TRISTAN SHERWIN

‘You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows’

Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues

I thought about starting this with some poignant reflection, followed by a meaningful, meandering introduction.

On second thoughts, I decided to go with Dylan and get straight to it.

After much prayer, reflection, journeying and wrestling, I am honoured and humbled to share that I have accepted the invitation to be Senior Pastor at Metro Christian Centre, Bury & Whitefield.

For those who know something of my journey, this will come as a surprise. I assure you, it has taken me by surprise, too.

I won’t share the long-winded story here. But, despite my involvement in church leadership over the past ten years, pastoring a church is something I had sworn—adamantly vowed and zealously guarded against—ever doing again, further to the breakdown I had in 2010.

If you had enquired about the possibility of me being a pastor again during the past decade, you are sure to have encountered my dismissive attitude. I may have joked at the suggestion (Steph has suggested that I change that to choked). I may have simply said, ‘no’. On occasion, to those I could be vulnerable with, I may have delivered an emotional discourse containing ‘Never. Ever. Again.’, and, ‘It would take a burning bush, or two, or three, to even get me to consider it.’

Shockingly, it didn’t, and I’m still trying to work out the mechanics of just how this has happened.

I’d tried my best to protect myself from ever changing my stance about this issue. I’d locked the door of my heart towards it, jammed it shut, and planted a minefield before it.

I thought it would take an army to bring my internal defences down—some forceful, all-out, frontal assault. Yet, God, in what I can only describe as a ‘Splinter-Cell-like’ manoeuvre, slipped through the barricade and has managed to soften, heal and resurrect a part of me that I thought was dead and buried.

I know there will be people reading this who will feel uncomfortable with this ‘God-talk’. But honestly, this is nothing short of miraculous.

Again, I’m humbled and honoured to accept this invitation, but I’m also awed and, to be honest, a tad scared. There is a long journey ahead of us at MCC, and I’m curious and excited to see what God is able to do.

Steph and I are deeply thankful for all of the support and prayers we have received over the years, and deeply appreciative of them in what lies before us.

I wish to thank our family at MCC, and the church leadership, for inviting me into this role, and for allowing me to take the past six months to prayerfully wrestle with the decision.

I also want to say a BIG THANK YOU to all my engineering pals over the past twenty-five years! I’m not going to disappear, but I am waving good-bye to structural engineering (maybe forever, maybe for now). Thank you for the delight of working alongside you.

Thank you!

T.

(For the curious: I have my notice period to work through with my current employer, and then it’s ‘all go’ from the end of June.)

‘Remember what you said to me, your servant

I hang on to these words for dear life!

These words hold me up in bad times;

yes, your promises rejuvenate me’

Psalm 119: 49-50, The Message