Dear Beloved Community,
A little more than four years ago, I got an email from a young student in her final semester of college. She was working on a final project for a class on ministry practices, a project whose contours included interviewing women in various positions of ministry. She asked if I’d be willing to talk with her so that she could, in her words, “better understand what vocational ministry looks like.” We had mutual friends in Jake and Abigail Cook, and I love invitations like these. I quickly wrote this student back and gladly accepted the invitation to talk. A couple weeks later on a Zoom call, I met Olena Withrow for the first time.
I bet neither of us could have imagined the path the next four years would take us on, and how that conversation would wind through the roads of calling and formation with the Spirit’s winds gently at her back. Divinity school brought Lena and Devin to Winston-Salem, but it was Love that brought them to First Baptist on Fifth, Love that called Lena by name and summoned her to ministry, Love that has gifted all of us with her presence in this place, and Love that will accompany them as they go.
Lena began her work on our church staff in August 2023 as our Ministry Assistant, and at every turn, she has inhabited her ever-expanding role into its fullest expression. Along the way, she added words in her title and responsibilities on her job description.
Ministry Assistant, the structural overseer and coordinator for all the church’s ministry areas and database manager for Realm.
Communications Manager, the strategic, creative mind behind the church’s in-house communications and website and collaborative partner on all our public-facing storytelling.
Choral Scholar, the talented soloist and alto section leader in the Sanctuary Choir.
Pastoral Resident, the leader/learner role with endless opportunities for hands-on experience and conversation.
Reverend, one blessed by this beloved community as a minister of the gospel.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention Lena’s unofficial roles among us as yoga teacher, and megaphone enthusiast, and vegetarian chef extraordinaire, and pastoral residency curriculum co-writer, and cheerful welcomer at the front desk. On our staff team, she has been the hub whose work and presence touch every single one of our areas, every single week. Her impact among us simply cannot be overstated.
Soon, she’ll inhabit a new title, Associate Minister with Middle and High School Youth, the shepherd of the wonderful teenagers at First Congregational Church of Western Springs, Illinois, just on the outskirts of Chicago. And I’ll risk speaking on all our behalf when I say just how wildly proud we are of her!
But you, beloved church, have been the necessary companions on Lena’s journey, and on all ours, for that matter. Through you, she heard God’s call. Through you, she has discovered a deep love for the church and for all the Spirit does in local, life-giving beloved community. Through you, she has felt the full blessing to follow the Spirit’s summons into the great Next. And to you, to all of us, she leaves behind gifts we’ll carry a lifetime. In countless ways, Lena’s time with us has been the fullest expression of our commitment to be “a teaching and learning church.”
That first Zoom call meeting when we met flashed through my mind this week as I watched Lena conduct her final pastoral residency roundtable. She opened us with meaningful words from Annie Dilliard about spending a life, guided the conversation with wisdom and care, shared her own curiosities about God’s work of Love in and through the church, and closed us with gratitude and unyielding hope. A wish “to better understand what vocational ministry looks like” four years ago has so clearly grown into a pastor living fully into the knowledge of her calling and confidence of her gifts. Tears of equal parts joy and love sprang to my eyes as I thought to myself, “she’s so ready.” Indeed through her, we all better understand what vocational ministry looks like, for who it reveals is Pastor Lena, beloved of Christ, beloved of the church, and beloved among us.
In the ache of her departure, the hope for what will be, and the gratitude that remains, all these things are true, wrapped in the truth of belovedness that finds and keeps us, every single one.
Together in God’s work of Love,
Pastor Emily
