Ten years ago this coming July, I stood before Community United Methodist Church in Quincy, CA as the newly appointed pastor. It was a day of new beginnings for myself and my new congregation. Nearly two months before that, I graduated with my M.Div. from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, took a road trip back to CA with my roommate from my last two years, and spent the next month settling back into life in CA, organizing boxes that had been stored above my bedroom closet at my parents house since I moved back in in 2010, and prepared to take the reins as a new pastor. During the Annual Conference Session in Burlingame that June, I received my local pastor's license from Bishop Warner Brown Jr. and my appointment was fixed. It was the start of something new, something exciting, and if I am being fully honest with myself, something a little scary too. Nevertheless, that first Sunday, my sermon was titled, "Where Do We Begin?" and that was the ke...
From Pastor Andrew in the Parish to Mr. Davis in the Classroom...