Grateful Reflections on a Blessed Journey
By Pastor Mark Toone
Senior Pastor
In some ways, it seems like yesterday. In some ways, it seems like a world away. I preached my first sermon at Chapel Hill as your new Senior Pastor on September 13, 1987. But I preached my FIRST, first sermon in January of that year as a candidate.
It was a pretty brutal process, honestly. Before the service, when I should have been focusing on getting ready for my message, I did a question-and-answer time in our old youth room. It smelled as musty back then as it does today. And of course, the people who showed up for the Q&A session were largely those who were suspicious of this young, wet-behind-the-ears preacher. And boy, did they have questions. I fielded them as best I could and then, mercifully, was released to spend a few minutes praying before I preached what would be the most consequential sermon of my life.
After the message, I was dismissed and waited as the congregation voted on me. As I’ve shared earlier, I didn’t enjoy the unanimous vote pastor Ellis received. Thirteen folks voted against me. (I suspect a bunch of them were in that youth room, not liking my answers to their questions.) Regardless, a majority said they were willing to take a risk on an untried novice. So, I was in!
Except, I wasn’t. Because I returned to Scotland to finish my studies. And my mentor, Dave Newquist, the single person most responsible for my being in ministry, who happened to be your interim pastor at the time, agreed to hang around for another eight months until I could complete my work and return to Gig Harbor. Which I did in September of that year.
And we were off and running! I told the Lord I would stay at Chapel Hill as long as he willed. (And honestly, there are worse places to be sentenced than Gig Harbor!) But I’m not sure I expected to be here THIS long. Most pastors don’t have the chance of staying in one church for an entire ministry. But I’m so grateful for this rare privilege; of serving my entire senior pastoral career in one place.
Ministry is a long game. It is an accrued set of shared experiences, both good and bad. Hundreds of worship services celebrated together. Hundreds of weddings and baptisms and funerals celebrated together. Hundreds of life experiences shared…together. It is one of the great privileges of my life to have been here long enough to begin to baptize the babies of the babies I baptized so long ago.
But, as the saying goes, all good things must end. Tomorrow will be the last message I will preach as your Senior Pastor. We will gather as one family in one service at 10:00 and do as we have done for 37 years: sing, pray, worship, listen, and hopefully, be filled by the Holy Spirit and empowered to live our lives more like Jesus.
I hope you will join Cyndi and me for this last, special day. And I ask you to pray for me as I prepare my final message. It is no easy task to summarize 37 years of life together. But I will give it my best shot.
Thank you, my sweetheart church, for everything.
Pastor Mark