Welcome to out new Pastor

On Sunday, Farragut Presbyterian Church welcomed our new pastor, Matt Nieman, to the pulpit and his family into our community.

Looking around the sanctuary, I saw lots of smiling faces. The biggest smiles, of course, may have been on the faces of my fellow members of the Pastor Nominating Committee. Charged with a daunting task, it is very comforting to know this simple fact: We got it right.

As we celebrated Sunday, I couldn’t help but remember how we got our start.

I was asked, by our church’s nominating committee, to consider a call to serve on the PNC in November 2012. It was Thanksgiving weekend. I remember that I took the call in the lobby of the Turkey Creek Target and, after prayerful consideration, I accepted!

Our committee was approved by the congregation in February 2013 and we started work in March. The work was challenging. Together, we:

• Wrote our church’s Mission Statement and a Mission Study
• Completed our Ministry Information Form (a short profile of FPC)
• Reviewed countless applications (called PIFs). I lost count of the #.

Eventually, we were led to Matt and he was called by God to Farragut.

He came to town in late May to interview with us. The weekend could not have been more perfect. And after our numerous conversations, our chairman offered the position to him and, within a few days, he accepted.

It was a great weekend and our committee really bonded with our new friends from Nebraska.

Over the course of this summer, Matt and Jenni and their boys have made the move to TN and have now settled in our community. At first glance, they really seem to like it.

And, I can tell you, we at FPC really like them.

The nods and smiles on Sunday were the tangible proof. A few congregation members came up to me in the narthex after the service and in the fellowship hall when we had a luncheon to officially welcome the Niemans and their boys to FPC. I’m sure my fellow committee members received the same.

Now that my service on the PNC is complete (and the Monday nights on my calendar are empty), I have returned to service on my original church committee, New Member Development. I attended my first NMDC meeting last week (my first since late 2012) and it was great to be back with my friends on that committee.

The title of Matt’s first sermon was “First Things First.” He spoke about settling in and getting started. He went on to talk about the great things we will all accomplish together.

I have no doubt that we will.

JG

Originally posted 8/12/2014