PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark looks at the Irises that he planted in the parsonage garden and reflects on the tremendous spiritual legacy of New Brunswick Theological Seminary.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/921706/
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #17
April 24, 2023
New Brunswick Theological Seminary Legacy
The Irises in my yard are now blooming. I certainly enjoy all the spring flowers that come up in the parsonage lawn but these Irises have special meaning to me. They remind me of the rich legacy that I carry with me as a graduate of New Brunswick Theological Seminary here in New Jersey. It is quite a legacy.
It was graduates of New Brunswick Seminary who first were missionaries in Oman. Other graduates began a mission to India and supplied the first female physician there so that women, with modesty concerns, would accept medical assistance from a doctor. It was a graduate of this same seminary who founded the Korean Presbyterian Church and translated the Bible into the Korean language. There are many Korean Presbyterian Churches in our area now, all because of a New Brunswick Theological Seminary graduate.
Even more locally, our congregation in Bergenfield, NJ has been served by a number of pastors in the ninety-nine years since its founding. It was founded by a New Brunswick graduate and of the seven pastors who served here, five have been New Brunswick graduates. Our seminary alumni have a long and distinguished legacy that I was given. When I think of this legacy, I realize how much I have to live up to.
So, what do these Irises have to do with this legacy and what do they have to do with New Brunswick Theological Seminary? A number of years ago, the seminary building moved from 17 Seminary Place in New Brunswick to 35 Seminary Place in New Brunswick. The old seminary building had an entrance banked with irises. They were set to be trampled when the old building would be demolished in preparation for the new building.
It burned my heart when I thought of those beautiful irises being plowed into oblivion. I borrowed a shovel from the janitor as well as a garbage bag. Soon I had iris bulbs from the old seminary building in the garden of the Bergenfield parsonage. There they stay and remind me of the fine legacy that I am a part of and a reminder that I must do my best to pass on that fine legacy of being Christ’s missionaries.
What is your Christian legacy? What things do you have to live up to? Live into your legacy well and continue to do things as great as your forebearers in the faith.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#NBTS #Missionaries
#NewBrunswickTheologicalSeminary
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #16
April 17, 2023
Hispanic Outreach in God’s Time
Seventeen years ago I received a call to pastor Clinton Avenue Reformed Church. At that time I was told that our local high school had twenty-six different languages spoken by students. We at the church of course spoke only English. Our history has been that of a white protestant middle-class church in a white protestant, middle-class town. It seemed to work for decades until the town changed around us. Beginning in the 1980’s and continuing in decades afterward, we experienced “white-flight” from our town and watched in despair as our congregation shrank and fewer and fewer of our congregants lived in town.
We tried to do outreach to new neighbors who were largely immigrants from the Dominican Republic. We sought a Spanish-speaking student intern from our local seminary but none was to be found. Our consistory sent me to Costa Rica for a Spanish immersion class. I learned a lot of Spanish but am far from fluent. Fresh off this experience we tried to hold a bi-lingual service. No Spanish speakers ever came.
A wise Hispanic minister in our denomination gave me some advice that I needed to hear. He told me that even if I become fluent, Spanish speaking immigrants would never come if a white man was running the services. Immigrants, he told me, will only trust other immigrants. He assured me that this was nothing personal against me, it was simply the mentality of immigrants.
Our consistory had ongoing discussions and we held congregational meetings. Staff members from the Reformed Church in America shared demographic studies with us. All of the studies showed that we were correct; we needed Hispanic outreach. We began a search process to find someone who could do Spanish-language outreach.
We began our search when we were plagued by Covid-19. Our outreach efforts came to a screeching halt as we struggled to keep worshipping without being able to meet in person. We had no time for things other than survival. I was frustrated that we could not do this important work and wondered when the plague would ever end. Whenever I expressed impatience, a faithful Christian woman in our Bible study kept assuring me that in God’s time, all would be well.
Finally Covid-19 diminished and we re-started our search process. We were diligent but had few candidates. We prayed and interviewed people. Near the end of what seemed like a hopeless project, we received a new profile. He was a second career seminary student. He lived just a few towns over and was an immigrant from Columbia.
After prayerful consideration, we hired him to begin this new ministry. He has been working with us for four months now, building contacts and talking to people. He is running an ESL program as well as a Bible study. Recently we began to advertise these programs with a banner and soon a postcard mailing will follow.
We prayed hard and worked hard but ultimately God gave us the resources we needed in God’s time, not ours. And so our walk to outreach that will bring our congregation into similar demographics with our community has really begun. This has been decades in the making and led us to many dead ends and many reversals from our course. Yet, we have begun and I pray that God will bless the work that we have prayed for and worked for all these years.
It was all done in God’s time.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#Outreach #HispanicNeighbors
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark talks the quest of his congregation to begin outreach to Spanish-Speaking neighbors and the obstacles that were involved but finally it has begun in God’s time, not our time.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/910821/
PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark talks about the importance of multi-generational mentoring to develop people interested in community service.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/901401
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #15
April 10, 2023
Grandpa’s Mentoring
Those of you who are approximately my age remember that every September when school started again all the students were given the assignment to write an essay, “what I did on my summer vacation.” My age group also remembers the comedians “Cheech and Chong” doing a controversial skit around that same subject. There are variants on that theme each week of our lives when people ask us, “what are you doing over the weekend?” or “where are you going on vacation?”
This week I was very pleased with the answer that a young man, Liam, who had a great answer to that question. He was on spring break from school. His grandfather, Jack, is one of the volunteers who makes lunches for our Day-Laborer Ministry. Jack and Liam are not members of our congregation although I wish they were. They are part of the UCC Church in nearby Cresskill. We have partnered with that congregation for years in this ministry.
I have met Liam before. On the occasion of school holidays he has sometimes come and help prepare the lunches for distribution. This week, on the week of his school vacation, he chose to come and help us again. He could have stayed sleeping late in bed. Liam also had the option of staying home and playing games or watching television. He made a different choice, a choice to come and prepare lunches for those less fortunate than himself. I celebrate that he made such a choice.
So, what did he do? He carried boxes of supplies. He loaded bags with chips, cookies, apples, water and sandwiches. He also filled three boxes of prepared lunch bags. There were thirty-six lunches made altogether. He did all this work happily without complaint. He didn’t even complain about bringing the extra supplies back into the storeroom.
When he had so many other options of how to use his time, why would he make such a choice? I believe that in part it was because of the mentoring of Grandpa Jack. Grandpa Jack introduced him to this mission and showed his enthusiasm for this work. Grandpa Jack led by example. He taught by showing and doing and that is often the best learning.
A new generation is now helping with this ministry because of this mentoring. This is an example for all of us who mentor children in one way or another. Our influence in the young can be a positive or a negative. The young will learn both from what we do as well as what we do not do.
Do we show the young that worship of God is important? Are we demonstrating that prayer is crucial to a life filled with Christ’s peace? Are we demonstrating that service to others is more important than personal comfort?
Let all of us grown-ups be mindful of what we are teaching the next generations.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#ChristianService #Mentoring
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark talks about his daughter’s wedding and the hopes he has for her future.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/892683/
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #14
April 3, 2023
Marriage is not Thanksgiving Dinner
My daughter got married on Saturday and I enjoyed it immensely. It was a day of celebration and it was a day of uniting family and friends for a joyous occasion. For three years of COVID we have not had very many things to celebrate and it was good to have happy festivities again.
A few people were a bit surprised when my daughter chose to have no one walk down the aisle with her or “give her away.” She must be a bit like her parents. We didn’t have anyone “give away” Pam either. She and I walked down the aisle together to be married in 1981.
My daughter also did not have me preside over the ceremony either. She chose to have a beloved professor from seminary perform the wedding. Some folks wondered why. I don’t know but that is OK. It was nice to be able to sit and enjoy the ceremony without being responsible for the event. I got to be the “father of the bride” first and a minister second. It doesn’t get much better than that.
I did conduct the service of Holy Communion. As part of that service both the groom’s father and I were two of those who distributed the elements. It was a joy and honor to serve the wedding party communion, especially my daughter and son-in-law who were having communion for the first time as a married couple.
Most people never get to see their mother’s wedding. My grandson did. This is a second marriage for my daughter. She and her husband included him in the ceremony as they promised to care for him and guide him all of his life. It was wonderful to see my grandson involved in the wedding and he relates well to my new son-in-law. This is a relief. His protection is one of my foremost priorities.
It was a fabulous day but I hope that this wedding is not a Thanksgiving dinner. What does a wedding have to do with Thanksgiving? Every year I enjoy Thanksgiving with family and friends. There are days and weeks of preparation but it is over in a few hours. The leftovers are gone within a week and the whole day is forgotten until the following fall.
I want this wedding to be forever, not over within a few hours or even a week. It is up to this new couple to put their full energy into making this marriage work but it is not only their responsibility. It is the responsibility of all of us to support and give our help in strengthening their marriage. Marriage is difficult and those of us who were part of the wedding must help them in their marriage.
Like Thanksgiving, a wedding takes a long time to prepare. Unlike Thanksgiving, a wedding is meant to last forever, not a few hours. We want all of our months of preparation to lead to a lifelong event. I pray that we all will work together to make this outcome happen.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#Marriage #MaritalCommittment
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
PastorMarkCast
In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark celebrates the ordination of Rev. Arlene Lillian Romaine as a Minister of Word and Sacrament. He also describes the “Laying on of Hands” and recalls his own experience when he was ordained thirty-nine years ago.
Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.
Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/882652/
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #13
March 27, 2023
Passing on The Holy Spirit
Our area Reformed Churches had a wonderful celebration yesterday afternoon. We ordained a new Minister of Word and Sacrament and installed her as the new pastor of a church not far from mine. As part of the service of ordination, those of us who are ordained to that office place our hands upon the person being ordained. It symbolizes the passing on of the Holy Spirit to a new minister. I have never been part of a service of ordination and not felt moved by it. No, I don’t feel any electrical jolts and I certainly have not falling to the floor, but the symbolism is important and the I have always felt God’s Spirit present at such times.
I had never experienced this ritual until I myself was ordained thirty-nine years ago. I was told about it and it was described to me in seminary but hearing about it is not the same as experiencing it. When I knelt to receive the “laying on of hands” it seemed that every minister present, and all the ministers before me were in that room giving me their support in the present as well as the future. I felt the warmth of God’s presence.
To this day I still remember that feeling of God’s presence at my ordination. It is a memory that I cultivate because a minister faces circumstances that are difficult and require that memory and assurance that you really are called to minister in God’s name. Many people perceive that ministers have easy lives. Perhaps that was true in past generations when the church was popular and ministers honored but those days have long since left us. A majority of citizens do not attend church nor believe that faith is valuable. Ministers, who once were held in high esteem, for a variety of reasons, are not valued as they once were. When days are difficult, we who are ordained must rely on intangible feeling of Christ’s presence and the memory of the support that we received at our ordinations.
I pray the best for the new Reformed Church minister, Rev. Arlene Lillian Romaine, as she begins her ministry at English Neighborhood Reformed Church. I pray that she will have few frustrating days and that she will not despair during difficult periods of ministry. I pray that the feeling she had during the “laying on of hands” will never leave her and will be a strength for her during spiritually dry times. I pray that God will always be with her, guiding her steps that she may not stray from her calling.
Arlene is called. She is ordained. The Spirit is upon her. May her ministry bear much fruit. God bless you, Rev. Arlene Lillian Romaine.
#ReformedChurchInAmerica #PastorMarkAuthor
#BergenCounty #BergenfieldNJ
#EngishNeighborhoodReformed Church #RevArleneromaine
#LayingonofHands #HolySpirit
To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:
Pastor Mark Author 