Dear Saints in Santa Fe, and other far-off places:

Greetings in the name and spirit of Jesus Christ!

Jesus sends before him seventy of his followers into every town and place (Luke 10:1-12).  This is the first time in the gospels we go first.

Here’s why I would go:

My earliest memories have church in them. Magical Christmas Eve services.  Running around the church feeling it was my second home.  Sliding under the pews. Being surrounded by people who always smiled at me.  Chick Collier, the local printer in Wooster, always called me Cutie.  He would drive his bus, a real live big blue bus, for the high school and college trips Dad led to the south, Washington, DC, and New York City.  The guys would carry me on their shoulders.

My high school church youth group, called TUXIS (You and I Together in the Service of Christ), was an amazing transformative experience that stays with me still.  It made Christianity cool.  It was my people, my friends, my support, and my guide through high school.  If you hear me talk about community, this is my experience of it.  Sixty of us, more or less, would go on retreats three times a year, participate in a work project in the summer, hold weekly Sunday evening meetings, and attend a Sunday class in the morning.  We planned all of it, with the steady support of adult leaders who became our friends and the first adults we ever got to call by their first names.

When I was diagnosed with cancer after my junior year, it was my friends in TUXIS who helped me and held me through dark and frightening times.  My health and my joy scampered away and hid that summer of 1976 and the years following.  Whenever I hear songs from that era I get a queasy feeling, to this day.  My friends surrounded me, as did the whole church community, and I thought then that if I lived, I would give back.  I wanted a community like this and thought the best way I could give back was to be a pastor.

It has been pretty amazing being a pastor these forty years but that doesn’t mean it was always easy.  There were times I thought of giving it up and doing something else, but I never quite got to that point.  I stayed because I got to spend my time with wonderful people doing good things.  And I got to spend time with Jesus, part of the job description, I believe, of a pastor.  I always loved that part.  The more I studied scripture and wrestled with weekly sermons the more I am amazed at who Jesus is and what he taught and modeled.  Despite all the complexities of our world, and all the pain and turmoil in it, I still believe that if we keep trying to follow his ways, and be part of his movement, there is hope for all of us.  That idea of “all of us” still captures my imagination.

This is why I would go before Jesus into every town and place.  This is why I feel honored to pledge money and time to the church, for the many ways the church has touched my life.  And oh, how many more stories I have to tell!

What about you?   What are your stories?  Why do you value the church and following Jesus?  And how will you give back?

It’s our turn now.  Pledge Sunday is November 10.

Grace and peace,

Harry