Wow! What a difference a year makes!\

As of tomorrow, I will have been your Senior Pastor for one full year, and my, what a year it has been. In summer 2020, you welcomed me and my family with open arms (at 6 feet distance) and masked faces, and though it was in a ZOOM room, we immediately felt at home.
Since my arrival, I have heard constant remarks about what I could look forward to when this church was operating with all systems go, and now, Sunday after Sunday, I am beginning to see. Truly, each week as things get back to what many of you knew as normal before the pandemic, I get to experience as new and shiny, like a kid on Christmas morning.

Each week I meet new members and guests and see God’s spirit at work indicating to me the health and vitality of this church. This gives me great hope for the work that God will continue to do. I know that what I have seen thus far is only a foretaste of what is to come. Recently, I have witnessed your commitment to pursuing Jesus with holiness of heart and life as you have returned in person to worship, Sunday school, small groups, and ministries of compassion and justice with joy and excitement for what God is doing. Your love for God overflows in your generosity of time, talent, and treasure. Thank you!

Your lay and clergy staff is exceptional. Great attitudes, excellent ideas, inspired and flexible to try new things, passion for ministry and hearts filled with love for God. It is thrilling for me to see them doing the work that God has called them to do. A special note about our communications team, Karen Godinez, Rique Garza, Christy Moore, and Gerson Chavez, who have led us through COVID-19 and beyond. Through the app, website, social media platforms and live stream, they have kept our congregation connected and opened wide a window for others to connect to our church community and pursue Jesus together at FMC.

I am also encouraged by how many of you have been reading the Bible everyday through our read the New Testament in one year plan. As we approach the mid-point of 2021, my hope is everyone at FMC will join in this devotional endeavor. Tomorrow, we begin Revelation and there we will encounter a message of hope that we all need to hear in these changing and difficult times, “Fear Not!”

I am so grateful to serve as your pastor,

Daniel Irving
Senior Pastor at First Methodist Conroe