As I sit at my very messy desk, I am thinking about the many years I have been in ministry in some way or another. The fall of my Junior Year of College, I was heading into ministry in a unique way. I would drive to two small churches each Sunday. One with three people and the other with seven or eight. Soon after I stopped serving those churches, one turned from a church into a building. My name was on the Missouri Conference Website as being the pastor for a long time after I was gone and the church had seen its last sermons. The church can be slow to awknowlege death. To recognize reality. While I know that there have been countless sermons, funerals and weddings, what else does it take to be faithful in ministry? What does it take to move a church from where we are to where God wants us to be? While at Lee's Summit, I watched as Pastor Jeff led people from where they were to where they are now. From a small church with 125 in worship to a flourishing church with close to a thousand in worship each weekend. He helped them see what was uncomfortable about where they were and where they needed to go. Now they send missionaries all over and do lots of worship, ministry, and have a growing youth program, families, and parking issues. Ministry changes, and settings change. Places where I pray for congregations take different shapes. The ideas about how to do ministry better keep being presented at conference after conference. Yet, all the time I have invested in the course of ministry (twelve years) does not prepare me for what is ahead. What is ahead, and what will be the outcomes of my service to God in this place? God, lead me in your ways. Help me to learn from the past and look to the future. Thank you for the ways you have paved for blessings in this place. Let me pave new ways for those who will come after me. With your help, Pastor Emily Hagan