And so it begins...

There's a song called "Closing Time" that they played at the end of almost all my high school dances. I can't recall the name of the band who sang it, but one line has always stuck with me:

"Every new beginning comes from some other beginnings' end."

It doesn't seem like all that long ago that I was a freshly minted college graduate who thought a little too highly of my own intelligence, entering seminary, trying (and failing miserably) to impress the cute girl that I met the first night of orientation, and beginning a job at Crievewood UMC in Nashville.

Today I'm a freshly minted seminary graduate who learned just how little I really know while in seminary (a lesson I'm sure to learn over and over throughout my life), married to that cute girl from orientation, and about to preach my first service as a Senior Pastor at Bethlehem UMC.

I look back on the past four years with tremendous appreciation for all I've experienced, all I've learned in classes, and from my successes and many, many mistakes in ministry. While I am very sad to leave Vanderbilt and Crievewood behind, it's the right time to do so and take up the new challenge of being the solo pastor of a church.

I got to know some of the folks at Bethlehem this week at VBS, and I'm very excited and nervous to worship with them for the first time. Wait, let me clarify. VBS is definately worship. Tomorrow will just be the first time where we worship together while I'm wearing a robe.

So here we are at this new beginning that comes from four years ago's beginning's end. What will this new beginning bring? Stay tuned...