Dear Hope Lutheran Church,

It was an incredible honor and privilege to receive your call to serve as Hope’s Senior Pastor. The time I have spent with you has been the dearest and most joyful of my life. It is with great joy and true satisfaction that I gladly accept your call to serve as your Senior Pastor. I have communicated this decision with the head of the call team, Jerry Garlington, with our circuit visitor Mike Merker, and with our District President Bill Harmon. Although only a small portion of our members were able to be present this last Saturday the 24th, I also shared this acceptance in service just ahead of the ice storm that hit our community.

I am grateful for your patience these last two weeks as I took time to pray, to listen to the leading of the Spirit, to talk with my family, and to seek wise counsel. It is wise practice in our church body not to rush but to seriously consider what a call entails and enter into it with full readiness. After having your trust to serve the last year and a half in an interim role of leadership, I felt very equipped to understand what is being asked and what this church is seeking. It became very clear to me that the appropriate response to your trust and your call to serve was to accept without any further delay. I have only felt peace in the Lord making that decision.

The work to seek a Senior Pastor was an important time of discernment for us as a congregation. It was appropriate and understandable that in that process strong feelings were expressed, love and passion for the church was laid out, and serious questions of evaluation were discussed. The unifying factor among us through this process has been the drive to make sure the church is led well and that it remains in good hands.

Going forward, my prayer for us is that we can unify upon the one foundation which brings us all together as Christians: on Christ and his cross. It is my solemn promise to you and my sole ambition that I will always and ever, for as long as God gives me to serve at Hope, keep the eyes of every member and visitor of this church focused on Jesus. Centered on him and his gospel, there is no hurt we cannot heal and no purpose that God may have for us as a congregation that we cannot accomplish together by his gracious provision.

Today is a new day together in Christ. A day in which I dearly want to serve you as your pastor, to continue to win your trust, to love you with the deep and abiding love that God has poured out in my heart through the Spirit for each of you. I welcome your counsel. I ask your forgiveness. I humbly request your patience as God continues to equip me to serve you in the days ahead. Though I am a weak sinner as much as any, I am certain the power of God will abound in each us for the sake of Hope and for the community around us which we serve.

Thank you. For making real my lifelong dream to serve when you called me as your associate pastor. Thank you for giving it even further meaning and satisfaction in this greater role as your senior pastor. I cannot wait to see where God will lead us in the days and years ahead as we grow up into Jesus, the head from whom the whole body is nourished.

Your friend and brother,

Senior Pastor Devin Murphy

Pastor Devin shared his acceptance during Saturday evening worship.
Watch the service and sermon here: https://youtube.com/live/7ls2dsrKlvE?feature=share