My time is drawing to an end as your resident pastor during this maternity leave for Pastor Bekki who will be back in the pulpit on June 11. It has been both a privilege and a joy to serve with you during this time. Pastor Bekki took great care in putting so many details in place before she left that it made my job easy. Stepping out of 11 years of retirement back into weekly work routines and congregational dynamics was actually very rewarding. Much of that is because you folks at St. Peter’s have been such a delight to work with. I am so grateful to Janine in the office for keeping me on track with what needed to be done, and for the leadership of the deacons, council members and committee chairs who have all gone above and beyond normal duty to make this time work.
St. Peter was a fisherman and that seemed to be exactly the skills and temperament Jesus thought he needed to help build the Kingdom of God. Jesus has called together a remarkable set of talents and skills among the members of this community of faith (and I have yet to meet a fisherman!), along with an eagerness and openness to explore what God intends to accomplish with you. I have appreciated the balance in ministry you display between the loving care of one another and the thoughtful and intentional outreach to those beyond our fellowship. 1 Peter 4:10 has good advice for us: “As each of you has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
Pastor Bill