Introducing Pastor Anita Peebles

By Lupe Carlos III

Good morning church.  My name is Lupe Carlos.  I was on the search committee for our new associate pastor.
I’ve been given the privilege of introducing Anita today.  

I want to start by asking how many people here are 50-ish or older, show of hands.  
Me too.  
I’m old enough that I marched in Denver’s first civil rights march in 1968. 
I’ve been marching for 50 years. 
I’m tired.  
I’m bent.  
But I am NOT broken.  


I know that, by the grace of GOD, and so help us -Advil and support hose, you and I can march another thousand miles if we have to.  
And we will have to.
But…Church, I bring good news today!
There’s a NEW generation coming of age. Or as we’ve come to call them, THE NEXT GENERATION. 

This next generation of young people are filled with passion, compassion, intelligence and they have fresh legs.  

They’re well educated and highly motivated.  
They have the means and the will to protect our planet and turn the page on hate.
They have a one-word motto- ENOUGH!
They’re on their way. 
There are millions upon millions of them.    3 billion people in the world are 25 or younger.
And they’re just over that hill.  Right there. 
In fact, the first ones are already here.
Have you met them?
Have you sat and talked with them? 
Have you gotten to know them?
Karen and I were fortunate to have 4 of them at our home for a week this spring. 
They have new ideas, new perspectives, they’ll engineer new technologies, and they have global connectivity.
They’ve studied us and they’re watching us. 

It may not be an exaggeration to say that they are the next evolution of human kind.  They have no choice, do they?  

Evolution has instructed us to reproduce as fast as possible, take as much territory as we can- as fast as possible, to hoard as many resources as possible and eliminate all competition.  So that our tribe survives- without regard for other people or our precious planet. 
This is a spiritually infantile way to live.  To that these young people say, ENOUGH.  


When looking for a new associate pastor we gave a lot of thought to OUR next generation.  
During our exhaustive first year of searching we looked at dozens of applicants.  We had skyped interviews and even had a couple of them fly out.  None of them were exactly what we wanted for Seattle First Baptist Church.
At the end of the first year we re-wrote our job description and included our list of vales. We asked the applicants to give examples of how their lives reflect each of these values.  Very few applicants could do that.  But when we read Anita’s application we were in tears.
As I read Anita’s resume and heard her answer our questions I became more and more excited at the prospect of having this amazing young person support all members of SFBC, but especially our young people.  Anita IS the person we want to pass our values on to OUR next generation.
How blessed are we to have on our leadership team this amazing young leader?

My next few miles on this road will be dedicated to learning humility and growing my faith so I can take just a half step back and be willing to be led by these breathtaking young people.  To suspend judgement, and give deep thought and prayer before I utter these words, “because that’s how we’ve always done it”.  
I commit to approach Anita with a generous heart and make a gift to her- the gifts that life has given me. 
I have a little about Anita I’d like to read to Y’ALL.
·         Anita is a native of Michigan 
·         Did her undergraduate work at Oberlin in Ohio
·         Completed Seminary at Vanderbilt Divinity School in Nashville, Tennessee
·         Recently ordained at the Glendale Baptist Church in Nashville

Church family,
Please welcome our New
Associate Pastor of Next Generation Ministries.
The REVEREND Anita Peebles.  

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