chrispritchett.net

A New Chapter, A New Season

Last Wednesday night I delivered the most difficult piece of communication of my life. I announced to our high school students that my family and I will be leaving Presbyterian Church of the Master in August, after over five years of ministry there. Chapters close and chapters open. I spoke from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. There is a season for everything. My time as High School Director has been a season of dreams, joys, accomplishments, failures, and more. I think it has been a good season for the high school ministry too. Wednesday night (and in the weeks to come) was a time to grieve, a time to remember, a time to be thankful, a time to ask questions, and a time to renew commitments to Jesus Christ. A new season is coming for PCOM as they search for a new High School Director and a new season is approaching for our family as we move to Princeton for a year of study, reflection, and everything else that comes with immersed seminary life as a family. I am completing my Master of Divinity at Fuller Seminary in June and I have been given an opportunity to take one additional year of focused study to earn a Master of Theology in the department of Practical Theology, concentrating in Preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary on the campus of Princeton University.  We're in it for much more than the academic knowledge for me, although that is the focal piece. It will be an adventure for us, a time for us to solidify our familial relationships, see a different part of the country, establish relationships with other future pastors and families (increasing our connection with PCUSA), reflect on our sense of call to ministry and focus on areas of spiritual self-care. And it will also be a time for us to grow in our ability to trust God with what comes next. We don't know what the future holds (although we would like to think that we will return to this area). We are excited for what lies ahead and very sad to say goodbye. Here is a copy of a letter I wrote to the families of the high school students: Download farewell_letter.doc . 

anonymous

This was the best anonymous note/clipping I have ever received! I found it in my box at church this morning. Anyone want to fess up?

A Chapter Closed

Today I completed my internship with Village Presbyterian Church in Ladera Ranch. It was wonderful to be able to worship with the community this morning. I was given the opportunity to preach. My text was Hebrews 11 (selected verses), a classic text that has been very important to me in my journey through seminary, ministry, family life and even cancer. And it's a text that speaks well into a community of people who are following God's call to start a church in a challenging environment. It has been a wonderful, brief journey with Village and even though I wish I had more time with them, both in terms of longevity and also in terms of given hours, I can say that it has been a fruitful time for me, and hopefully to some degree, for Village. I enjoyed participating in worship and preaching on a few occasions, and I enjoyed the challenge of beginning and maintaining a few home groups. It was good news to hear this morning that some of the home groups are continuing on beyond me. Knowing that I would be leaving after nine months, I never wanted the home groups to rely on my efforts. Two of the most fruitful aspects of the internship for me were first, the time I spent with Steve. He has been a great pastoral mentor for me, one who was transparent enough to allow me to feel comfortable to share my struggles with and receive solid guidance from (not simply the fluffy stuff that come from shallow relationships). Whenever we met, he always seemed to care first about how I was doing in every aspect of life before getting to the tasks of ministry. I greatly appreciate that, especially in the stage of life I'm currently in. I also enjoyed being kind of a fly on the wall, watching and observing Steve, Leanne and others as they "do" new church development in our day's world. They are fantastic people and I admire their sense of call, their commitment and their leadership abilities. It can be a real pain in the butt to set up church every week in a school, but it was encouraging to see how the set up team served diligently and even had fun doing it (I really don't think they set-up or anything they do as a pain in the butt). One thing I learned about new church development is that it has to remain fun and light-hearted in order to to be life-giving in the midst of challenges. Village does that well!

But even though my time with Village was brief, saying goodbye was still difficult. Every time a chapter closes and there is a goodbye, there is a feeling of loss needs to be embraced. Our life stories seem to be filled with chapters--chapters that have to close before beginning a new chapter. It's hard to close chapters at times, and sometimes it's easier to try and keep the chapter open and resist the call to trust God with the next chapter, because we don't always know the events that will take place in the next chapter. One of my thoughts that came through in the sermon today was that trust only works in the dark. If we can see where we're going, if we've got our future all figured out, we don't have reason to use our faith. They say that preachers do best when they are preaching to themselves. That was the case for me today.  

It was a nice good-bye to Village this morning. Leanne was so gracious in publicly thanking me for my time with Village, and I was presented with an awesome plaque with today's bulletin and a picture of me preaching (which I think will be placed in VPC office). I was expecting nothing but a nice good-bye, but what a thoughtful piece of honor I received (Village Pres is also very good at hospitality!). Village will remain as a short chapter in my life, but I imagine my friendships with Steve, Leanne, and perhaps others, will continue in the years to come. 

Amos Sermon

I had a great time preaching at PCOM on Sunday. I hope God shaped and transformed people by the preaching God's Word. Here's the podcast. Download 02_amos_5.18-24.mp3

justice

Presbyterian Church of the Master has invited me back to preach again! This Sunday will be my third time preaching here, and I'm looking forward to it. We are beginning a four-week emphasis on justice in our worship services, highlighting different ministries/organizations each week for a moment of justice. The Christian Education department will be teaching about biblical justice at every age level and we're hosting a 40k meal packaging event on Wednesday night for children suffering from malnutrition in Uganda. I'm kicking the series off this Sunday. My text is Amos 5:18-24 (which is fitting since I've been taking an exegetical course on Amos this quarter...I worked it out that way!), and the title of the sermon is "Let Justice Roll Down." Should be fun...hopefully my suit won't be covered with vegetables and eggs by the end of it.

widows

...not the kind that have lost their husbands, but the kind that have eight legs and contain poisonous venom. Apparently our yard, front and back, is infested with them. Both black ones and brown ones. I didn't even know there were such a thing as brown widows, until Devon told me she has been spotting them. I never see spiders around the house, but Devon has a peculiar fascination with them. Several times per week she goes on hunt around the outside of the house for widows, usually with a camera (the picture in this post is one she took at our house), and sometimes with a can of Raid and a pack of matches. She often makes me look at the pictures and generally I haven't been interested, but now, after so much of this, I've become intrigued...not with spiders, but with Devon. I've asked her why she's so fascinated with widows and her usual response has been for the safety of our girls. She has to go on these hunts and find spiders in crevasses in order to kill them before they attack our girls. That may be true in part. But the widow fetish is really more of an odd kind of addiction than anything else. Addictive substances continue bringing people back to the substance for the release of endorphins, and the adrenaline rush. This is exactly what happens with Devon and spiders. Every time she finds one, she acts like she's seen a horror film, especially if she finds a widow in a high travel area, like a walkway, or on a chair. I could never tell if she liked spiders or if she hated them. She's freaked out by them, but yet she keeps going back. Or maybe that's precisely why she keeps going back. She took a picture of a brown widow today nesting on a chair that my mom was sitting in yesterday. She says they're everywhere, especially at this time a year, when it's getting warm outside. My philosophy has been, if I don't see it, it's not really there. Devon's philosophy is, they're everywhere, even if you can't see them, so find and kill or be killed. I'm fascinated by Devon's fascination.

I'm 2!!

Happy Birthday to Hannah Joy Pritchett. She's a whopping 2 with more life than we can handle!

fire

I'm on campus at Fuller in Pasadena this morning and for most of the day, and we're just a few miles away from the Sierra Madre fire. I went to sit outside by the coffee shop for a few minutes before my 8am class, and when I noticed ashes landing on the lenses of my glasses, I thought it might be better to find a spot indoors. I decided to drive this morning instead of taking the train (no real reason...I just felt like driving). The flames are quite visible from the 210, climbing up the hills. The freeway was extra packed this morning. So Cal fires...please go away!

run

Today I ran the longest run ever for me. 8.7 miles. To some, it's chump change. To others, it's ridiculous. To me, it was just hot and miserable at times. I thought the sun was going to melt me. There were some tough hills, but the good side of a long early hill is that you get to run down it toward the end. I'm glad I did the run. It feels great now. The girls are gone in Visalia so I figured, hey, I just got some new running shoes after two years that need to be broken in, the girls are gone, I'm goin' for it! Turns out, Devon did a super long run this morning too in Visalia. We think alike. Here's a map of where I went.

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Earth Day

. Today is Earth Day. I've been hearing stories about people doing some great things around here. Laguna Woods is handing out something like 2,000 compact fluorescent light bulbs, there are festivals going on in L.A. and elsewhere. Here's a good site to visit. There are probably lots of them. Devon and I said we wouldn't drive anywhere today, which is more of a luxury for us than a good deed. Devon had to go to the Dr.'s office which happens to be right across the street from my work, so we had a wonderful walk together as a family. It's only about 2.5 miles from our house. The funny thing is that I woke up this morning forgetting that I was going to walk to work, and I immediately thought about all the things I have to do today, and how busy I am, blah blah blah, and then I remembered that I had to walk to work. I was forced to give up my task-oriented goals for the day (of course I'll still do all I can, just with a different attitude), and the stress of those goals went with them. So we walked and we had great conversation and I began my day with a sense of peace. And I thought I was participating in a good cause...yeah, my soul. It's interesting how things are connected.