January 11, 2026
• Rev. Dr. Rob Fuquay
St. Luke’s UMC
January 11, 2026
New Year Series(2)
Pursuing God’s Will Together
The Future of St. Luke’s
Acts 1:15-26 (selected verses)
I know the woman in our church meant it as a compliment, and I choose to take it that way. But recently she came up to me and said, “Rob, you remind me of a TV star.” I could tell she was serious. Thinking she might be talking about one of the stars I knew were my age, I thought she might say Tom Cruise, Nicholas Cage, or maybe Brad Pitt. So somewhat puffed up, I said, “Who might that be?” She said, “You remind me of the guy on Golden Bachelor.”
Now, how do you know you’re getting older? When women say you remind them of the Golden Bachelor. I guess it’s official now that I am entering the golden years! Not that I’ve really needed help realizing that. I’ve been aware for awhile that I am getting older and with that comes the awareness that somewhere down the line is retirement.
For the last couple of years I have been doing a lot of discernment around that question. Last winter I met with the bishop, district superintendent and a couple of our leaders in whom I had confided about this matter. I shared that I was thinking 2-3 more years. The bishop asked, if I could let her know by July which it would be, 2 or 3. And so I came back from my summer break and shared what I had discerned as the right time, and in the following months, we began putting together a process in which a key part was the announcement I sent out in a video message this past Friday, saying that I plan to retire July 1, 2027.
In this video message I share the reasons for this decision. Nothing is wrong. I’m in good health, but I know my energy isn’t what it used to be and I want to be free to spend time with family. An important part of my ministry now is being a grandpa and I feel as called to that as being a pastor, but I need to practice that ministry.
I also shared why we I am announcing this far in advance and that the longer the runway we give this transition the better position it puts us in for not only finding a great next leader who will be the 6th senior pastor in our history, it will also allow us time to move through a healthy transition that keeps our church unified and vital.
One thing St. Luke’s has done is conduct senior pastor transitions really well. We are 5-0! And with the leadership of our bishop and superintendent, the work of our Staff-Parish Relations Committee, and the support of this tremendous congregation, I am going to make sure we go 6-0! Maybe we’ll do even better than the Colts and reach the playoffs and win the Super Bowl!
If you did not receive that video in my Friday email, you can access it by…the QR code I think?
What I want to do now is turn to a scripture story that speaks to this significant announcement today and helps us consider important what discernment means for the future of our church.
As we heard in the reading this morning, one of the first actions of the disciples after Jesus’ death and resurrection was to select a replacement for Judas. Peter stood up among, not just the 11 disciples, but 120 other followers. He said they needed to fill the vacancy of one who was allotted a portion of their ministry. Now, I know there are all kinds of trip hazards in using a story about the vacancy of Judas to refer to my retirement. Judas who betrayed Jesus, was responsible for Jesus’ crucifixion, and who went out and hanged himself. If you can, park those details off to the side, and just consider that this is the first time the leaders of the church dealt with what came to be known as apostolic succession. This has been an important part of ordination process in many Christian denominations, seeing the line of connection to the apostles through laying on of hands at ordination.
**Mike Gehring’s ordination lineage pic
In the Book of Acts, one of the first things the disciples did in facing this decision of succession planning was determine qualifications for the position. They established clear requirements, “So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day when he was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us to his resurrection.”
William Barclay makes a couple observations of these requirements. He says, “First, it tells us that the function of an apostle was to be a witness to the resurrection. The real mark of a Christian is not that one knows about Jesus, but that one knows Jesus.”
Second, it tells us that the qualification of an apostle was that one had kept company with Jesus. The real Christian is the one who lives day by day with Jesus.
So we see that a profile for a leader in the church was created. When I came to St. Luke’s the same was done. A leadership group created a Profile for the kind of Senior Pastor they were looking for. There were five criteria:
• Theological alignment with St. Luke’s as an “open community of Christians”
• Biblical preaching
• Leadership skills, particularly for developing and equipping others
• Stewardship/fund raising abilities
• And be a good representative of St. Luke’s in the community and beyond.
Similar work to create a profile will be happening in this next transition, but at the core is someone, like the apostles were looking for, who not only knows about Jesus, but knows Jesus, and who lives day by day with Jesus.
Something else to notice in this story is the fact that the apostles had a process they followed. They presented two people who met the qualifications, Justus and Matthias. “Then they prayed and said, “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.” And they cast lots for them…”
Now this sounds strange, like the disciples were shooting craps to decide who the next apostle would be. But there is a word to describe what they did, sortilege. It relates to the idea of “sorting.” They had a method for sorting out which is the right person. If you look up sotilege – at top of slide followed by 3 clicks it has a couple other meanings. It is divination by lots, it relates to sorcery. It is also the name of a Canadian whiskey made with maple syrup. So was the future of the church determined by drinking and sorcery? Sometimes you have to wonder, don’t you?
The important point here is that the disciples followed an agreed upon method they believed was used by God. That’s the key. They were fully convinced that God used this method of discernment to reveal the right person.
So the disciples had a method and we do too! First, in the United Methodist Church, the appointment of pastors is the main responsibility and authority of the bishop. Our Bishop in Indiana is Tracy S. Malone. Also, the District Superintendent, Dr. Insuk Peebles, will represent the bishop at many of our meetings. The Bishop makes the appointment in consultation with the Staff Parish Relations Committee. These matters don’t happen through congregational votes. We, as a congregation, are represented by the persons on Staff Parish Relations, so I want to quickly introduce them to you. The chair this year is our former Lay Leader, Stephen Hoskins. Other members are Kathy Armington, Cheryl Pletcher, Dee Brown, Tyrone Ruff, Marsha Reynolds, Ty Smith, and Anne Clark. Executive Directors, Rev Jen Gibbs and Lisa Rockacy also report to SPRC.
We are grateful that the bishop has welcomed us to invite an organization called Church Difference Makers to assist the bishop and cabinet, as well as St. Luke’s, in this search. The founder of Church Difference Makers is Rev. Jim Ozier, who served large congregations and has now been consulting for churches for a number of years. He is leading senior pastor transitions in our largest congregations. Along with him is Dr. Stan Copeland, who just retired last year as the Sr. Pastor of Lovers Lane UMC in Dallas Tx where he served for 27 years. I wanted you to have a chance to meet and hear from them this morning. Would you please welcome Jim and Stan…
So let’s review what we’ve said about our story this morning. The apostles recognize that finding the right leader in the church is very important and that requires discerning God’s will. They followed a process they were convinced God would use to identify that next leader. Both of these are happening at St. Luke’s, but let me make a last observation about this story, and that is the significance of practicing such careful discernment.
The very next thing that happened was the church gathered again in the Upper Room, praying on the Day of Pentecost, and the Holy Spirit came upon them and boldly empowered them to carry on the ministry of Jesus. On that day alone 3,000 people came into the church. In other words, everything the disciples did, meeting together, discerning God’s will, praying and being available to the Holy Spirit to work through them, allowed God to work through them in carrying out God’s activity in the world.
Now what if the disciples had approached their leadership question somewhat differently? What if they would have asked the 120, “What do you think we should do? What would best serve you? I can imagine things getting said like, “Well, I think we need someone who is going to take care of us. We want someone who is not going to change anything. I like our group right here the way it is. We need someone who keeps things just like this.”
And if they had, would anything have ever become of the church? Would we even have a church today? The Holy Spirit is like electricity. Electricity can’t pass through rubber. If you wear rubber gear, you can handle electricity, because electricity will only enter that which it can pass through. And it’s the same with the Holy Spirit. The church must be focused on what God wants to do through us.
This is what makes the church a very odd institution. Archbishop William Temple said over a century ago, "The Church is the only institution that exists primarily for the benefit of those who are not its members." How many clubs do you know that are like that? But that is the very basis for the church’s health and success. The disciples said we must choose someone who has been with Jesus, so that this person understands that our job is to keep doing what He did.