Bittersweet News
Dear City Church,
I write today with bittersweet news for the City Church Family: after four and a half years of faithful service as our Pastor for Children & Families, Jim Pulizzi will be transitioning to a new job as a military chaplain. While we are saddened to lose Jim as our pastor, we are confident that this new position is a perfect fit for Jim and his family. When we hired him back in 2016, we were eager to help Jim become ordained, to watch him grow as a pastor, and to help him find the best place to use his undeniable gifts in ministry. Today, we celebrate the next step in that process.
I asked Jim to share a bit about this step:
Over these past few weeks at City Church, we have been covering a sermon series entitled “Loved and Sent” which I find very fitting because that is how I feel at this moment. Throughout the past four and a half years my family and I have felt extremely loved by the people of City Church. When we moved here in the summer of 2016 we had only one child and now, by God’s grace, we have four! We have enjoyed getting to know you all during this season of our lives, and I am thankful for the privilege of being one of your pastors here in Richmond. But now God has called us to a new ministry: one of being sent out to share the good news of Jesus Christ with the men and women of the United States Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard.
For several years I have felt a lingering call from God, impressing upon my heart to go back into the sea services to share the love of Jesus. While we have loved every moment of our time here at City Church, this new call became so great that were I to ignore it I would have been living in disobedience to God. Over the past several months I have applied and been selected to become a Navy Chaplain. I was both elated and saddened by my selection because it is bittersweet. It will be challenging for my family and me. We will miss you all so much. I will miss sharing the good news of Jesus with your children and watching them grow in their faith. We have felt so very loved by all of you, and I know that we will take that love with us as God sends us out into this new call. Please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d love to talk more with you and answer any questions that you may have.
Jim will complete his service to City Church at the end of December 2020 and will head to chaplaincy training in the early part of 2021. The congregation will formally release him from his call to City Church at the congregational meeting scheduled for October 25th. Later this fall, we will mark Jim’s time of service among us, and we will continue to support the Pulizzi family in every way we can until they move to their first military assignment. Please join me in celebrating the ways God has blessed us through the Pulizzis.
Meanwhile, we will begin to look for the next person to oversee City Church's burgeoning Children’s Ministry. The Session has approved a job description for a new Director of Children’s Ministry and has assembled a search team to facilitate the hiring process. If you have any questions about Jim’s transition or our process for identifying his replacement, do not hesitate to reach out to me or to another member of the Session.
Stay Well & Do Good,
Erik