Almost half of 2022 is behind us. For Linda and me, it has been full of lasts. We celebrated hosting our last Easter Sunrise service in Lucerne Valley. We celebrated our last birthdays and anniversary as Pastors of Crossroads Chapel. I was given the great privilege of being the Keynote Speaker at our last graduation ceremony as school staff. Monday, May 30th, I will host for the last time the town memorial service, and Tuesday, May 31st, will be Linda’s last day working for Lucerne Valley Unified School District. We will be out of town on the fourth of July so we will miss our last opportunity to host the town’s parade and bell ringing ceremonies at the park. All too soon, I will be preaching my last sermon as your pastor in September. Many of these “lasts” have been a big and positive part of our lives for the past thirty-one years. We have had other “lasts” that will remain unidentified where there was a certain joy about the fact that it was the last time for certain unpleasantries- a lot of “happy” and a lot of “sad.”
Along the way, there has been a comforting certainty that God has led us in the timing of our retirements and given us a peace about the many uncertainties that remain. We are looking forward to the upcoming women’s retreat in August and the men’s retreat in September respectively. Mid-June and early July we will be in Idaho for a working vacation, but I hope to be able to preach from there as we have done in the past, as not to miss any precious opportunities to share in the Word and fellowship together.
The church council and I are working with Foursquare to get all our paperwork together for a smooth transition in pastoral assignments. You can be proud of the job your council is doing! They are an amazing group of leaders! You are in good hands. I do want to encourage and even exhort each of you, as members of this congregation, to be committed through this transition. Our body of believers is just that, a body. It is not about your likes and dislikes; you are a part of the body. You wouldn’t want to wake up someday and find that your right leg decided it didn’t like your head, so it just disappeared.
In the same way, each of you is an important part of the body of Christ in Lucerne Valley. Be prepared to be committed. There may be aspects of the transition in leadership that you may not like. Conversely, there may be some aspects of the transition in leadership that you may like. Either way, be spiritual and not carnal in your approach. Recognize your responsibility in making the transition a success. You are the body! “… from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Eph 4:16 NKJV).
-Pastor Gary Schlenz
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