Hello First Presbyterian Church,

This is my last Reverend Reflection before my family and I depart for Ohio, and I want to use this space to simply say, “Thank you.” 

I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve you and to know you these past five years. It has been a great privilege of mine to have served as your pastor, and I am thankful that you gave me this opportunity. You took a risk in hiring me as your pastor. I had never served as a pastor on staff at a church before First Presbyterian Church. My only experience had been as a chaplain in a hospital or as a pastoral intern, but by God’s grace you took a flier on me. For that I am profoundly grateful. This experience has changed my life.

It is my most sincere prayer that I have served you and our God well. I know my faults all too well, and I know that you also witnessed them in me. It is my comfort that God deals with me according to his grace and love, and I thank you for dealing with me in the same spirit. You bore with me and showed me love during my time at First Pres. I can only hope that I have honored your love through my labor on your behalf. 

May you continue to grow in the likeness of Christ long after I am gone and may the next pastor benefit from having served here as much as I have. I am confident of this hope, because I am confident of Christ’s work in you. 

You will always hold a special place in my heart and story, and you will always be in my prayers. I hold much love in my heart for you, First Presbyterian Church. Thank you.

The Lord bless and keep you, now and forever, world without end.