Pastor James Conley

  From the Pastoral Search Committee

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So much of life is a decision about how we view the events that happen around us. In the life of this church, we face the reality that Pastor James is going to transition into another form of ministry.            After all, if you are called to ministry you never stop being a minister, you just change what that                     ministry might look like. One of the more interesting things about the faith that we share is that it teaches that we are all ministers. Some ministers, like James, are simply called to be pastors.

So, just as Pastor James is changing what his ministry is going to look like soon, we too have that same      opportunity. So we all have a decision to make. Are we going to choose to see this with anxiety and fear, or we can choose to see this as an amazing opportunity to use all that Pastor James has equipped us with and continue on in new works of ministry. 1 John 4:18 teaches us this. “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” While the love that James has for this church, and for each of us is not perfect, he is human after all, it is so close that it is scary. Because of this, your pastoral Search committee               invites each of you to live into all that James has taught us and to examine and imagine how your works of ministry through this church may change, just as Pastor James is imagining the same thing. If we are being honest however, there is a profound sense of loss when someone so beloved moves on. I have good news however, James will never leave this church, so long as we remain. In the beginning of John, chapter 15, Jesus speaks about the vine and the branches. He goes on to tell his disciples, and to tell us, that He chose us to bear fruit and fruit that will last. The thing about fruit, is that it only lasts so long as it is still on the vine. The longest fruit vine in the world is the great vine at Hampton Court Palace. It was planted in 1768 and has grown to over 120 feet long. The tiniest grape at the end of the vine is still connected to the roots at the beginning. James was planted at Delta First Baptist in 1994, and the vine of his faith and  inspiration is surely long, and will grow longer still, yet each and everyone of us that he has touched, so long as we continue in being fruit that will last, will always remain connected to him, just as James is still connected to those who inspired him, going back to the very roots of the vine, Jesus the Christ. Again, we have a choice: we can lament that a part of our personal vine is smaller, or we can rejoice that the vine our Savior started is growing longer as James continues on in  ministry. It seems the wisest decision to rejoice that the vine that connects us all will grow to new   places we can not even imagine yet. Finally there is a temptation to think that we are losing Pastor James, but nothing could be further from the truth. The prophet Isaiah communicated the word of God to God’s chosen people, to you and I who are grafted onto that vine as well, “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hand,” Isaiah 49:16. Surely nothing that God holds in His hands is lost. It may be true that we are parted for a time, but never lost. Whether we meet again here, or here after, the great promise of scripture, and the blessed hope of Christ’s glorious appearing, ensures we are never lost, and will be together again. Your Pastoral Search committee invites you to, with us, rejoice at the new and unimaginable opportunities that lie before us, and Pastor James, and to live into the excitement of what good work the Lord has prepared for us all. God bless.  

Written by Scott Fritzsche, Member of Pastoral Search Committee