July Message from Rev. Coplin & Newsletter
Dear Church,
This picture was taken on the night of June 13, 2024, just after my ordination as an Elder in the United Methodist Church. It was 10 years to-the-night in the making.
I have been thinking back to the same ordination service in 2014 when a call to vocational ministry became clear. When the time of invitation came, however, I did not walk down front. I was 38 years old and had only just arrived at a time and place in my life where things were beginning to make sense and I didn’t want to mess it up. I wasn’t even sure that it was God’s calling!
As I struggled in prayer that night to loosen my grip on how I thought my life should go, I imagined the mess that answering this call would make on my family’s shared life. In that worry and
disruption, however, I found a stillness and peace like I had never known. I received this as a sign that vocational ministry was the right path. Though it still made no sense, I went ahead and enrolled in online seminary classes. Within a year, we relocated to Kentucky to attend Asbury full time. There were many moments of doubt and worry in those days, but I held fast to that memory of peace in the night as reassurance that I was on the right path. And ten years later, I have to admit that only now does that peace really make sense.
There would be many more dark and confusing nights to come over the next ten years: We changed my career. We relocated far from family and friends. We struggled with the demands of grad school (96 hours!). We grieved the passing of Monica’s parents and settled their estate. We tried and failed to stay in Kentucky. We relocated once again so very far from the people we love. We landed in a new town and struggled with the many challenges of a first appointment. We fought cancer. We struggled with disaffiliation. We saw so, so many friends and colleagues depart our denomination. We endured three months of Monica’s debilitating back pain and surgery. And, last but not least, Covid. These all brought dark nights with little sleep. Yet, we wouldn’t change a thing because it was the path that grew us closer to Christ and to one another.
So, that stillness and peace 10 years ago to-the-night finally makes so much sense to me because it first came not on some sunny day but in a dark night of confusion and worry. And now I know that it would be in the dark nights to come that we would most profoundly know His presence and peace. Perhaps I once thought that growing closer to Jesus meant that sorrow and disruption could no longer reach us, but it was in those moments that we most learned who He is.
This photo marks one of the brightest days of my life, one in which I am grateful to my family, to the many friends, colleagues, and mentors who have walked with me along the way, and most of all to my Lord and Savior who promises to walk with me through all the dark nights to come.
Thank you for supporting us through this celebratory time! Grace and peace to you all!
Brian
View Full Monthly Newsletter, July 2024
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