Already One Year? Only One Year?

I began my ministry as Senior Pastor on the first Sunday of February last year. I did so in the awareness of my many shortcomings. Today marks exactly one year since that day. 

As I took time to reflect on how this past year has unfolded, a few statistics came to mind. I have prepared 283 sermon manuscripts and delivered 30 lectures. I have engaged in more than 260 meetings, pastoral visits, and counseling sessions, each lasting about two hours each. And I have participated in approximately 90 small group meetings plus session meetings and pastors’ meetings. In all of these meetings and encounters, I have done my best to meet with members in sincerity and from a wholehearted desire to listen and care. 

 I don’t want you to misunderstand me, however! I am not telling you this to say: “Look how hard I worked!”  On the contrary, it is because of the outpouring of undeserved love and prayers that I have received from members, that I think it is appropriate to offer you a kind of pastoral report. 

As a first-year senior pastor, I am deeply aware how much I still lack. Yet, at the same time I hope you will appreciate one thing: I have truly tried not to waste a single moment entrusted to me. With time and experience, I trust that I will grow. So please continue to pray that I will become a pastor who has nothing to be ashamed of before God. 

I firmly believe that the essence of pastoral ministry is walking with God’s people through the Word and in prayer. I have shared this thought once or twice before in my pastoral columns, and over time, the conviction has only grown stronger. As I reflected on this past year of ministry, the Lord graciously encouraged me in a very personal way. 

During my first week after arriving last year, a congregation member handed me a handwritten prayer request. It was carefully written and deeply precious. It was the very first prayer request I received as your pastor, and for the past year, my wife and I have held on to it, praying faithfully together. Then, just last week, we received news that this prayer has been answered. Because we had prayed together with the same heart, my wife and I were filled with gratitude and joy. 

In that moment, I realized something: we had been praying together for exactly one year. A year may not seem all that significant in itself. Yet for me, it was an appropriate moment to reflect once again on the heart of ministry, and the news felt like a gentle encouragement from the Lord. This thought settled in my heart: “Ah, the Lord has called me to rejoice and weep, to endure and persevere, together with His people, in the midst of their lives, through the Word and in prayer.” 

I am determined not to lose this calling as I continue to serve. I bless each of you as you continue to live by faith through the ups and downs of life, often with tears and patient endurance. Just as our Lord does, I too will do my very best to walk with you, even if imperfectly.  

With love and blessing, 

Pastor Joshua