for Christ. I am excited for the new ways that God will continue the good work he has begun in you through Pastor Brian’s leadership.
I have been praying for you as we have been working our way through this transition period, and especially as we approach the hand-off of the Senior Pastor ministry to Pastor Brian; and Sharon and I will continue to pray for you as we establish new roots and a new home in Ohio. As I pray, the Lord continually brings to mind Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians (3:16-21), which is my deepest prayer for you: “[I pray] that according the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and established in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
Pastor Jon