In September of 1997 I started attending the local United Methodist Church. I wanted to have my new daughter baptized, and that was the church where I landed in my search for a church to call home. Over the years I began to realize that God was calling me to something, but I didn't know what. Then I finally admitted that what God was calling me to was pastoral ministry. And so I began my journey into serving God with my life in a more focused and specific way. I got my undergraduate degree, then began my seminary degree. Now... I am on the last leg of that part of my journey and have said goodbye to that first church where I grew up in so many ways, the church that helped me identify my call and then supported and encouraged me as I learned how to follow it. 

I am starting an internship at a new church (well, new to me!) that is larger than my home church,and that has a lot of differences... but also some fundamental things that are very similar. Like my home church, this church has a great love for God's children and a hunger to serve them. They ways they serve may be different, but the love for others is much the same. I am looking forward to learning more about how this church ministers to the least and the lost, how they nurture the faith of their members as well as those who don't attend regularly, and how they remain faithful to God's plan for them. 

In this blog I will chronicle the coming school year and maybe beyond, but mostly I will use this space to process the things I am learning and the ways I am growing and being challenged in my skills as a leader of God's children. 

I can't wait!