Message from the Moderator

Originally published in the February issue of The Herald

One Foot in Front of the Other

I'm writing this on Sunday night, after our very successful Candidating Weekend, Worship Service and Congregational Meeting, at which we called Alison Buttrick Patton as our new Pastor. Everyone I spoke with among the very large crowd at the Fellowship Hour after our Meeting was happy and, I think, excited about our choice and about the Church, perhaps more excited than we have been in a while.

I believe that from here we can see the progress we have made and steps ahead, by which we will have pulled ourselves back together as a vibrant Church community.

• Last summer we hired our new Music Director, Heather Hamilton and then our new Director of Christian Education and Youth Ministries, Bruce Ill.
• This fall we revised our By-laws and governance structure, effective with our Annual Meeting, to fit our current needs.
• Today we learned that our Stewardship Drive will come in ahead of last year in dollars and perhaps even in pledging units.
• Also today we called a new pastor.
• In March we will have our Annual Meeting.
• And in May Pastor Alison will join us.

Of course I have omitted one major recent event, one which by comparison to all this progress seems like just the opposite — the fire at our Church, which could be seen as the most daunting, disruptive, destructive event in our entire history. However, I choose not to see it that way. Over the last several weeks I have felt and heard and seen what I think is a true rebirth of the spirit of Saugatuck. I see and feel an optimism, a can do attitude. It is as if that spirit has actually come from the fire itself.

I admit that I have had several moments of discouragement during this past year. But I have always felt that this was what we had to do: to put one foot in front of the other, to maintain our “forward progress” (can you tell I'm watching the Giants-49ers game?).

In thinking about this article I looked at Michael Hendricks's article from last January. In it he described a story Ted Hoskins had told about a moment when he expressed to his father his doubts about becoming a pastor, saying that he told his father, “I don't know if I can become a preacher. I don't believe this and I don't believe that.” His father's response: “You've told me what you don't believe, Ted. Tell me what you do believe.”

What I've seen in the past month is that we are not focusing on what we don't believe, we are focusing on what we do believe and we believe in Saugatuck Congregational Church. Now all we have to do is put one foot in front of the other.

Jeff Boak
Church Moderator