Important Update from Pastor Becca
October 18, 2020

Dear Friends:
Tonight in worship I shared some news that I’d also like to share with you as our wider community. In this season of change, I have found that my time as pastor of Beacon Church is coming to an end. This is bittersweet, but even as I mourn leaving a community I’ve loved for almost a decade, I am excited for Beacon to live and continue to grow beyond the vision with which we started all those years ago. I often talk about how our hearts have the capacity to grow exponentially, to become bigger and bigger as we learn to love more and more people. That is the nature of Love, to infinitely welcome in more people, to build longer tables and add more chairs. That has always been the DNA of this community. And so, my heart has expanded in more ways than I ever imagined since the first day I walked through the doors in the spring of 2010.
I’ve loved Beacon’s neighbors on Cumberland Street; you all have welcomed me so kindly and have been the kind of neighbors everyone dreams of having. I’ve loved kiddos from all over the neighborhood—you have filled Beacon’s yard and art studio and sanctuary with laughter and art and stories. Witnessing you all grow (even some of you graduating high school!) and getting to know your families has been a delight. I’ve loved our youth volunteers and church partners—during many summers you painted walls, put pews on wheels, tended the yard and garden, and most of all, joined the life of this neighborhood in ways that made the table longer and our hearts bigger.
I’ve loved each and every one of the 200 lightbulbs in Beacon’s sanctuary, and all the people that those lights represent. I’ve loved all the glitter, words, gingerbread houses, paint, and stories.
And I have loved, more deeply than I have the words to express, all of you who have allowed me to walk alongside you as we all learn how to live out our faith. In hospital rooms and on the front sidewalk and under the lights, we have cried and prayed and sung and laughed and shared meals together. We’ve wrestled with Scripture, asked big questions, named our grief, and lived as people of hope. We’ve been astounded at God’s provision in the face of scarcity. We’ve witnessed death and resurrection. We have been knit together into a family of faith at the communion table week after week, year after year.
While Love is infinite in nature, most other things about being human involve certain limitations. As my heart has grown to accommodate so much love – for this community, for my family and my son, for the other church I serve – my energy, physical endurance, and ability to balance all the spinning plates have reached their limits. At the same time, Beacon’s leadership has been leading faithfully and, in this strange time particularly, this community deserves pastoral leadership that can lead it into the next season.
What has become clear in this discernment process is that the leadership of Beacon Church is ready to write its next chapter with God leading the way. The people of Beacon are committed to embodying the love of Jesus by sharing life with our neighbors and offering whatever gifts we have to enrich the life of each person we encounter . You all are clearly committed to cultivating a space where people encounter the radically transformative love of Christ and an invitation to be a part of God’s work in the world: the work of justice, the work of kingdom-building, the work of love, guided by the fierce and comforting Holy Spirit. You are some of the most generous and faithful people I’ve ever known. This work has always been an adventure, and I am excited to see what new shape and form it may take for this community in the years to come.
My gratitude for this church and this neighborhood goes beyond words (or paint or even glitter). It has been the highest honor and greatest privilege to serve and love you. I will carry you in my heart, always. May the abundant love of God, deep and abiding peace of Christ, and comfort and guidance of the Holy Spirit be with you now and always.
With deepest gratitude,
Becca
Pastor Becca’s last Sunday will be January 31, 2021
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