"Fired Up and Ready to Go!"

The word "candidate" has never resonated so much with me as I navigate this process of applying for the Associate Pastor position at First Congregational UCC of Asheville. A quick post to let you know that I felt like the interviews yesterday went well. I had a great time! I hope they got a sense of my excitement about the future of our congregation, I think I was able to convey my passion for ministry and the gifts and skills that I feel that I bring. Can't thank all of you enough for the kind messages you sent to me that built me up yesterday and the good energy, prayers, and love that I know were a part of me having such a wonderful day. At the end of the interview they asked, "Was this a hard day for you?" And I said, "This was an incredible day for me, it was a day when I had the opportunity to talk about my passion for the work that I do, a day when I got to be an active part of this process, a day when my family was praying for me and my friends were sending me emails telling me I'm the best thing since sliced bread...so it's been a great day!" Just to clarify: the UCC does a "search and call process" meaning that the church completes a profile, the candidates for the job complete a profile, and the search committee determines who is the best fit for the position. The search committee will be interviewing 2 more candidates, one today and one tomorrow and they will make an internal decision on Saturday. They will call the candidate mid week next week to offer the job on the condition that their selection be approved by the Executive Board (in a meeting on June 2nd) and then by 2/3rds of the congregation sometime in early-mid June. If I don't hear anything by end of business day on Friday, May 30th, that's probably a bad sign. But if I hear that I am the candidate, it will not be "official" until it's gone through both the Exec Board and a congregational vote (though in my case, I think it's safe to say those votes would be more of a formality). So that's where things stand.

Pictured above is sweet Myles and our friends Cindy and Greg who came over on Tuesday night for a beautiful meal and some quality time together. Greg is quite the story teller, and he had us literally rolling on the floor as he conveyed an awkward adolescent experience he had on a youth mission trip once...if you know Greg, you should ask him about it. Cindy was also very sweet in offering me her ever-present listening ear as I processed all that's been on my mind with church.

All is well with Myles. Seth was planting some grasses along our sidewalk last night and he said Myles was very content to be sitting in the dirt, shovel in hand, loving the outdoors.