I am reading a wonderful book, Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordeiro which I highly recommend. As helpful as the book is -- with many insights to benefit veteran preachers --but the title i s wrong in describing my life. I'm not so much leading on empty. It's more like I'm leading on full. Too full. Overwhelm is still overwhelm.
This week, I had the great joy of hearing that there is no sign of the thyroid cancer I've been fighting all year. That would be joy a-plenty. But last Sunday, I also had the chance to worship as my daughter served her first Sunday as a United Methodist pastor. That was overwhelming joy of its own.
Christ UMC in Chapel Hill, NC where Christi is an associate. July 12, 2009
There are so many ways that both my daughters have made me proud and filled my heart with joy. On Christi's first Sunday, I was so completely proud of her. But I was also struck at how the world has changed since my first Sunday as a pastor 27 years ago. The changes I have witnessed in my life takes my breath away.
We have not arrived -- but we are so much farther down the path to godliness than the years of my growing up and early service. The hardships -- and there were many--have been worth the sacrifices and persistence. And not only gifted women like Christi -- but the church--will move on toward perfection in dimensions of holiness that earlier times prohibited.
I pray for Christi and for all the ministers -- male and female--who are beginning their ministry. The church needs all the excitement and exuberance and gifts and goals that they are bringing to us in these challenging times. Christ UMC has modeled the best kind of welcome and I have been blessed to be able to see it firsthand.
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