To ventures where we cannot see the end...

I love Holden Village.  Living in intentional community is complicated, raw, beautiful and edifying.  The village is not our forever place, this is the mystery of the village -- it is no one’s forever place.  We have said more painful goodbyes than I can really count.  Leave taking is an art form and I have watched others do it with such grace.  Our turn to say goodbye is approaching, our leave taking has begun. (Love letter to Holden to come…)

So, we are preparing to go.  Unlike many of the previous chapters of my life (or pretty much all of the previous chapters) I actually know where we are going and I have known for awhile! Such knowledge feels extravagant and grown up and so unlike our life so far!

I have accepted a call to serve as associate pastor of worship, music and the arts at Westwood Lutheran Church in St. Louis Park, MN.  I am often asked about my dream call, or what I hope for next.  And before this call to Westwood was ever on the radar, I would tell people that I wanted to take my job description here at Holden and plop it in a parish context.  ½ time musician, ½ time pastor, preacher, pastoral care provider – and here it is, the dream come true (I loathe such a frilly phrase, but it is apt!).  I am deeply grateful for this call.

It’s an odd thing to know the next step, to be in one community and way of life and constantly wonder how it compares to the next.  It’s riding a constant wave of now and then, what is and what will be.  The contentment I currently feel is now competing with some fear of the future and excitement of all that will be.

My little brother was just in the village and asked me if I even knew how to be in one place for more than two years.  Obviously, I do not. I have commitment issues in many arenas of life and zip codes is certainly one of them! But just maybe this next move could be our quasi-forever place?  Taking root feels important, allowing something (ministry, family life, school community, friendships) to plant, grow deeply in one direction and brightly in another.

Minnesota, we’ll see you this summer!