June 2012

Dear Members and Friends of Longs Peak UMC,

I knew that this day would eventually come, the day I would sit to write my last lead article for the newsletter of the Church I have come to know and love so well. We have experienced so much together in the last seven years, and I am deeply grateful to God for the opportunity to have served you all as lead pastor of this
Church. I have been blessed with fellow clergy, staff, and volunteer leaders who have made this work a labor of love and this path a joy-filled journey. Finally, I have been blessed with hundreds of you in the congregation who have lovingly and, when called for, with some challenge accepted my pastoral leadership with open hearts and minds. We have shared joy and loss, ease and stress, laughter and tears, faithfulness and failure. We have seen the blessings of God in the life our church – some things growing, other things coming to an end – and we have welcomed many into life in Christ, which has been the deepest reward of my ministry here. And we have become deep spiritual friends.


My last Sunday as spiritual leader of the congregation will be June 10, 2012, after which Kim and I will be moving our household effects to our new home in Ft. Collins. I will then take part in Annual Conference and will follow that with two weeks of needed vacation time before beginning my new pastoral appointment at Ft. Collins First UMC in July. The three weeks of down time following our move to Ft. Collins will allow the Trustees to prepare the parsonage for the new pastor and the congregation to catch its collective breath before welcoming the new pastor on July 8.

Kay Lloyd, the Worship Committee, April Bauman, and the Lay Speaking Ministry will have worship leaders lined up to cover the interim period, and Pastor Amos will be on hand to provide pastoral leadership in that time period, as well.

As of June 11, our relationship as pastor and congregation will change dramatically. While I will always be your friend, I will no longer be your pastor. (Note this exception: I will be back in worship at the 10:30 AM service on Sunday, June 17, but it will only be to perform a baptism that had been previously scheduled for that Sunday.) I will no longer be available to you for weddings, funerals and memorial services, spiritual
direction, worship leading, or other forms of ministry. You will have a new pastor, Rev. Stephanie Muñoz, who will have the privilege of journeying with you in faith in the ways that I have over the past seven years. I ask that you do your level best to welcome this new pastor and help her in the process of beginning a new season of ministry together.

I realize it can be difficult to embrace a new pastor without feeling like you’re betraying the relationship we have built up over the past seven years. The flip side is also true: It is difficult for me to embrace a new congregation without feeling the same thing. And yet, the best reflection on our time together in ministry is not the lament that may accompany this change of pastors but the hope and trust with which we embrace God’s future.

Times like this remind us that change is difficult, but that it is a constant part of life. The good news is that change also brings with it an opportunity for growth and new possibilities. I fully believe that God is at work in the midst of the changes here and that this church’s best days are still ahead of it.

I ask you to pray with me for the successful transition of pastoral leadership in the three churches involved: Longs Peak UMC, Ft. Collins First UMC, and Berthoud UMC (from where Pastor Stephanie will be coming). By managing this transition well, with God’s help, everyone will be further strengthened for the common work we engage in to the glory of God.

On fire for Christ,

Pastor Steve