Rev. Peter C. de Vries, Ph.D. has served Old Union since November 1993.
To learn more about Rev. Dr. de Vries, go to FaceBook, Linked-In, or his blog.
From the Pastor
While it is my privilege and honor to the longest-serving pastor in Old Union Church’s history, a long pastorate brings with it both joys and challenges. The greatest joy, of course, is the deep relationships I’ve been able to form with so many of you over the past 31 years.
One of the greatest challenges of a long-term pastorate, however, is to avoid falling into a rut and stagnating. When I arrived at Old Union back in the early 90’s, I brought with me a fresh approach and new ideas for how we can do ministry together. But just like fish and milk, fresh ideas have an expiration date. Eventually they morph into tradition and standard operating procedure. In other words, the energy and vitality of the congregation goes flat. We find ourselves going through motions of being a church.
For the most part, we’ve been able to avoid this problem by re-inventing ourselves every five to seven years while I’ve been your pastor. We’ve taken on exciting new ventures and discovered new ways to “do church.” Each time this happens, our church gets a shot in the arm, and we become energized once more in our quest to fulfill Christ’s call for us. Some examples include deciding to begin a building project and identifying “Encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) as our church’s theme. My sabbatical in 2019 was intended to bring another season of re-invention into our congregation, but it was overwhelmed by yet another redefining event: the COVID pandemic.
In March, it will be five years since COVID turned our church (and everything else in our lives) upside down. By my calculation, this means that we’re due for something new to happen at Old Union to re-invigorate our passion for serving Christ. Everything is going well at the church: finances are stable, new people are joining us, and we have strong outreach to our community. But if you pay close attention, you’ll notice that we’re starting to get a bit too…comfortable. And it won’t be long until “comfortable” becomes “stagnant.” If we don’t keep moving forward, we’ll find that we’re slipping backward.
It's time for something new to happen at Old Union Church. It’s time once again for something to come our way that will bring excitement and energy into our congregational life. What is it? I have no idea. And I suppose that’s the point. If we could plan or engineer something new to take place at Old Union, it would be something of our own invention, and not the moving the Holy Spirit.
What we can do, of course, is pray and pay attention. We can pray for God to move among us and to reveal his plan to us. We can pay attention to what God is already doing, so that we can respond with faith and joy.
As we stand at the beginning of a new year, let’s watch for the new thing that God is going to do at Old Union Church.
In Christ,
Peter
While it is my privilege and honor to the longest-serving pastor in Old Union Church’s history, a long pastorate brings with it both joys and challenges. The greatest joy, of course, is the deep relationships I’ve been able to form with so many of you over the past 31 years.
One of the greatest challenges of a long-term pastorate, however, is to avoid falling into a rut and stagnating. When I arrived at Old Union back in the early 90’s, I brought with me a fresh approach and new ideas for how we can do ministry together. But just like fish and milk, fresh ideas have an expiration date. Eventually they morph into tradition and standard operating procedure. In other words, the energy and vitality of the congregation goes flat. We find ourselves going through motions of being a church.
For the most part, we’ve been able to avoid this problem by re-inventing ourselves every five to seven years while I’ve been your pastor. We’ve taken on exciting new ventures and discovered new ways to “do church.” Each time this happens, our church gets a shot in the arm, and we become energized once more in our quest to fulfill Christ’s call for us. Some examples include deciding to begin a building project and identifying “Encourage one another and build each other up” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) as our church’s theme. My sabbatical in 2019 was intended to bring another season of re-invention into our congregation, but it was overwhelmed by yet another redefining event: the COVID pandemic.
In March, it will be five years since COVID turned our church (and everything else in our lives) upside down. By my calculation, this means that we’re due for something new to happen at Old Union to re-invigorate our passion for serving Christ. Everything is going well at the church: finances are stable, new people are joining us, and we have strong outreach to our community. But if you pay close attention, you’ll notice that we’re starting to get a bit too…comfortable. And it won’t be long until “comfortable” becomes “stagnant.” If we don’t keep moving forward, we’ll find that we’re slipping backward.
It's time for something new to happen at Old Union Church. It’s time once again for something to come our way that will bring excitement and energy into our congregational life. What is it? I have no idea. And I suppose that’s the point. If we could plan or engineer something new to take place at Old Union, it would be something of our own invention, and not the moving the Holy Spirit.
What we can do, of course, is pray and pay attention. We can pray for God to move among us and to reveal his plan to us. We can pay attention to what God is already doing, so that we can respond with faith and joy.
As we stand at the beginning of a new year, let’s watch for the new thing that God is going to do at Old Union Church.
In Christ,
Peter
Old Union Presbyterian Church | 200 Union Church Road, Mars, PA 16046
724-538-8672 | [email protected]
724-538-8672 | [email protected]