Greetings!
On September 8, 2002, First Congregational Church, UCC, Brimfield honored me by
calling me to serve as their pastor. This is my first pastorate as an ordained
minister. I graduated from Andover Newton Theological School in May 2002 after many years of working toward a Master of Divinity degree.
But I am not without ministerial experience. I have been both a commissioned and licensed minister in the United Church of Christ. I have been involved in non-traditional ministry doing mission outreach with homeless and poor individuals, but it was a ministry based in a parish. I served as an associate pastor for the twelve years that I was employed by the
Salem Mission.
Now I am answering God's call in a more traditional setting. I feel very confident that First Church, Brimfield is a good match for my current understanding of God's call in my life. Let me share with you two paragraphs from my profile:
For as long as I can remember, God has been at the center of my life. And since my early teens I have been in the process of discerning God's call in my life. The call as I first received it was not unlike the dawn chorus of bird song. Years ago, I heard the birds as a sublime symphony, wild and alluring. Today after a lot of training and experience I can pick out the individual singers and identify them by their song. Likewise, my discernment of God's call is more precise today, even as it remains sublime, alluring and even somewhat wild.
God's tug on my life is not compartmentalized. My whole life has been enlivened by the movement of the Holy Spirit as I have worked out what it means to follow God's will in my life. I have always believed that the door leading to the outside is the most important part of a church building. We are to live out God's call on our lives not just on Sunday mornings, but each and every day in every area of our lives.
You can imagine how my eyes lit up when I read in this church's profile that
they were looking for a pastor who would help to lead them out of the door and into the community!
This journey has just begun. I hope that you will consider being a part of
it.
Shalom,
Ian
