7/13/21
The Elphicks had a smooth road trip and relocation from Rochester, MI to Bryn Athyn, PA arriving just before the July 4th weekend. The moving company successfully delivered our belongings on July 2 and we’ve been slowly emptying boxes and arranging furniture in our new home in Pine Run Park.
Last Tuesday I moved into my office here at the Pastors Office and began my new job. I spent the week in one-on-one meetings with church and Cathedral staff members to get up to speed on the many uses and services Bryn Athyn Church provides. I will continue doing this for the next couple of weeks.
This Sunday I begin leading worship services at the Cathedral in my new capacity as Head Pastor of Bryn Athyn Church. I very much look forward to developing a pastoral relationship with you all. Gay and I would like to thank the Bryn Athyn congregation for the warm and friendly welcome we have received from so many people. Your “welcome to town” has come in many different forms and gestures – a weeklong delivery of freshly cooked dinners and a lovely welcome basket from the community containing a wonderful assortment of handcrafted items, homemade goodies, gift cards for local businesses and kind notes and greetings. We’ve also enjoyed friends and neighbors stopping by our house with a smile on their face and a bottle of wine, or a baked good, or a bouquet of flowers in their hands. Thank you everyone! We feel so blessed and grateful to be here.
Going forward, I’d like to use this Pastor’s Message column to periodically share a little of my philosophy or approach to ministry and pastoral work. It’s important for you to get to know me and I you.
One thing I believe the work of a pastor involves is that of fostering healthy relationships. It starts with the Lord because everything flows from Him and when there is order in a relationship, there is happiness. If a relationship is strained, or stagnant or unhappy there is tension, and the communication becomes difficult if not impossible whether that be a parent, child, spouse, co-worker, friend or neighbor. This is why I believe life is all about people or, as the Scriptures put it, about the Lord and our neighbor. It’s all too easy to lose our focus and get stuck on peripheral or petty concerns but when we remind ourselves of the important reality that life is all about relationships, namely our relationship to the Lord, His Word and each other, everything starts to fall into place.