Pastor Ben’s August Letter
Dear Friends in Christ,
You are most likely reading this in late July or early August – and I am out of the office. Rest assured: I wrote this before the wedding, and not on my honeymoon.
My mind has been focused for months on the wedding – everything has been about planning for the ceremony and reception, and sometimes for our trip to New Mexico afterwards. But now, with that in the rearview mirror, I can finally think about something connected to the wedding, but not the same as one: marriage. There is the party, the honeymoon, and then…the rest of my life. Weddings and marriages take different skills to do well. A wedding feels like an organizational (and financial) sprint. But the marriage is the marathon of balance, support, and connection that will last, God willing, for decades.
Long before I was thinking about my own wedding, I was thinking about our church merger as a wedding. And now, having planned both of them, I realize how accurate that was. There was planning and process, plenty of discussion, and it all culminated in a church service where we celebrated coming together. And then came the honeymoon, as we all enjoyed the sound of seventy people in worship, or the possibility of new friends. And now the wedding is over, the honeymoon period is drawing to a close, and we are establishing a “new normal”. Now the marriage begins. And what makes a good marriage? Trust, good communication, a team-player attitude, shared goals, making time for one another, not forgetting to have fun, remembering to keep God involved… It’s a lot of boxes to check!
As I pivot to August, and then to the fall, this is what I’m thinking about: how to make a marriage work. First, my own. Second, ours -the marriage that is Evergreen. It is never a passive thing. We are working on it together, as we move forward. And ideally God is at the center of it, making a partnership into a beautiful and fruitful covenant.
See you soon,
Rev. Ben