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by Sue Orsen He’s a poet, a photographer, an actor, an author, a blogger, a writer of many things. He’s a husband, a father, a son. The Reverend Brian R. Dixon is also a preacher. His newest assignment is the pulpit and parsonage at the Lake Auburn Moravian Church in Victoria. His first preaching in this historic church across the road from Lake Auburn occurred on Sunday morning, June 13th, 2010. It was as though God opened the front doors and blew His Spirit across the waters, through the pines, and directly down the aisle of this beautiful little church by Carver Park. “I love preaching to the choir,” said the young pastor as he looked out over his new congregation. “We are called to preach to the choir, to be witnesses to each other, to spread the love of God, to be kind to each other. God is love.” When Brian called the little children who were in attendance to come up to the altar, he also spoke to them about love. “The most important song we can sing,” he told them, “only has one word, and that word is love.” The congregation, both members and guests, hung on every word, having waited nearly six months for this moment. Pastor Frank Jones had retired from ministry there and said his final farewells in December 2009. Although the resulting void was admirably filled these past months through visiting pastors and also lay leadership at Lake Auburn, often by Bruce Shoger, Victoria resident at Deer Run, it was good to once again have an ordained minister call the place home. The successful call to Brian Dixon had been announced to the public three months ago already, on Sunday, March 14th. Those members of Lake Auburn who participated in the successful call were publicly recognized and applauded. They included Charlotte Rand, Lisa Vanderlinde, Ruth Stahlke, Nora Adam, Carol Reich, Dan Hokeness, Judy Kaaua, Tom Mathwig, Richard Gjertson, Mark Vanderlinde, Harm Rand, Teri Weitz, and John Wilhoit. As Pastor Brian continued his first sermon at the Lake Auburn Moravian Church, he held up a yearbook from Frederick Douglas High School. This school, from which he graduated exactly 20 years ago, is located out east in Prince George’s County in the State of Maryland. “The most important photos in a high school yearbook are those of the senior graduating class,” he said. “The seniors have their pictures in the front of the book and you can see from the suits and ties that they took time to dress well for the photographer. The other classes are dressed more casually in whatever they happened to be wearing that day.” Pastor Brian indicated that each of the senior graduates had a quote attributed to them, as is common in high school yearbooks, and he read one of the senior quotes outloud to the congregation: “If we meet and you forget me, you’ve lost nothing. If you meet Jesus and forget Him, you’ve lost everything.” One surmised that the quote came from a graduate who had the seminary in his future, probably Brian Dixon. However, the quote belonged to Lynn Farr, a 1989 graduate of Frederick Douglas High School and the young lady who was to become Mrs. Brian Dixon. *** Brian was born to Ronald and Clara Dixon on March 16th, 1972, in Brookings, South Dakota, but he grew up about a thousand miles east of Brookings -- in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, tobacco country.
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July 2010 |
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Preaching to the Choir |
