Pastor's Pen - June 2020

A message from our new Interim Pastor Sam Alexander:

Dear New RPF Friends,

I hope you are all doing well during these painful, disruptive, times – times that are though, ripe for enormous and long overdue change – fast change. I would have written that sentence before the George Floyd tragedy. This will be published 5 or so days from now. At the rate things are changing I honestly wonder if that sentence will be out of date by the time you read this. Things are moving that fast. But in those movements, I sense the Spirit at work. That’s always the way the Spirit works – the old must pass away before the new can come.

As I “take the reins” at RPF I thought I would tell you just a few things about myself. I’ll start with something unimportant. When I’m in a group and someone asks, “Tell us something about yourself that most people wouldn’t know,” I tell them I used to engrave stock certificates and foreign currency for US Banknote and before that I was a watchmaker at Tiffany and Co.

But more important is for you to know that I’m a person who has wrestled hard for his faith. I tell you this so you’ll know that I will never judge anyone for their questions or theological opinions. Nor do I insist that anyone comes to believe as I believe. How could I? We’re talking about what a scholar of old called, “a mystery about which naught can be said.” I can’t claim to be right, so why would I judge someone for what they believe . . . or don’t. It’s the conversation and the effort to grow and develop that counts for me, (and God too I believe). So, feel free to engage me; I could (and sometimes do) talk about faith and development all day long :-)!

People that know me best will tell you that my biggest gift is encouragement – not the kind of encouragement where you pat someone on the back. No, I look for what is beautiful and good within a person, even if they don’t see it themselves, and point to that as a way of encouraging someone. I’m looking forward to doing that with some of you! I love discovering people’s gifts.

I should tell you though that I’m not great at small talk. My brother-in-law tried to teach me once, (he was a master), and I do make sure to know the two teams in the Super Bowl so I can talk about that, but you’d still have to say small talk is not my gift. But that doesn’t mean I won’t try :-). It’s just that if conversation seems halting, it’s not about you!

You might guess that I’ve gotten feedback about this in the past :-). Let’s see . . . what else? Well by now you’ve already figured out that I have a quirky sense of humor and I like to have fun. My favorite Dr. Seuss line is, “It’s fun to have fun but you have to know how.” I say that because these next months promise to be difficult. The winds of change are blowing around the globe. They have and they will impact all of us. But we’ll walk through them together, seeking God’s thoroughgoing presence, comforting one another when things are hard and rejoicing when we see a way to make change. I’m looking forward to it.

Grace and peace, Contact me via email @ gracecomesfirst [at] outlook.com.

Pastor Sam