A Moment

When I wrote last week about watching for a significant moment this holiday season, I wasn’t sure that it would happen to me. Katie and I were introduced at the Christmas Eve service, and I thought that was it. At the party afterwards, I overheard her introduced as a Mennonite pastor. So I sat down next to her, curious about how a woman, and not dressed in black, could be a Mennonite pastor. I learned there is a wide variety of Mennonites, from the very strict, who do wear black clothes and maintain distance from modern society, to those who meet society halfway.

Her journey began a number of years ago. Katie was driving around looking for a church to go to on Sunday, saw a parking lot full of cars, and figured that something must be going on. The people welcomed her in without pushing her to become a member, and not caring that she was divorced. They simply asked her to share worship with them. Eventually she joined the congregation, feeling that its members loved her into membership. When she felt drawn to be a pastor, they supported her it that, too, and helped pay some of her seminary expenses. Nine years later, when the congregation had an opening on its pastoral team, they asked her if she was interested.

The good news that came into the world at Christmas is for all people who need hope, even if they’re not members of my tribe.