Transition Announcement

On behalf of the SPRC I am pleased to announce that Randy Blanchard has been selected by our Bishop as our new pastor.  Randy will join our Pilmoor family on June 23, 2009 and will preach at our June 28 services.  Randy comes to us from Hamlet, NC and is the son of a Methodist Minister.  He holds a BA degree in Business Administration and Economics, and MDiv degree from Duke University.  Randy comes to us with experience serving churches in both rural and urban settings where he has been not only the spiritual leader but was extensively involved in the financial management and long range planning for the churches he has served.

A brunch will be held for Randy on June 28th at 9:45am in the Fellowship Hall and we invite all of our church family to bring a goody to share and come out to give Randy a warm Pilmoor welcome!

Two weeks ago, Karen Pendt, our Staff Parish Relations Committee chair, announced that Mary Jane and I would be leaving in June.  I have been asked by our superintendent, Carl Frazier, to add a couple of things to that announcement today.

First, he has asked me to say to you that the appointment process is continuing, but that things have firmed up enough on one side that we can tell you where we are going, officially now.  On June 23, we will be assuming our duties as co-pastors of the Seaside United Methodist Church in Sunset Beach, NC another coastal community on the Southeastern coast of NC.

Second he asked me to invite your continued prayers as the appointment process continues in relation to Pilmoor.  In other words, we do not have an announcement today about who your new pastor will be.  It was hoped that we could make that announcement today.  But in all probability we will not have an announcement for a few more weeks. 

For those who do not understand the Methodist way of assigning pastors, I will tell you that all of us move on the same day.  Therefore the process of assigning ministers, is a bit like lining up dominos on a table.  Somewhere there is a line of dominos which includes a domino with our name on it.  As Mary Jane and I move to Seaside, their pastor moves to another church, someone moves here, and another to the church where that pastor was and so on.

It would be challenging enough if there were just one line of dominos. But there are often more than a dozen “chains” of appointments usually starting with someone retiring and leaving a vacancy.  But as you can imagine one out of place domino can disrupt multiple chains.  Or, as sometimes happens, you get into the process and things are progressing and a new vacancy occurs that you hadn’t planned on and, thus a new chain.

That being said, I have complete confidence in our District Superintendent and he has assured me and Karen, that he is doing everything possible to ensure that the person who comes to Pilmoor is the right person, has the right gifts and graces and the right match for this very special place.

And in that light, I want to offer you a word that you may take however you choose.  But it was something that Pat reminded me of last week.  Eleven years ago, a pastor came to this church who was preparing to be assigned here.  He met with the Staff-Parish Committee for the customary visit before the appointment…and he wasn’t me.  You see, the person that the bishop intended to assign here eleven years ago, for one reason or another, didn’t work out.  So in early April, Bishop Edwards called the parsonage in Hawkinsville Georgia and said, do you all still want to come to North Carolina?  And the rest, as they say, is history.

So I wish that I or Karen could announce your new pastor today, but I want to reassure you that it’s OK that we don’t.  There is nothing wrong and the delay is caused from circumstances beyond us, but is impacting many appointments across the conference.

So have faith.  God will provide the right person.  Be in prayer for each other and for the cabinet and for the person that God is preparing special for this very special place.