Experience of first Sunday in different
church told accurately in Circuit Rider


The current issue of the Circuit Rider has a great article written by Jennifer Rodriguez on her experience as a preacher’s kid. Rodriguez is the daughter of the Rev. Jenna Heart, pastor of St. Mark UMC, McAllen.
Rodriguez perfectly describes the first Sunday in a new church as a preacher’s kid whose MOM is the NEW PASTOR. You will re-live your own first Sundays, remembering that combination of excitement and terror that marks you for life. Why don’t people wear name tags, anyway?  Good question, Jennifer.
Her description of the unending line of sweet people who want to meet the new clergy family is priceless, as well as her very accurate picture of walking into the youth group for the first time. She is right on target when she says the youth room is very far away from the adult rooms and a cemetery for dead couches.
Her awareness that the previous pastor’s kid was someone’s best friend was also right on target. Same thing goes for the adutls, too, Jennifer.
She notes both the privilege and the burden of being the pastor’s child in a very insightful way.
The Circuit Rider is a publication for United Methodist clergy members that you can read by going to www. umc.org and finding it listed there. Rodriguez’s article is a great reminder to all of us, clergy and laity, of the anxiety that moving brings. A new town, school, church, house, doctor, dentist, hair dresser, phone number, address—the physical act of moving all your earthly possessions—is tiring to even think about.
On the congregation’s side, getting to know a new pastor is anxiety-producing as well. Can this one preach, teach, sing? Walk and chew gum? Can I trust him/her? Does he/she know the grace of God well enough to share it with us?
Rodriguez’s article reminded me in a poignant, yet humorous, way that all of us, pastors and laypeople, are very vulnerable during these times of transition.
I hope that you will support your clergy friends and families in very intentional ways. I hope that congregations will welcome their new clergy families with warmth and name tags. Jennifer, it was a sign of your maturity that several times you admitted your mother was right: You did make new friends in no time.