Letter from Katie: July 16, 2025

While Amy is on sabbatical this summer, we'll have occasional posts from staff, guest preachers, and other members of the IAC community.

Some of my favorite people in my favorite place

Dear Incarnation,

It is perhaps not surprising that I tilt toward overworking (I have lived in DC for 20+ years and the city’s influence hasn’t been all positive.) For that reason, I have to be really disciplined about taking a day of rest each week. (That’s why I generally don’t reply to texts, phone calls, or emails on Mondays.) It’s taken me a long time to learn that I’m actually a better pastor, parent, spouse, and neighbor because I take time away from my work to spend time listening to God. In fact, my best days off usually include a long stretch of time alone in silence. But deep down inside, I still struggle to believe that rest isn’t a waste of time.

In seminary, I stumbled on the following quote in a letter from Reginald Somerset Ward, who was a priest and spiritual director, to someone writing to him for advice and I continue to come back to it whenever I begin to slip into overwork and not resting enough.

“You seem to believe that it is right to misuse the strength God gives you. In my experience, overwork among conscientious souls is a far more real and frequent sin than laziness and we ought to be more ready to suspect it and guard against it than we are. You need eight hours in bed and one day a week free from work if you are to give God your best service. Are you securing this amount of rest? If you are not, then there ought to be a very serious questioning of your conscience in this matter.”

And so I’m delighted to hear stories this summer of your times of rest, enjoying the outdoors, the unexpected gifts that emerge from more spacious schedules and longer days, from kids home from school, and travel to visit friends and family. And when I look out each Sunday on a smaller congregation than usual, I give thanks that so many of us can rest from our work. And I pray that we would find ways to enable more of us to rest, because let’s be honest, vacations and days off are a luxury that not all of us or our neighbors can afford.

And rest for us as individuals and as a congregation is important because we are headed into a busy season as a church.

While it might look and feel like we’ve settled in at Beverley Hills, the work has really just begun. We still need to clear out our two offices at Greenbrier Baptist and move their contents to BHCUMC. We need to organize and make space for our office, storage, and Atrium at BHCUMC. And we will need to learn the rhythms and demands of a new service time in early September.

I will be away from July 21 to August 3 for vacation with my family, but our staff will keep the moving process humming while I’m away. We expect to advertise workdays at GBC and BHCUMC in the coming weeks.

As we look toward this new season at Beverley Hills, I keep praying this collect that we shared at our spring parish meeting:

Holy Spirit, you delight to equip us with all the gifts of service to extend the Realm of God: Raise up among us and empower those among us whom you call to this new work at BHCUMC, that the Body of Christ may grow in strength and health, for the transforming of the world; through Jesus Christ out Lord. Amen.

Much Love,

Katie