Passing the binoculars

I think one reason we like the start of a new year is because we allow ourselves a perspective shift.  We peer ahead through imagined experiences we are yet to have and we think about how we can impact our lives in a fresh new way in the months before us.  Sometimes we might wish we had binoculars that would allow us to look beyond the horizon.

The past 22 and a half years I have felt it was my job to hold the binoculars and peer into the future for Parkview, to survey the landscape and the changes in the culture.  By God’s grace you and I have a had a pretty good partnership I think.  You allowed me to lead in the crafting of a vision while you made it clear you would handle the details. As most of you know now, I will be leaving Parkview (and most likely church ministry) at the end of June of 2019.  I believe the timing is right.  It has been a privilege to walk along with most of your generation of Nisei at Parkview as they traveled their final miles on this earth. I could not have wished for a kinder group of parishioners or ones with greater integrity.  I arrived when there was one Issei woman left.  Now there aren’t many Nisei in the pews anymore. Others have taken up their places. So my time at Parkview spanned an entire generation. That is sufficient.  When I came to Parkview I made the congregation’s willingness to move from a Japanese American congregation to a multicultural one my only condition.  That task is now complete and you can even say you are “intercultural” as you relate to each other as if the other’s ethnicity or culture is no longer a factor, as it should be.  The wishes of the exploration groups for Parkview to be more inter-generational are coming to fruition through our pastoral residents as is the desire for Parkview to interact more with your community (3 I’s: Intercultural, intergenerational and interactional).

Some of you may wonder why I stayed this long.  You as a congregation deserve the lion share of the credit for that.  Frankly, I did consider leaving earlier several times, but whenever the time for announcing came closer something always happened that convinced me my leaving would not be good for the church.

I am now passing you the binoculars for the future of this church.  In the coming six months it will be my duty to help keep the ship steady for transition.  It is you who must now peer toward the future and observe the landscape and the obstacles and the writing on the wall until you have a new pastor to assist you with that.  Leaving you with pastoral residents and the potential for one last resident (the program is funded by Presbytery to a maximum of $17,000 per year until the end of 2020) gives you more choices about how to run the church as your search for a new permanent pastor. I wish you all a Happy New Year. Thank you for your kind wishes for ours and thank you for the honor of  serving you.

I will not be taking any more study leave (as it is not bankable and will no longer benefit you), but I plan to be taking more vacation time than usual as I still have quite a bit saved up. I do not want to leave you with any financial obligation to me.

Please consider attending our annual congregational meeting after coffee hour on Sunday January 13th which will culminate in a visit from Rev. Jim KItchens, the Presbytery of Sacramento’s Interim Presbyter, at about 12.30. He will discuss your options and answer your questions. May God bless your ministry. See you in church. Aart