We are grateful to have Rev. Dr. Randle (Rick) Mixon leading us as our Interim Pastor during this season of redefinition and transition. We believe this time offers our congregation great gifts—a time to deepen our commitments to each other and our shared commitments to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly in the work.
Here’s some words from Rick from his first week:
Hello all. Pastor Rick reporting for duty. It’s already been a full week as I begin my time as your interim pastor. I am grateful for all the lovely ways I have been made to feel welcome – special thanks to Xan and Kat and Val for filling me in and pointing me in right (or at least, useful) directions. It was good to connect with many of you on Sunday morning and I look forward to knowing you all better. As I am sure you do, I appreciate the gifts Heather Entrekin brought over the month of September, including her thoughtful, moving sermon Sunday.
I am coming to you from Cambridge, Massachusetts, where I spent the past 14 months as interim pastor for Old Cambridge Baptist Church. Prior to that I was the interim pastor for 2.5 years at Fairview Community Church in Costa Mesa, California and before that I pastored the First Baptist Church of Palo Alto, California, for 14 years. I also did a 2.5-year interim at First Baptist (now United) Church in Granville, Ohio and 13 months at Dolores Street Baptist Church in San Francisco, California. This is my fifth interim then. It is work I find both important and interesting. I have done training in this work through the Interim Ministries Network.
In addition, I am a graduate of Columbia University (BA 1969), the American Baptist Seminary of the West (MDiv 1973), California State University – Hayward (MS in Marriage and Family Therapy 1985), and the Graduate Theological Union (PhD in Religion and Psychology 1994). For the past several years I have served as Affiliate Professor of Pastoral Care at Berkeley School of Theology (formerly the American Baptist Seminary of the West) where I teach an introductory course in pastoral/congregational care and advise seven DMin students. Aside from work, I have sung in choirs all my life and I love to travel.
As I said Sunday, I believe all ministry is transitional. As practitioners of an ancient tradition of discipleship, we are called to a journey of growing and deepening our faith. As I see it, the work of an interim time covers three important phases – who have we been, who are we now, who do we want to be? It could also be characterized as remembering (which often includes grief for what is lost – an inevitability of any change,) discerning, and envisioning. This is a time when we are likely to have many more questions than we do answers and that’s OK. As Rilke reminds us, we should love the questions and live into them as we come to understand ourselves better and look to the future. I am delighted to be with you for this phase of your journey as a historic and lively community.