Bryan Burton baptizing our sons Ethan and Isaac.
This morning was Rev. Dr. Bryan Burton's last Sunday as the senior pastor of John Knox Presbyterian Church in Seattle. While I had the opportunity to share my gratitude during this morning's worship service there is no way I would have been able to have made it through. I would have like to have said the following. For the past eight and a half years I have had the privilege and honor of working with Bryan. He has been a pastor, boss, friend, and spiritual father to me. I have learned much about who Jesus Christ is for the world, for the church, and for me. I have led worship with him on over a thousand different occasions including Sunday worship services, weddings, memorial services, Advent and Lent services, prayer meetings, and the list goes on. In all of those years I think there has only been one time when we disagreed on how we should approach a worship service. I only mention that now because that really is an amazing stat when you consider how much we have worked together, and how often pastor/music director relations turn acrimonious. We are on the same page. To quote C.S. Lewis from Four Loves...
In this kind of love..."Do you love me?" means "Do you see the same truth?" Or at least "Do you care about the same truth?" The man who agrees with us that some question, little regarded by others, is of great importance can be our Friend. He need not agree with us about the answer.
We view truth the same way.
Before moving to Seattle I was working with Michael Card, an artist and songwriter from Tennessee, who almost kicked me off the tour bus after learning that I had the possibility of working with Bryan. Michael's musical life and ministry was born out of his relationship with his mentor and friend, Bill Lane. It was Michael's hope that I would be able to find a similar mentor and friend in Bryan, who Michael referred to as "the BIll Lane of pastors"; a high complement when you get to know a little bit about the scholar, Dr. Lane. I cannot thank Michael enough for pushing me away from the Nashville gospel music scene towards working with Bryan in Seattle.
The calling here was to a specific church and people and it got messy. People came and people left. We shepherded a new work of the Holy Spirit here. When a new work like this happens it is most often accompanied by a surgeon's scalpel, not a beach ball. While our time here was never really a joyride, it was always a joy-filled journey. Or to quote Michael Card, "there is a joy in the journey."
With Bryan, Dad & Michael
At the heart of the changes at John Knox Presbyterian Church over the last several years has been a change in how we worship together. I love hymns. If you've been hanging around this blog for a little while you know that I love the psalms. I also love good spiritual songs, and sometimes these spiritual songs have been written within the past decade, year, week or day. I am thankful to say that most people moved with us. Not that we've always done our work flawlessly. I can only hope that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ will transform our wasted efforts and mistakes into his own glory. But change has come and it was most certainly evident this morning. From reggae to traditional hymns to chant to rock and roll we worshiped together and people sang...I mean REALLY sang!
Because of Bryan's encouragement I am now a seminary student and on the road to ordination. I think a big part of this has to do with the way in which Bryan doesn't sugar coat the truth. There is nothing easy about ministry in the church and there are no viable short cuts to doing the right thing. Bryan has always been clear about what excites and frustrates him. I believe I am still called to work in the Church because of his guidance and direction.
While this morning was a goodbye of sorts I will see Bryan tomorrow afternoon, and for the next several Mondays, as he is also my professor for Systematic Theology at Fuller Seminary. I don't know where Bryan will land next, but I trust that it will involve writing, teaching and preaching. It is in this last category of preaching that I am by far most grateful to God for Bryan Burton. There was not a Sunday that went by where the gospel was not preached. Bryan sees everything through the lens of Jesus Christ and this is made evident in the way in which he lives and breathes and ministers. This is not the end, only a new beginning.
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