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SOME
GOOD NEWS - A WEEKLY WORD FROM KEN
Posted Thursday, December 17, 2009—
My dear
church family,
Well, we
started this “Weekly Word” thing
a little
over three years ago under the heading, “Some Good News,” and
that’s what we’ve dedicated this space to every week—news of births,
baptisms, engagements, weddings, mission trips, “major awards,” and as many
bits and pieces of the blessings and achievements of our UCC family as I
could pick up on (and remember). We were hoping to draw some attention to
our website, of course, but mostly we were just trying to do more of what a
healthy church family does: share the everyday details and currents of the
life we share in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But this (sniffle) will need to be the last of my
Weekly Words to you. Our students are now finishing up their finals and
heading homeward, and the holidays will be upon us all soon. Nancy and I
will see you in church this Sunday, and will join you for the big UCC
Christmas party that evening, and then turn our attention to the gathering
of many of our family members who are coming to Malibu for the celebration
of Nancy’s birthday and her mother’s. Our actual leaving date will be
December 29; following the happy occasion of Morgan Honeycutt’s wedding to
Adam Blanton that day, Nancy and I will catch a later red-eye flight to
Nashville and our new work there at Lipscomb University.
It’s with high anticipation and exhilaration that we’re
looking forward to what God is preparing for us in the next phase of our
lives. But I’m in the early stages of a serious case of heartache at the
prospect of life without my dear University Church.
I have been so proud to be your preacher. What a
blessed privilege and unmerited grace it has been, to get to be a witness to
the love of God, the power of the Spirit, and the victory of the Cross of
Christ every week for the past eleven years, since the very first Sunday I
hopped up on the Elkins stage.
What a rare and exceptional gathering of gifts and
minds and hearts our UCC is. What a dear church family you have been to
me. You have patiently abided all my homiletical endeavors and
experimentations. You have welcomed me into your homes and hearts and
discoveries and struggles. You held me up and pointed the way when I could
barely navigate the darkness, and rejoiced with me exultantly when the sun
shone brightly again.
I have been graced to work with so many great souls
along the way, including three rare and beloved sisters who pretty much ran
the show from the office next door to mine: Sandy Dawson, Angie Lemley, and
Dee Honeycutt. I thank my God for such ecclesiastical heroes, such
wonderful friends.
Along the way I have gotten to work (and dream and
laugh and fuss and weep) in tandem with some of the best and dearest
ministers—men and women ministers, mind you—anywhere to be found in
the Kingdom of God: Thomas Fitzpatrick, Scott Lambert, Roslyn Bennett, Dave
Lemley, Corinne Le, Stacy Rouse, Jeremy Johnson, Zach Love, and the person
I’ve ministered with longest, the woman with one month more seniority than
myself, the extraordinary Linda Truschke.
Finally, I have been shepherded by elders who have been
for me a true “band of brothers”—John Wilson, Milt Shatzer, Ron Highfield,
David Baird, Stuart Love, Steve Parmelee, and Tim Perrin, currently, and
previously my good brothers Randy Chesnutt, Rich Dawson,
Mike O’Neal,
Hal Bigham and Bill Stivers—who loved, prodded and supported me through
thick and thin (and thinner).
If I were to write a book about my experience as
your preacher, I might just borrow the title from an autobiography by the
late Arthur Ashe: Days of Grace. Jesus has provided the
reality, and Paul the explanation, but you, dear sisters and brothers, have
provided the flesh and blood through which God has abundantly shed his grace
into this man’s life over the past eleven years.
Love,
grace, and peace,
Ken
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