Today I was introduced to the members of the Houston International Seventh-day Adventist Church as their new associate pastor. The elders were told in advance, but no one else (hence my silence), so there was much surprise, but also much rejoicing.
That this happened, and happened so quickly, surprised me, too. I was looking at many other job possibilities. Friends were assisting. But then our pastor talked to folks at the Conference; the ministerial secretary came down and met with us one evening, then, after the rebaptism, he and the conference president came down and took us out to dinner and said, “This is what we’d like to offer you.” Both these meetings included Joy and the kids.
These conversations were unlike any other interview process I have ever been involved in. These men had every right to be suspicious of me, to ask tough questions, to issue demands and conditions and qualifications. But in them, and in the response from the church elders, the response from the congregation, and from the other pastors–only grace, only welcome.
At times like this, the hand of God is unmistakable.
