THE PASTOR’S THOUGHTS….

Dear People of Grace,
Sometimes the things that seem so small and insignificant turn out to be life-changing choices and momentous events when looking backward in time. When I was a boy of about fourteen years of age, a German lady moved into our small town in northern Minnesota. She was married to an airman who was stationed at the local radar base. It was about that time that I became interested in learning a foreign language, and, since my small school didn’t offer any foreign language until the Junior Year, my mother suggested that I contact the woman to see if she would be interested in teaching me. She was interested, and I started going to her home for personal tutoring in German. When I went to college, I took more German, spending a year studying at the University of Bonn in Germany and eventually majoring in the language. I earned my Secondary Teaching Certificate but never used it, for it was about that time that God got a hold of me and sent me off to seminary. Bethel Seminary in St. Paul had a college on the same campus, and since they taught German there, I ventured over one day to present myself as a free assistant to the German professor. A year later, when the intended replacement for the German professor backed out of a contract, I was asked to take over the whole German program, which I did. One of the bright young students in my Beginning German course was a beautiful blonde who caught my eye. After she had earned her minor from me, I proposed to her. She said yes, and we were married. After raising four children and 30 years later, Jill and I moved here to Spring Hill to meet all of you.
Little did I know that taking a few German lessons from a lady in my home town would lead me to the love of my life and to friendship and family and beautiful memories. That’s the way it is—such significant things come from such seemingly uneventful choices when we look back on them. No doubt all of you can find the same in your own lives.
On the 22nd of March, 2009, the people of Spring Hill UCC gathered at a congregational meeting to consider adopting a Statement of Inclusiveness. For most it was a wonderful event when those present adopted the Statement with a 98% approval. Even so, the day will probably not be touted as one of the “mountaintop experiences of the congregation’s life.” It was simply a choice to be open and affirming of all people. I personally believe that what happened on that Sunday will have immense significance for the way our congregation does ministry and mission in the years to come. No, we will not “veer off” and become a single issue church; the whole point of the statement was to be inclusive, not exclusive. And yet the public pronouncement that we are open to people of all ages, races, genders, ethnicities, sexual identities, health condition, economic status, and family structure makes us unique in the Spring Hill/ Brooksville community. From now on we will be actively seeking to open our doors to whole segments of the population that may have felt alienated or marginalized. By checking those little white ballots “Yes,” we have set ourselves on a journey to become more sensitive to everyone and to become the face of Jesus to all who are seeking to know God. None of us can possibly know at this moment in time what that will mean, but this much I can affirm: the importance of what we have chosen to do will grow mightily in the years to come. It is like the proverbial mustard seed; once rooted it becomes the largest of plants, offering safe haven to an amazing number of birds. We have planted the seed. Our task is to grow into what we have affirmed, learning what it means as new opportunities arise and remembering not only to say we are open, but to live out that openness and affirmation in everything we do. Then, when we see the multitude of people who come to find God in the “tree” that blooms, we will know just what we have done. Pastor Carlan