Worship Service Sunday at 11 AM
May 21, 2023
"Destinations"
The Rev. Bill Charles
John Wiederholt Has Retired
The Rev. John Wiederholt, our pastor since 2002 is retiring on May 1. His writing and preaching will no longer be available on this website. Newsletters for the First Presbyterian Church of Collinsville and the Danube Presbyterian Church will continue to be posted here. We wish John all the best in retirement.
The Rev. John Wiederholt, our pastor since 2002 is retiring on May 1. His writing and preaching will no longer be available on this website. Newsletters for the First Presbyterian Church of Collinsville and the Danube Presbyterian Church will continue to be posted here. We wish John all the best in retirement.
A Fond Farewell
By John Wiederholt
To my brothers and sisters in faith at the First Presbyterian Church of Collinsville. This is the last letter To the Church Family that I will send to you. I have held off retirement for as long as I can. My journey now goes in another direction. Your journey will inevitably involve change as well. However, I want to make it clear that I am filled with hope for you. You have heard nearly 1000 sermons from me. Now you will hear new voices with new ideas. The Lord will provide for you all the necessary elements of a new adventure in faith. Changing conditions in the church and in the world will reshape all of our ministries. We will be forced to restructure our boundaries and work together perhaps as never before. What will not change is God’s Spirit guiding us and binding us together as people of God.
I am filled with hope for my own journey as well. I am leaving my work with you, but I am sure that God is calling me to other work of some sort. I have learned a lot about ministry since I was ordained in 1970 and I hope to share some of that in some way or other with my brothers and sisters in ministry many of whom were not yet born in 1970. My little letters to the church family will no longer appear here, but I am gathering some of them together in a little book which I will make available somewhere or other for download at little or no cost. I will most likely return to the internet at some point with more writing and some video projects.
I want you to know that when I was very young, I decided that no one else was worth following but the Lord Jesus. I remain convinced that following is the best and most important decision that a person can make in life. I have never regretted making it. As a young person I decided that God was calling me to be a Presbyterian minister. I have never regretted that decision either. However, like everyone else who has chosen to follow that path I have had some moments when I wished that the Lord Jesus had sent me or would send me somewhere else to do my ministering. To the best of my recollection none of those moments have come during my service to the First Presbyterian Church of Collinsville.
The Lord bless you and keep you now and forever.
John
I am filled with hope for my own journey as well. I am leaving my work with you, but I am sure that God is calling me to other work of some sort. I have learned a lot about ministry since I was ordained in 1970 and I hope to share some of that in some way or other with my brothers and sisters in ministry many of whom were not yet born in 1970. My little letters to the church family will no longer appear here, but I am gathering some of them together in a little book which I will make available somewhere or other for download at little or no cost. I will most likely return to the internet at some point with more writing and some video projects.
I want you to know that when I was very young, I decided that no one else was worth following but the Lord Jesus. I remain convinced that following is the best and most important decision that a person can make in life. I have never regretted making it. As a young person I decided that God was calling me to be a Presbyterian minister. I have never regretted that decision either. However, like everyone else who has chosen to follow that path I have had some moments when I wished that the Lord Jesus had sent me or would send me somewhere else to do my ministering. To the best of my recollection none of those moments have come during my service to the First Presbyterian Church of Collinsville.
The Lord bless you and keep you now and forever.
John
Resources for Helping those Suffering Food Insecurity
Grace Network
City of Martinsville-Healthy Food Hub
Food Insecurity in Henry County
Many Hands Giving Food in Henry County
PCUSA – Hunger action Congregations
A letter from our partners at Grace Network, Martinsville/Henry County
A Sparkling Church
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