Weaving Together Our Beloved Community

“… Remember the joy God intends for us”

I am honored and grateful that you have called me to be your settled pastor at Pilgrim Congregational United Church of Christ. I look forward to our time together serving St. Joseph, southwest Michigan, and God’s good earth.

My hope is that we will do all that with fun and celebration. We can often forget that God intends joy for us. Jesus enjoyed life to the point where one of the accusations made against him was that he was a glutton and a drunkard. I’m not sure that rates with me stealing cookies from the church freezer but Jesus clearly did celebrate community life well. 

One of my favorite artist renderings of Jesus is one I remember seeing for the first time several years ago. His head is tilted back in uproarious laughter—like he just heard Mary of Magdala tell a great joke or he watched one of the disciples slip and fall for the fourth time. Better yet, maybe Jesus is laughing at himself as he fails miserably at trying to press olives.

With so many mainline churches losing money and members, we can get caught in a negative narrative that makes us feel like we are failing. I don’t believe that. If we do believe that, life in the church can seem pretty dour and disappointing. 

Instead, I hope we can make a concerted effort to remember the joy God intends for us—no matter how small we are. Coming out of pandemic (it will happen, won’t it), I want to be intentional about becoming closer to one another and making regular fun and celebration a big part of who we are. To the point where other people in St. Joseph might say, “That church on Glenlord and Washington sure has a lot of fun!”