Announcement Day

Today was Announcement Day in the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church and churches all across the conference learned about their pastoral leadership for the upcoming year. Daryl and I made the announcement at both Druid Hills UMC and at Belleview UMC this morning that our family will be moving this summer to Fruitland Park, Florida. We will be appointed as the co-pastors of Community United Methodist Church. 

 
This is a tremendous opportunity for our family. It has been our dream to serve together since we first received our calls to ministry in the fall of 1993. For the last few years we have told our District Superintendent that the only reason we would want to leave our current appointments is if we could serve together in one single congregation. At the beginning of this year it became clear that there would be opportunities for us to do just that and we prayerfully discerned that we wanted to move forward this year with God's calling wherever that might lead. It is a good time for this transition in our family as two of our boys would have to start new schools in the fall anyway - as Parker enters middle school and Davis enters kindergarten. And it is also a good time for this transition in the lives of both churches as things are stable with upswings in attendance and finances not to mention the strong lay leadership in both congregations.
 
But as much as we are excited about this opportunity, this transition is bittersweet as well. We've spent six years in ministry with the congregations at Druid Hills and Belleview. We've built great relationships and been able to accomplish all kinds of things together. We are so thankful for the privilege of walking alongside these congregations as their pastors. For the rest of our lives, no matter where we serve, we will carry with us the lessons we have learned here and the love that we have experienced from these two congregations.