Changing Seasons

The church announced at the end of May that I would be dropping down to a half-time position starting in August. Well that is still true, but what’s changed is that I’ll actually be wrapping up my staff position at the Abbotsford Vineyard on August 31. Please note that I say “staff position” because as a family we’re actually not going anywhere.  The Abby Vineyard will still very much be our church home!  I am not going to another church job, but will be working from home with Nancy as we build two home businesses that God had already put into our lives a number of months ago.   We see this as taking a step out of “Ministry” into “ministry” without a job description or a regular paycheque.  We are very excited to see what God has in store for us!

There is a story too long to tell here of how we’ve come to this place, but I’ll give you a few of the main points. Feel totally free to call or email me with any questions you may have about this process.

Many of you know that after 9 yrs at the church, Nancy and I took a 3 month sabbatical last spring. I had been struggling to find vision and energy for my job (for a number of reasons, mostly personal) and hoped that taking a break would be a time for those things to come back. Well, the sabbatical was great in several ways, especially in how God gave me more understanding of who He is, and who he’s created me to be. But it didn’t seem to give me much in the way of vision, direction, or enthusiasm for my job. So the past year has been a process of asking God what’s up, and inviting input from our staff, leadership team, and others, as to what God might have for us.

The idea to go half-time seemed like a good option – to be able to focus more on my primary gifting of facilitating the corporate worship of our church, and letting go of some other unrelated responsibilities. This would provide more time to pursue other things God has been stirring in my heart to do with city church involvements, other musical endeavours, etc.

Somewhat frustratingly, not long after it was announced that I’d be going half-time, I started to feel quite strongly that it might not be enough – that maybe the right path was actually to step away from the job entirely. In discussions with Gary and the LT, they expressed that they felt God nudging them in the same direction, so we took that as confirmation and made the plan to wrap up my 10 years on staff at the end of August.

God has given us so many confirmations as we’ve made this decision. It’s been overwhelming. We’re also so very thankful to be able to step down on a good “note” (pardon the pun) and to be able to continue as “regular” members of this awesome church.

I especially want to thank the staff and leadership team for the tremendous amount of patience and prayerful support they’ve shown as they’ve walked this road with me for the last season. You’ve taken such good care of me and my family! It has been a huge privilege and a pleasure to serve alongside each of you, enjoy many wonderful relationships and grow in worship together.  You truly are our church “family”. We love you and pray for God’s ongoing grace, love and blessing to be poured out on His Body.

Anticipating God’s continued guidance for this next season,

Kevin Boese and family

As I’ve started into Essentials Red (worship history) it’s got me thinking again about how much I’ve grown to appreciate the liturgical expressions that I didn’t grown up with. Whether it’s following the church yearly calendar (advent, christmas, ephiphany, lent, easter, pentecost) on a broader scale, or following the hours of prayer each day, I’ve found great richness in these things. Even now I’m planning my son’s 13th birthday and taking it way more seriously (though not TOO seriously!) as a “rite of passage” because of the influence of these ideas.

What I wrestle with, somewhat, is how much of this rich history of worship can I incorporate into my own expression of worship today, individually, and in groups and in my church? There’s so much good stuff out there! Not to mentioned all the great present-day stuff (mostly in the form of new worship songs) that’s available to us as well. I know part of this struggle is because I like to think that what I invest time in will have a lasting impact, and not just be for the moment. Simple example: if I learn a new song, I want to be able to use it over and over. But I need to be ok if I only ever use it once, or maybe not at all!

As a worship pastor, I feel drawn to use more of the historical christian calendar stuff, like lent which is coming up this week, but it also needs to feel like the rest of my church is drawn into it too – I definitely can’t force it on them!

Anyway, these are some of the thoughts that these things stir up…