Transition Plans

[A. Lucas Finch]

Since my transition from my church for the last almost eight years has been talked about here, I thought I'd post an update.  Some of y'all have been keeping up with what I have been posting on Facebook, so you are in the know already.

I had targeted three locations on my district for relocation: Missoula, the Flathead Valley (northwest Montana, right outside Glacier National Park), and Cheyenne.  That was the order of preference, too.  As I have been watching job postings online, though, and just the inner feeling that I have had, it had seemed like Cheyenne would be the best place to go.  (It doesn't hurt that my brother and sister-in-law who live there just gave birth to their second son a few days ago.)

Last Thursday evening, the pastor of SonRise COTN in Cheyenne called me up.  He is a good friend, and he's been encouraging me to go down there, too.  Cheyenne used to have two churches, but a few years back (before he was called there) they merged.  They sold one of the buildings but have held on to both parsonages.  They have used one as a rental, and he lives in the other one with his family.  I did not know that he was going to do this, but he talked to his board about making the second parsonage available to me for about half what they would charge normal renters in exchange for about 10 hours a week of church work.  My work there would primarily involve worship leading and some office work (prepare bulletin and such).  I asked to have the weekend to pray about it, but I knew at the time that it seemed right.  I called him up today and confirmed that I will indeed accept the generous offer.

I will still need to find regular employment, but this helps to give me direction and focus.  I will be making the move toward the end of October.  The third week of October, I have Northwest Field NYI Council meetings at NNU, along with a biannual conference that we host for juniors and seniors in high school.  I'll have everything ready to go before I make the run to Nampa, and then as soon as I get back to the Bitterroot, I'll load up a van and head down to Cheyenne.

I appreciate all of the kind words and prayer from all of you!  I still need a job, so continued prayer is appreciated.  :-)

I put together this little slideshow video chronicling my time with the Bitterroot Valley Church of the Nazarene.  Of course, y'all won't recognize the faces, but it might give you an idea of what the last eight years have been like and why it is so hard to leave.

[Marg Shurtliff]

Enjoyed the slide presentation , Lucas .  .I thought that was cute where you were holding a "Happy Birthday ,Pastor Luke" cake  and  shortly thereafter a big banner was  shown "Happy 90th birthday ". You really don't look near that old! Thanks for sharing . I can see why you'd not want to leave there.

[A. Lucas Finch]

Sept 12, 2017 4:25:12 GMT -5 Marg Shurtliff said:

Enjoyed the slide presentation , Lucas .  .I thought that was cute where you were holding a "Happy Birthday ,Pastor Luke" cake  and  shortly thereafter a big banner was  shown "Happy 90th birthday ". You really don't look near that old! Thanks for sharing . I can see why you'd not want to leave there.

Haha, I hadn't thought of that.  The banner was for the young lady in the picture after the one with the banner.

Thanks for watching!

[Gina Stevenson]

Watched it all too, including a few backups to see/read something that went by too fast now & then before I realized there was something to read. Looks like you have a lot of friends you'll be leaving.

And those mountains . . . !!! Bet you'll miss those, too, unless Cheyenne has some. Sadly, I STILL miss "my" California and Arizona mountains since back here in Michigan!

Prayers for a great future, Lucas.

[A. Lucas Finch]

Sept 12, 2017 15:48:44 GMT -5 Gina Stevenson said:

And those mountains . . . !!! Bet you'll miss those, too, unless Cheyenne has some. Sadly, I STILL miss "my" California and Arizona mountains since back here in Michigan!

Yes, they are glorious. In this map, I live at the blue dot in the middle, and the green all around is mountains.  (Well, technically it is forest, but the forest is in the mountains.)  At the widest point, the valley is at most 15 miles from the Bitterroot Mountains on the west to the Sapphire Mountains on the east.

 

Cheyenne is kinda out on the plains, so definitely farther from the mountains than I like.  There are mountains not too far away, though.  Just not in my backyard.

[A. Lucas Finch]

Sept 12, 2017 21:44:06 GMT -5 A. Lucas Finch said:

Sept 12, 2017 15:48:44 GMT -5 Gina Stevenson said:

And those mountains . . . !!! Bet you'll miss those, too, unless Cheyenne has some. Sadly, I STILL miss "my" California and Arizona mountains since back here in Michigan!

Yes, they are glorious. In this map, I live at the blue dot in the middle, and the green all around is mountains.  (Well, technically it is forest, but the forest is in the mountains.)  At the widest point, the valley is at most 15 miles from the Bitterroot Mountains on the west to the Sapphire Mountains on the east.

 

Cheyenne is kinda out on the plains, so definitely farther from the mountains than I like.  There are mountains not too far away, though.  Just not in my backyard.

I meant to mention that the mountains have been hiding behind a thick layer of smoke for the last five weeks or so.  They peek out a little every now and then, but then they disappear.  There is suppose to be rain and snow coming in, though, starting Thursday and lasting through most of next week, so hopefully these stupid forest fires will be eliminated soon.

[A. Lucas Finch]

Has it really been almost four months since I have posted here? I guess it has. My bad!

Some of y'all have kept up with me on facebook, but for those who haven't, here are where things have landed:

As mentioned in my original post, in October, I got things ready to move, took my car and pets down to Cheyenne, and flew to Nampa for meetings. From there, I flew back to Missoula, got my stuff loaded up, and headed on down. I wasn't quite as ready to load as I had hoped before my week in Nampa, and it took me a couple days longer to get out of Victor than I had hoped it would, but finally I got out.

I had been forewarned a couple of days prior, but the renters of my house had not gotten out yet. So when I made it to Cheyenne, I ended up staying with my senior pastor for almost four weeks before getting into my house. I finally got the keys two days before Thanksgiving.

Prior to arriving in Cheyenne, and more so after arrival, I seeded the community with job applications. Of course, in today's world, it is pretty simple to just sit at a computer and submit them as pretty much everyone once applications submitted through online systems. Even before I arrived, I found out that the Pizza Hut franchisee that I had worked for previously in Casper, WY had bought the Cheyenne stores a couple years ago, so I called up some old contacts who passed my name on to one of the store managers in Cheyenne, and she quickly called me in for an "interview". Upon arriving, she said, "I'll be honest with you: This isn't going to be much of an interview because you come highly recommended." It did take a couple of weeks to process background check before I could start driving, though.

I continued looking into other possibilities, too. So this is where things have ended up: I am a full-time head cashier for Lowe's, I deliver pizzas for Pizza Hut two or three evenings a week, and I am the worship pastor at SonRise Church of the Nazarene. Oh, and I also start on my M.Div. via NNU next week.

Things are busy, but good! I am pretty happy with where I have landed, though I would be lying if I said I was at peace with everything that brought me here. But alas! Life is what it is. I love being back in the "real world" where I can connect with people outside of the church context instead of just working for a church. Don't get me wrong: I love my ministerial calling. But in my 10+ of full-time ministry, I have discovered that it is hard for a full-time pastor to develop meaningful connections with people outside of the church context. I am enjoying having that opportunity again.

[Susan Unger]

Jan 3, 2018 0:04:31 GMT -5 A. Lucas Finch said:

 I love being back in the "real world" where I can connect with people outside of the church context instead of just working for a church. Don't get me wrong: I love my ministerial calling. But in my 10+ of full-time ministry, I have discovered that it is hard for a full-time pastor to develop meaningful connections with people outside of the church context. I am enjoying having that opportunity again.

I've concluded that this is a good thing as well for me, too. I was bummed at first that I would need to be bivocational, but have come to believe that that is really the better way to me to stay engaged with the "real" world that I won't see inside the church. 

And in other news, I thought of you tonight Mr. Delivery Man. Where I've moved to has an address that no GPS can accurately direct anyone to. Whenever we order a pizza [or have anyone come to the house] we always tell them "don't use GPS here are the directions..." and of course, the clerk at Domino's didn't listen to us when we ordered so the poor delivery person got lost and had to call me for directions. As the poor thing called and sounded distraught, I wondered if this ever happened to you at Pizza Hut where the person taking an order couldn't manage to give you special directions.... 

[A. Lucas Finch]

Jan 9, 2018 20:00:26 GMT -5 Susan Unger said:

Jan 3, 2018 0:04:31 GMT -5 A. Lucas Finch said:

 I love being back in the "real world" where I can connect with people outside of the church context instead of just working for a church. Don't get me wrong: I love my ministerial calling. But in my 10+ of full-time ministry, I have discovered that it is hard for a full-time pastor to develop meaningful connections with people outside of the church context. I am enjoying having that opportunity again.

I've concluded that this is a good thing as well for me, too. I was bummed at first that I would need to be bivocational, but have come to believe that that is really the better way to me to stay engaged with the "real" world that I won't see inside the church. 

And in other news, I thought of you tonight Mr. Delivery Man. Where I've moved to has an address that no GPS can accurately direct anyone to. Whenever we order a pizza [or have anyone come to the house] we always tell them "don't use GPS here are the directions..." and of course, the clerk at Domino's didn't listen to us when we ordered so the poor delivery person got lost and had to call me for directions. As the poor thing called and sounded distraught, I wondered if this ever happened to you at Pizza Hut where the person taking an order couldn't manage to give you special directions.... 

I can't speak for that place (We don't use the "D" word around here.), but there should be a field in the order screen that will allow special instructions to print on the receipt.  Of course, depending on how complicated the instructions are, they may or may not realistically fit.

Since I have been back in the business over the last two months, though, I have been pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of Siri on my iPhone.  My first couple of nights, I would follow the directions but assume that I could be half a block or so off, and begin looking for numbers when I got close.  However, I quickly noticed that it was almost always guiding me directly to the house.  What an era to deliver pizzas in!  When I first started in 2004, the idea of following a mobile device's or GPS's directions straight to the house was unheard of.  Now, I have been having probably about 97% accuracy.

There are always outliers, though.  It sounds like your house might be one of them.

[Susan Unger]

Jan 10, 2018 13:18:20 GMT -5 A. Lucas Finch said:

Jan 9, 2018 20:00:26 GMT -5 Susan Unger said:

I've concluded that this is a good thing as well for me, too. I was bummed at first that I would need to be bivocational, but have come to believe that that is really the better way to me to stay engaged with the "real" world that I won't see inside the church. 

And in other news, I thought of you tonight Mr. Delivery Man. Where I've moved to has an address that no GPS can accurately direct anyone to. Whenever we order a pizza [or have anyone come to the house] we always tell them "don't use GPS here are the directions..." and of course, the clerk at Domino's didn't listen to us when we ordered so the poor delivery person got lost and had to call me for directions. As the poor thing called and sounded distraught, I wondered if this ever happened to you at Pizza Hut where the person taking an order couldn't manage to give you special directions.... 

I can't speak for that place (We don't use the "D" word around here.), but there should be a field in the order screen that will allow special instructions to print on the receipt.  Of course, depending on how complicated the instructions are, they may or may not realistically fit.

Since I have been back in the business over the last two months, though, I have been pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of Siri on my iPhone.  My first couple of nights, I would follow the directions but assume that I could be half a block or so off, and begin looking for numbers when I got close.  However, I quickly noticed that it was almost always guiding me directly to the house.  What an era to deliver pizzas in!  When I first started in 2004, the idea of following a mobile device's or GPS's directions straight to the house was unheard of.  Now, I have been having probably about 97% accuracy.

There are always outliers, though.  It sounds like your house might be one of them.

Yes, I am in an outlier... actually it is more like my neighborhood is so new that it doesn't have a chance to be on GPS. And I would think that there should be a place for special instructions someplace so that the driver can find us.