Dear Friends and Family of RRUMC,
As you read this, we are now in the wake of the Easter Sunday celebrations, the spring break get aways, and hopefully some warm sunny weather will start to be the norm and not the exception.
On the heels of our beautiful Holy Week and Easter Sunday services, I am reminded once again of what a blessing it is to serve this wonderful congregation.
On July 1 of this year, I will begin my 13th year at RRUMC as your senior pastor. I feel like each year is better than the last. When I first came here, my boys were two and four years old and my wife and I had been married for seven years. Benjamin is now 17 and Alexander is now 15 and I have to look up to both of them. They are both taller than me now. My wife and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary in January of this year. As you can see, RRUMC has been a HUGE part of my entire life over the past 12
years. I cannot imagine where I would be without RRUMC and all of its amazing people. You have watched my boys grow up from being little toddlers to now being amazing young men. You have navigated me through the death of my mother, and you walked with me every step of the way.
I feel like people throw around the words “church family” a lot. One of the most powerful things that I have learned in my now 28 years of full-time Christian ministry is that church family is a real and life-transforming thing. I have watched all of you take care of each other through the years. I am still in awe as I watch this church family rally around each other in the most difficult of times. Those moments are nothing short of incredible.
These two Bible verses really seem to capture what church family means. They say, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). We are a family of believers: “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Gal. 6:10). We take care of each other.
Church, thank you once again for welcoming me and my family so powerfully into this church family. We came here in 2011 not knowing anyone, and now I feel like I am part of a family of hundreds. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for all of us as we continue to love each other, support each other, encourage each other, and spur each other on in the faith. My hope and prayer is that we continue to grow closer to God as a church and closer and closer to each other as a church family. When we are all working toward those two goals, nothing is impossible for God.
Thank you, church family, for the love you have shown me, the love you are showing me, and the love you will continue to show to me and my family. I am blessed beyond measure.
May God Bless and Keep You,
Rev. Dan