At the close of worship on Sunday, we shared a vital staff announcement: Our campus minister and associate pastor, Lewis Cox, will be leaving Collegiate/Wesley this summer. Here’s how Lewis describes the discernment that led to this change:
It is with a heavy heart and lots of discernment that I shared in worship that I will be transitioning out of my role here as your Associate Pastor and Campus Minister. All transitions are complicated, but especially ones where what is happening next is not entirely easy to explain. The most succinct answer that I have to the “What’s next for Lewis?” question is that I will be starting a year-long Clinical Pastoral Education Residency at Unity Point Hospital in Des Moines. This program, abbreviated as CPE, is one part serving as a Hospital Chaplain (visiting patients, providing pastoral care, partaking in sacraments, leading chapel services) and one part education in pastoral care in a hospital setting.
You may recall we have been celebrating the recent news that Lewis completed the process last February to be approved for ordination as an elder in the United Methodist Church. Here’s Lewis again:
This summer at our state-wide gathering of United Methodists, I am up for ordination as an Elder. Ordination as an Elder is a life-long commitment to Word, Order, Sacrament, and Service, or as one of our students lovingly put it, “it’s like tenure but for pastors.”
Lewis wants us to know these decisions were not made lightly, but only after much prayer, discernment, encouragement, wise voices, and kind words.
This transition will occur in June or July, so Lewis will remain in his current role until then. Our SPRC (Staff/Parish Relations Committee) and the Wesley Board are already at work to communicate about this opening in our staff and to plan for this transition, in cooperation with our Bishop’s Cabinet and our District Superintendent.
As we move through this time of transition, we’d ask your prayers
· for Lewis and all that lies ahead for him;
· for our leaders and staff here at Collegiate/Wesley who will be working through this transition and welcoming our next campus minister and associate pastor;
· for our Wesley Center students and our ongoing ministry to and with the ISU community.
And perhaps most importantly, we ask your prayers for our next campus minister who will, we hope, join our staff this summer, whether they come through the UMC’s appointive process or more informal means. We trust that the Holy Spirit is already at work bringing that about, as we continue our faithful ministry through Collegiate/Wesley.
