Greetings LNPC,
I am thrilled to be sitting at my new desk typing an email to you as your Senior Pastor. What an exciting new season for us!
On a personal level, my family and I have had such a warm reception these past two weeks. You all have given so freely and full of love. Even before I arrived in town last Tuesday, you showered my wife and two boys with welcome gifts. And not only gifts, but warm smiles and gracious words have been poured over us on Sundays. All of this is a glowing testimony of your generosity and warmth. My family and I are very grateful to God for you.
I thoroughly enjoyed worshiping with you this past Sunday and was grateful for the opportunity to begin my September sermon series, This Is Us, For Real. As I shared, I am continually struck by the way Scripture highlights the importance of our relationships within the community we call the Church. In an era marked by deep distrust of institutions, it seems especially important for us to take our relational temperature. How do we welcome one another? How do we communicate? How do we cultivate belonging? And how do we practice the way of Jesus in our life together?
Over the next three Sundays, we will continue exploring these questions through Matthew's Gospel and the letters of the New Testament. My prayer is that these messages will stretch our hearts and expand our imaginations for what God desires to do among us and through us.
Some of you have offered helpful feedback about the pace and volume of my first sermon. Thank you. I will adapt. As I mentioned in Sunday's sermon, I welcome your feedback, whether encouraging, constructive, or clarifying. I value hearing how God's Word is being received and lived out in our community.
I also want to share a brief word about leadership. One of the most important lessons I have learned about pastoral leadership, and really about leadership of any kind, is that it begins with listening. I am new to this congregation, new to South Orange County, and new to the rhythms and culture of life at LNPC. That means I have much to learn. I want to listen for the Spirit's guidance and also listen carefully to the people through whom the Spirit speaks: you.
I would love the opportunity to sit down with you over breakfast, lunch, coffee, or a conversation after worship. I want to hear your stories. I want to learn about the joys, hopes, challenges, and experiences that have shaped this community. Listening is one of my most important tasks in these early months, and I would be honored to spend that time with you.
If you would like to schedule an introductory conversation, please email me at [email protected]. I'll gladly send you a link to my online calendar so we can find a time that works well for both of us.
I often close my emails with two simple words that have shaped the heart of my ministry: grace and peace.
My hope is that you experience both through my ministry and presence among you. More than that, my prayer is that LNPC would be a community where others encounter grace and peace in abundant measure. Grace stands at the heart of the Gospel (John 1:14, 16), and peace is among the first gifts the risen Christ offers to his disciples (Luke 24:36, John 20:19-21).
By God's power and mercy, may those gifts define our life together in the years ahead.
Grace and peace,
Rev. Ray A. Medina
Laguna Niguel Presbyterian Church