I am thrilled that our newly redesigned website will feature a space where I can communicate with you directly. Mahalo to our web designer, Mr. Thom E Butler (Petaluma, California) for building this website.
My first Sunday as your pastor here at Keawala’i Congregational Church was February 25, 2024. I love being in this place with all of you. The church is far more than a building. It is the ‘ohana or household of God. In Ephesians 2: 11-22, the apostle Paul speaks of Christ having established a new family, a new ‘ohana unlike any other, new house in which Christ is the cornerstone. This is a theme I hope to develop further for a sermon I have planned for July 21, based on the Ephesians text.
As theologian Will Willimon observes, God creates, establishes, calls, evokes, and preserves the new humanity called the church. The church is God’s way of reclaiming a lost world.
It’s an exciting time to be alive, and it’s exciting to be here at Keawala’i serving as your pastor. This church has been blessed with strong, gifted leadership in its nearly two-hundred-year history. I am among you as one who seeks to serve. If you need spiritual care, or just want to talk story, please let me know, and we can set up a time to visit.
Me ke aloha pumehana,
Gary Percesepe
PS ~ Here is something I wrote back in June, about the “bonding” between a church and pastor.
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Research has shown that it takes about five years for a new pastor to “become the pastor” at a new church. Why so long? Here are some of the factors that scholars cite (insights drawn from Thom S. Rainer, CEO of Church Answers, and Anthony B. Robinson, UCC Pastor, Author, and Consultant):
- It takes a long time to break into established relationship patterns. Churches are complex networks of “family systems.” Many members have been at the church for decades. They have a circle of friends, family members, and relationship groups. Pastors will not meaningfully enter many of these relationships for years.
- The new pastor is creating new ways of doing things. Many pastors go into a new call believing that they are not coming as a major change agent, but pastors new to their church need to understand that just their presence changes things significantly. They look different, for one thing. They lead differently. They preach differently. Their family is different. A church needs time to adjust to these changes before they can embrace a new pastor fully.
- Research reveals that most relationships do not establish fully until they go through one or two major conflicts. Similar to marriage, at first things may feel like a honeymoon: the church thinks you’re truly wonderful! Then something happens: a pastor may do something, lead something, or change something that goes counter to (often unstated) expectations. Conflict ensues. As in a marriage, much depends on how this conflict is navigated, but open communication and consistency of action (words matching deeds), and abundant, non-judgmental forbearance and love can carry a couple (or a church) through the conflict; this navigation of conflict can itself build trust. Successfully navigating the waters of conflict is like “change in your pocket,” or what researchers call “social capital” that can now be invested or spent as necessary in the work of ministry.
- A church may become accustomed to short-term pastorates. Many churches rarely see a pastor make it to the fifth, sixth, or seventh year. They never fully accept the pastor, because they don’t believe the leader will make it past the first major conflict.
- Previous pastors wounded some church members. Where there has been pain, it may take members several years to accept a new pastor and learn to trust again.
- Trust is cumulative, not immediate. This is especially true in established churches with a long history. Regardless of how the new ministry unfolds, it simply takes time before church members are willing to say with conviction, “That is my pastor.”
- Younger pastors (or second career pastors in their first call) may find these realities to be especially painful. Seasoned pastors, who have seen these dynamics play out time and time again in churches they’ve served have had opportunity to learn patience, to go on loving and caring for their congregants, trusting that the same God who called us together will finish the work.
Whether young or old, seasoned or new to the work, all pastors must rely on the grace of God in their assignment, and practice “a non-anxious presence.” The same God who has called us to be together will accompany us every step along the way. “For lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).
Me ke aloha pumehana,
Gary Percesepe