Dear Christ Church Family and Friends,

I hope the start of a new month finds you and yours doing well.

I just got to experience my first Trunk or Treat at our church! Wow. What a great evening it was. It was so much fun seeing people from our church, school, and larger community gather and have a fun evening. More than 2,000 people participated in the event!!

Thank you to all of you who served in so many ways and who made it possible. A special thank-you to Pastor Monique, Susannah, Kerry, Lisa, and the rest of our staff and various leaders who worked so hard to make it a reality. I’m told that more than 100 volunteers from our church community and beyond made it happen. Talk about working together for something bigger than ourselves! Thank you all. If you didn’t get a chance to participate this year, make sure you take advantage of the opportunity next year.

Events and experiences like Trunk or Treat leave me so incredibly grateful to be your Lead Pastor.

In addition to Trunk or Treat, over the past month I have enjoyed spending time reading with our second graders at Christ Church School and with first graders at Tedder Elementary near our Parkway Campus. I’ve been inspired by our conversations and planning with our anti-racism group. Led by our Rainbow Alliance group, several of us went together to a film at the Fort Lauderdale OUTShine LGBQTIA Film Festival. Candidly, we all agreed that the film wasn’t that great, but the company and experience together certainly was. While we didn’t have much of a turnout from the immediate neighborhood when we handed out candy on Halloween at our Parkway Campus, those of us who were there enjoyed chatting with one another. I also enjoyed the opportunity to continue to get to know several of our key leaders at this campus. Our Grow Group between worship services in Fort Lauderdale has restarted. We had great conversations about the Bible over the past several weeks. Finally, our various administrative teams have been working hard over the past month to get ready for our Charge Conference on Monday, December 5, and to set us up as best we can for the start of a new year in 2023. (Yes, the holidays are here!!!)

Indeed, as I shared last month, I think relationships are the key to so much. The opportunities mentioned here (yes, including our committee meetings, lol), plus so many others, allow me to continue to get to know you all and hopefully you all, me. I’ll keep doing my best to not simply meet you but to actually get to know you. Feel free to reach out for a one-on-one if you’d like. Many of you have done that. I have enjoyed them!

In addition to building relationships with one another, all of these various opportunities create in me a sense of awe (I recently preached about this. Check out my sermon from October 30, if you are interested in hearing more about this.) However, it isn’t just awe.

This sense of awe leads me to a sense of gratitude. I am grateful because I genuinely am excited that I get to be here with you all serving as your Lead Pastor. I shared recently on my personal Facebook page that I have the best job. I’ve heard our Head of School, Tane, and Pastor Monique say this as well. (I think I’m right, but I digress). What leads me and others to say this isn’t that we love everything about our jobs or that every day is the best day ever. If only.

No, it comes from, I think, a place of gratitude. It is a recognition that we get to serve and lead with you all. It comes from a place that recognizes that you entrust us with helping to lead your spiritual lives, you entrust us to help teach and lead your children, you invite us into your lives to celebrate the high moments, to cry with you when you mourn, and clink glasses when we together recognize a job well done. This is holy and sacred work. How could I (and we) not be grateful?

The great news is that it isn’t just work that clergy or church staff members get to experience. This is the work that Jesus calls us all to do. We are all called and invited to recognize and experience the sacred work entrusted to us, as we uplift and care for one another, learn and play with one another, and share our lives with one another.

As we turn to a season of giving thanks, know that I give thanks for you. I am thrilled at what God is already doing with and through us all, Christ Church. I can’t wait to see what is next.

Have a blessed, safe, and restful Thanksgiving.

Peace,

Pastor Nathan