Pastor Kathi McShane

On Sunday, June 6, I announced in my sermon that I’ll be taking a two-month spiritual renewal leave this summer, beginning June 21.  If you missed that sermon, I’d encourage you to read it online (www.firstumcsac.org/sermons) so that you know a little more about why this time away is important for me.  But in case you don’t get to that, here is a piece of it that I want you to have:

I’m fortunate to be surrounded by people who pay attention to me.  Several of them, including our Staff Parish Relations Committee, our District Superintendent, and my colleagues on the church staff are giving me the opportunity to take a leave of absence from everything for a few months, so that I can learn to take care of myself, and so that maybe I can learn what I have not yet taken in deeply enough:  that it really is OK to be dependent on others; and that the truth of my life is about the way God just loves me, rather than the ways I have been good enough or strong enough to earn that love. 

Henri Nouwen has written about the Wounded Healer.  He says that all healing work begins from the healer’s acknowledgement of his or her own need for healing.  I’ve noticed before, and been grateful, that God seems perfectly able to use wounded and flawed people to do the work of bringing God’s kingdom to earth.  But what I am just beginning to realize is what I think Paul was talking about in his letter to the Corinthians:  that maybe God can only use wounded healers to do that work; that maybe people who are most conscious of their own dependence and need for help are the only ones who can fully understand what it is God can do. 

A number of you have asked, as you’ve watched me seem not-at-my-best for a while, what you can do to help.  I have really appreciated those offers, and I especially value the compassion that I know they come with.  Here’s what I need from you most.  I need you to help me remember that the church is not about its pastor; it’s about the people in it.  Remind me, with your faithfulness and commitment while I’m gone, what I know about this place but forget from time to time:  that it’s God who has the greatest hopes for First United Methodist Church, and that our work is simply to say “yes” when a door opens or a need becomes clear.  That all of us do that together.  You will have a pastor while I am gone; Carl Thomas has graciously, kindly, generously agreed to take my place so that I can have this time away.  We will have a new team of lay leaders whose terms will begin on July 1, and I have great confidence in them.  But you are the church, as you always have been.  

I have no doubt that the church will do wonderful things this summer, while I am gone.  Staging A Miracle is getting ready to begin again, and already has more than 40 children and their families signed up to take part in all the music and arts resources, and hospitality, this church has to offer.  If you’ve never helped with this program before, don’t miss your chance to be part of the miracle that will happen again this year. 

I look forward to being back—stronger and filled up again—on September 1.  Have a wonderful summer.
     
With love, with blessings, with thanks—Kathi