The Chocolate Cheesecake Lesson
Author: Mark Fenstermacher
July 23, 2020
One of
the first things I’ve been doing is meeting small groups for “meet and
greet” sessions. These have been wonderful and down the road I’ll share
some general observations about what I have heard...what people are
thinking.
People
are working to figure out what a “transitional pastor” is and does.
Someone the other day asked, “Will you be around and can we talk with you?
Will you be available to counsel with us if we need to talk?”
“Absolutely!” I answered. “I’ll be your
pastor...doing what pastors do. I’ll be in the office several days a week,
preaching and teaching and stuff.”
Another
said, “I’d like to make a connection with my pastors...” I said,
“I’m here. I’ll be living in the parsonage most of the time...so just
down the street.”
The only
thing that will be different is that I’m here a little less than full time, doing what
pastors do, and yet there will be a special emphases for me as we work
together.
Transitional doesn’t mean invisible or absentee but present with a
particular focus for a strategic season.
So what
about the chocolate cheesecake? I had taken the staff out for lunch at Olive Garden
(soup, salad and breadsticks), and we were at the hostess stand in a crowded lobby
waiting to be seated.
There
was a tray of desserts on display near the hostess stand. I assumed they were
“fake” and made out of rubber. So I reached out and touched the top of
a piece of chocolate cheesecake with the top of my right index finger.
As I
pulled my hand back I was stunned to see a fingerprint in the chocolate icing. Curious,
stunned, I turned my hand and over and the top of my index finger was covered in
chocolate.
The
hostess looked unsettled and slightly irritated. “I thought it was fake,” I
said with embarrassment.
“It’s not,” she said pressing her lips together.
“It’s real.”
So I want
you to know that the word “transitional” may be attached to my title but
I’m real. I’m here. I’m one of your pastors in every way a pastor is a
pastor.
God has
been at work in you and among you: I’ll look forward to being a part of that!
Paul, in Philippians 1:6, says this: “God is the one who began this good work in
you, and I am certain that he won't stop before it is complete on the day that Christ
Jesus returns.”
The
chocolate cheesecake wasn’t fake but the real thing: and that is the way it will
be in this partnership with your pastors - both Pastor Nikki and the guy with the funny last
name.
Grace
and peace in Christ,
Pastor Mark
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