After 12 Years, I'll Be Leaving Munger This Summer

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Dear Friends,

After 12 years, I will be leaving Munger this summer; my last Sunday will be Pentecost Sunday, June 5, 2022.

As of July 1, I will become the senior pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I know this news hits you out of nowhere, so here’s what I want you to know: My wife Elaine and I feel as if the Lord is asking us to leave Munger and our home here in Texas and go to Asbury and Oklahoma.  And we believe that this move is the faithful next step God is asking us to take, as difficult as it may be.

You have loved us extravagantly for 12 years, and we’ve been extravagantly happy at Munger!  I preached this past Sunday about letting go of clarity and choosing trust, and that sermon came out of my own struggles to let go of the people and the place we love so much.  But, I know that God has good things for all of us—we just need to trust.

Asbury is an amazing church, and even with my limited perspective I can see that my gifts and Asbury’s gifts have the potential to make a great partnership.  God is good, and I am excited and grateful that the Lord has plans to use me in a new city.

I am also grateful that Highland Park United Methodist Church had the vision to start a new campus in an old church building in East Dallas and that I was invited to be a part of that plan.  The people of HPUMC gave sacrificially to make that vision happen, and I’ve personally seen the gospel change lives at Munger as a result.  I will never stop being grateful for that vision and generosity.

Yet our family is grieving like crazy because we love you so much; and precisely because we love you so much, we know we must be faithful to what we believe the Lord is asking us to do—anything less would be a betrayal of the love and trust you have in us.

As far as who will be the next pastor at Munger, let me briefly sketch how our system works: Munger is a campus of Highland Park UMC, and I am an associate pastor “appointed” to Highland Park United Methodist Church, and so it will be up to the Rev. Paul Rasmussen, senior minister at Highland Park UMC, and Bishop Mike McKee of the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church to determine whom to send to Munger.  Be praying for Paul and the Bishop.

We’ll have the next four months to grieve and give thanks together, and then we’ll be parted for a little while until we’re all reunited together forever.

We have work to do, and each day we get is a gift from God.

“If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.”  [Romans 14:8]

Can’t wait to see you Sunday.

Your friend,

Andrew