Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

There was a catchy pop song by the late David Bowie who challenged the listener to, “turn and face the strange, ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes.” 

Change, though a known fact of life, always seems to feel strange to us when it comes again. We also know inside that the best way to deal with change is to turn and face it straight on – like we have done a dozen times before in our lives. Your reading this column says that you made it through!

2026 is, like 2025 and 2024 (and 2023 and … ), bringing changes for us at FUMC Plano:

• A right-sized and almost finished campus

• A right-sized and trimmed budget to match our recent giving trends

• A debt-free year and an endowment quickly reaching earning capability to fund our work

• Transitions of a pastor and a children’s minister

• New mission initiatives with area United Methodist churches

• New families joining our church and outreach to the community

• New lay leadership taking strong roles in the same

• New discoveries and growth in individuals as they walk with Jesus through Lent

And as Jesus did in the wilderness, so do we: we face the challenge of changes straight-on and grow through them.

To this end, I will be fully engaged in what industry calls, “change management,” walking with staff, laypeople and groups to equip and assure them that they are fully capable of continuing the strong ministry FUMC Plano has always done. That’s one of the great advantages of our United Methodist Church – we are a strong partnership of clergy and laity; we are connectional! 

Like you, I am curious and excited to discover who our bishop will appoint to be the next lucky pastor to lead FUMC Plano, and I pledge to you that I will do all in my power to equip her or him in that transition before their arrival in July. In the meantime, I thank you for your prayers for the process, your new pastor, and your participation in facing faithfully and expectantly the always strange yet hope-filled ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes! 

Breathe peace.

Still Connecting God and Grace to Self and Community,

Matt Gaston
Lead Pastor