Life in Transition: Looking Back and Looking Forward on Ministry Together at Calvary
Last night our family attended a “meet the teacher” event at my son, Hayden’s, new school. Tomorrow, my wife will drop off our oldest child, Kayleigh, at the building where she will begin her middle school experience, so she can meet her teachers and other incoming 6th graders. Simultaneously, I will accompany my youngest child, Elise, to meet her teacher, as she begins the final year of preschool for any Wilks child. Very few people love change, most abhor it, but the reality is that life is often a series of transitions interspersed with short spurts of stability.
Four years ago this week, Bethany and I became part of Calvary Presbyterian Church, along with 7-year-old Kayleigh, 4-year-old Hayden, and 11-month-old Elise. Four years has brought significant change for our family, some of which was welcomed and others that were met with futile resistance. We’ve lived in two homes, had each child attend at least one new school, my wife has started a new job, and we’ve experienced a series of “hellos” and “goodbyes” during this time.
As a congregation we’ve experience significant changes and periods of transition, as well. We’ve said goodbye to folks that we love, and welcomed new faces who have become a significant part of our church family. We’ve welcomed new staff members, partnered with new ministries, and embraced weekly communion as part of Sunday worship. We’ve reached out to new neighbors and friends, and now we move into a new season of transition that includes the renovation and expansion of our facility, so that we might bring glory to the name of Jesus, not only in this generation, but in the next (Eph. 3:21).
In the midst of all of life’s transitions, we have a God, who in Jesus Christ is the “same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:12), and through the Father “does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17), and through the Spirit, “is with (us) always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
As I reflect on these four years of change, and consider the next 31 together (yes, I’m still threatening 35 years here), I can say with the apostle Paul, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ” (Philippians 1:3-6).
Thank you, brothers and sisters of Calvary, for your continued partnership in the Gospel through these years of change under the watchful providence of our God who never does.