Thank you for calling me to be the 16th rector of Trinity Haverhill. It has been an honor and a privilege to be your pastor these past three years and I am excited about the years going forward. I want to share some of my thoughts about the task ahead of us as we move into this new time. "Who moved my cheese?" Remember that book by Spencer Johnson. The line has become an icon for the trauma of enduring personal and/or institutional change. We talk a lot about change here at Trinity - pews, service times, programming - and we have spent a lot of time and effort in discussing our vision of who we want to be as a church. At our Annual Meeting we talked a lot about how our changing financial picture will effect our life together. I think one of the errors we humans make when faced with change is focusing on the difficulties rather than the possibilities. If the change is founded in Gospel - if it calls attention to God, to faith, to discipleship then it is worth celebrating. A parishioner sent me a link the other day to a great article on institutional culture and how the world perceives that institution. It is really about business - not church, but I think the principle still applies. Read this quote: "Culture is the environment in which your strategy and your brand thrives or dies a slow death. Think about it like a nurturing habitat for success. Culture cannot be manufactured. It has to be genuinely nurtured by everyone from the CEO down." According to the work we as a parish have done with Dan Hotchkiss and with Alice Mann and then repeated last August with the discernment work, our "cultural values" here at Trinity are nurture of children, making beautiful music and sacred liturgy, and being a vital cog in our neighborhood. We identified our worship and our fellowship as gifts we offer and we dreamed of financial stability and more opportunities to be together in celebration. Now think about that quote above. "Culture cannot be manufactured" - it must be nurtured by all. One of the gifts of our financial situation is that we are not a culture of "pay someone else to do it". YEA! That means that we are a culture of "Yankee Ingenuity" We will find a way to worship, be in relationship, and serve others by offering of ourselves to God service - whether that is folding letters, planting flowers, visiting the sick, or leading worship. We will grow our own gifts through worship, study and service, so that we will be better equipped as disciples. I think that is a culture worth celebrating and promoting and nurturing. God has blessed me richly in calling me to be your rector. Pray for me as I continue to serve you as shepherd and teacher, just as I pray for you and your ministries. May all our work be for the glory of God and the building up of God’s Kingdom.
