Installed

Grant and I were officially "installed" as co-pastors of this congregation on Sunday evening, at our "installation service."

I don't know about you, but the language of "installation" always sits a little funny with me. Someone says "installation" and I think "massive art exhibit." Maybe that's not an entirely unhelpful way to think about pastoral ministry - at times it definitely is an art.
Yet the verb form, "installed," isn't much better. Out of context, say "installed" and I think "new tile or carpet." And yes, sometimes people do try to walk all over pastors. Maybe the word just isn't as helpful as something more dynamic might be.

After all, this whole church thing is alive. The church is the PEOPLE, not the building. Our language so often betrays us: "See you AT church." The church isn't a place we can go, it's the people we ARE, living out our lives gathered together and then scattered, sent out into the world. Wherever we go, there's the church, because the church is us: called, claimed, gathered and sent, for the sake of the world God loves.

We may be "installed," but don't expect always to find us here in the congregation's building, as in some well-bolted museum exhibit. We'll see you out and about. We are installed. We are established in the Office of Word & Sacrament ministry. We just won't always be in the office.