Dr. Lee and the Call

I believe I am being called to come alongside a community of people responding to God’s invitation to see and hear, expect with hope, and courageously join the new work God is doing to restore God’s world. A community tending with great care and creativity to worship that is at once reverent and joyful. A community that prays together and discerns our authentic expressions of thoughtful faith and faithful action. A community eager to find our place along Jesus’ ministry, following his steps towards the hurting and fearful, towards situations where injustice and oppression prevail. I believe a vibrant faith community is marked by these rhythms of gathering and sending. I hope to inspire and lead these faithful rhythms of the church’s worship and mission. I will love and care for the community.

I am praying for a ministry setting where I can fully and freely utilize my gifts of compassion and leadership. A place where I can nurture the church in articulating the Christian faith grounded in Scripture and confessed through our lives. Together, we will practice hospitality and gentleness, mercy, and forbearance—with one another, in and for the world. I am praying for a community that will encourage and value my commitment to public ministry. Together, we will respond to the Gospel’s call to works of reconciliation and justice.

I hope that the community I serve with will also value and engage my contemplative life, where theology and the human experience, religion and poetry remain in dialogue.

Dear First Presbyterian Church of Dallas,

I am filled with hope as I compose this first letter to greet you—“a church in Texas” I had come to know and quickly admire, now a congregation for whom I am praying daily.

Since the first phone call with your APNC Chair several months ago, curious, creative, and courageous conversations have drawn me in to listen for hope. Precious people across the Zoom screen became companions on my call journey. The bold and hope-filled witness of a church whose heart beats for the city would capture my imagination.

When James and I came to worship with you one December morning, we sensed the hope of the Advent season dwelling and rising in your midst. Your worship is reverent and thoughtful, your welcome is wide, your words and deeds proclaim Christ’s ministry of restoration and mercy. Not only are these the distinct glimpses of FPC Dallas I caught during my visit, but they are also the attributes of a congregation I had described I wanted to belong to, care for, and serve with, as pastor.

It was an extra gift to resonate with your APNC, pastors, and professional staff who represented the FPC Dallas family with warmth, honesty, joy, and compassion—all the ways I hope to express my discipleship in Jesus Christ. I knew that the Spirit was abiding with us as we waited together for clarity and confidence through a prayerful process of discernment. So, it is with awe and gratitude for the divine gifts that have dotted my path to this unexpected call, that I come before you as the candidate for Associate Pastor for Practice and Formation. As a practical theologian, my teaching and scholarship have sought to nurture the church in articulating the Christian faith rooted in Scripture and confessed through our lives. Occasionally, our articulations will be succinct and prophetic. Mostly, they will be awkward and beautiful expressions of our believing again and again in the kin-dom of God. It is in the very parts where we come short that the Holy Spirit fills and forms us with faith, hope, and love beyond our own to send us as co-creators of God’s beloved community. My vocation finds deepest meaning in extending such invitations to spiritual formation.

It will be my joy to lead and accompany you as we learn to bask in God’s love and direct Love’s light brightly towards Dallas and beyond. It will be my privilege to join you in cultivating the legacy of justice-seeking commitments First Presbyterian Church of Dallas has long stewarded. As Associate Pastor for Practice and Formation, I will encourage us to live generously and graciously towards others the way God lives towards us. May we grow in the practices of radical welcome, brave public witness, and joyful spirituality.

James and I look forward to meeting all of you. Our three children Kate, Frances, and Harold may not be ready for Texas summer, but we will prepare them to receive your Texas-sized love!

Grace and peace,