It was our youngest child, Amelia, (soon to be 22) who brought up the anniversary moment. “Hey, I just remembered, it was five years ago, today, June 25th, that we moved to Benson!” Elaine (aka the Family Photographer) quickly located our last family picture, taken in June 25, 2019, on the front porch of the Saint Luke UMC parsonage in Laurinburg, NC.

I was immediately awash in memories of our history as a parish-family and the six very full years of ministry in Scotland County. Youngest son, Jadon (23), was born at Craven Regional Hospital in New Bern, NC, but Laurinburg, NC, is his adopted hometown. All the places we’ve called home, since the beginning of my pastoral ministry in 1998, are part of our history. Where many families enjoy the security of “home” as being the place where they make their lives, like old oak trees, a Methodist pastor’s ever-present reality is the old Circuit-rider-tradition. We move. We learn to travel light, or at least lighter than most. In the United Methodist tradition, which occupied the first 24 years of my pastoral career, there were always some frayed nerves in the spring of each year. The Bishop would be working on the “Move List” and might be calling. My family has endured the heartache of separation from familiar things, the anxiety of starting over and some of the hopeful anticipation of what good things God might have planned in our “next move.”

Even with all faith, hope and optimism – I’ve always hated moving. Up to this point in my pastoral career, six years is the longest amount of time my family has ever lived anywhere, since Elaine and I became a family in 1997. So, this anniversary is special not only because we’re moving into our 6th year in Benson, but also because of what Benson has come to represent – the chance to stay. If it’s up to us, the only family picture we’ll take in front of the Benson parsonage will be whenever I am ready to retire which, at the tender age of 56, feels like an awfully long time away.

Accordingly, today is a day where I am feeling thankful … thankful for God’s provision in the early days of my ministry, when I thought I knew so much but really had so much to learn. God has sustained us through the grief of changing churches and saying goodbye to church members and friends. Some of our goodbyes came at a graveside. Some when our moving van pulled out of the parsonage driveway.

This is how Methodist pastors and their families measure time. Each new church becomes our home, as much as the parsonage. To everyone who has made us welcome in the past, my family and I have so much for which to be thankful. To those of you who have allowed us the privilege of being part of your own faith journeys, we continue to remember and celebrate your trust. For those of you who have loved our sons and our daughter, thank you for helping them each come into their own as young adults. For the members and friends of Benson Global Methodist Church, thank you for being with us to celebrate a very new kind of milestone in our family history. I am not a “young” pastor anymore – (I stopped getting “young clergy” invitations around the age of 38), but I am still feeling very fulfilled in God’s call and in our life here with you.

Twenty-six years of ministry life and counting. Few of them have been easy. Each year has brought its own challenges. In the end, I hope my beloved wife and our four amazing children can each think back and recognize that, even with all the changes, God has been faithful, making us ready for the future. Thanks for letting us live among you, treating us like family and allowing us to call Benson GMC our home!

Love always,