This Thanksgiving and Christmas Season I give special thanks to the people of Seal Beach and Grace Community Church.
Thirty-five years ago, January of 1977, my wife Mary, our two children and I stepped into what was then “Grace Brethren Church” at Eighth Street and Central Avenue in Old Town Seal Beach for the very first time. We were simply visitors. We decided to stay. Little did I know or even fathom that I might become the pastor of Grace Church and remain in that role for almost 28 years.
But it happened. In 1984 the church’s members welcomed me as their new pastor. We renamed the church “Grace Community Church” in 1985 because we intended to be truly a “community” church in every meaningful sense of that word. For example, we have offered several “9/11” remembrances including last September 11, when 700 of you came to remember the terrible events of that day on its tenth anniversary. In the spirit of a verse from the Bible that drives my ministry (Jeremiah 29:7), we seek the wellbeing of the community where God has placed us.
Now I look ahead just one more month to when I will retire as the church’s senior pastor. Therefore, this Christmas season is especially poignant to me. I thank this community for the special recognition at the Christmas parade. Much more seriously, the season will be a special challenge to the families, friends and co-workers of the victims at Meritage Salon, many of whom I’ve had opportunity to serve. We should all uphold them in prayer and in as many ways as possible especially at this season of the year.
Sometime around 1999 the church’s board recommended I find an avenue of community service. This led to contacts with the police department. I studied and prepared a chaplaincy program for the department and it was my privilege to be installed as chaplain for the Seal Beach Police Department in October of 2001. Today we have two chaplains. Our opportunities to serve the department and community are many—most significantly the comfort ministries we offered on and after Oct. 12.
I’m not riding into one of our beautiful sunsets! I will become the church’s “pastor emeritus” and stay to support its new leadership. I will seek opportunities to serve the community and I look forward to devoting more time as a chaplain.
I want to take this opportunity to do two things. First, to express my love and appreciation to my church and to this community.
Second, to invite all of you to “A Heritage of Song” at 7 p.m. on Sunday evening, Jan. 8, 2012. It will be at McGaugh School Auditorium. Good music runs deep in my heart, and we will present a program representing the excellence in music I’ve sought to nourish in my church over the past 28 years. A special feature will be bringing back together the “Community Messiah Choir” which presented Handel’s “The Messiah” to the community in the 1990s.
I wish all of you a very merry Christmas, a peaceful and prosperous New Year and all the best God has to offer.
Donald Shoemaker is the senior pastor of Grace Community Church of Seal Beach
