Reflections from Rev. Jessica Paulsen

Feb 5, 2025

In all three of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke), Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower. He speaks of how a sower went out to sow seed. Some landed on the path, which the birds ate. Some seeds landed on the rocky ground and grew quickly but were scorched by the sun while others landed among thorns and were choked out. Other seeds, however, fell on good soil and grew and brought forth grain. The sower didn’t know, and couldn’t control, what was landing where or what might grow from the seed that had been sown.
 
So much of our life of faith and discipleship is that way. We work to share our faith and pray that some of the seeds we have sown in the lives of others take root and grow. So often, though, we never have the chance to see what happens. We are left with the hope and prayer that our faith has had an effect and created ripples of impact in the world. Recently, God worked in a mysterious way and enabled me, and many others, to see the effect and impact one congregation has had on the world.
 
On Sunday, January 26, 2025, Platte Center Presbyterian Church held its closing worship celebration after 153 years of ministry. This was my first and last time I was able to attend worship at Platte Center. (I had been to the church but never for a worship service.) People from around the presbytery were there including Pete Brantner, Dave Endriss, Tim Maxa, Nathan Williams, and many others. The preacher for the service was the Rev. Richard Francis, who had grown up in the Platte Center Church and been ordained by them and the Presbytery of Des Moines. Rev. Francis served as pastor at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sioux City…the church I, and my family, attended after moving to Salix when I was 11; the church that supported my own discernment on my path to ministry and ordination.
 
When I moved to Corning, Rev. Francis (or Pastor Richard as we called him) happened to mention that he grew up in the area and Platte Center had been his home church. I didn’t think much of it beyond continuing to be amazed at how small the church world can be. But then I went to Platte Center for this closing worship celebration. Pete Brantner, who served the Platte Center Church from 1995-2004, stood up and talked about the history of the church, about the people, including Richard, who had been ordained out of that church, and of the impact the church had through the years.
 
As I saw in the pew listening to this, the Spirit nudged me and essentially said, “Part of that impact was on you—through Richard to you. Say thank you.” Of course, as many who know me will say, I’m not great about listening to the first nudges of the Spirit. In fact, God often needs to whack me upside the head so I will pay attention and act on the Spirit’s movements (though I keep trying to do better). So, there I sat. Tim Maxa spoke and encouraged people to share memories of the church and events, when during which I thought I might get up and say thanks, but the moment was never right. Then Richard read scripture and began to preach. He focused on a verse from 2 Timothy, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (v. 7, NRSV) and talked of how the church and congregation over the years had kept the faith, hoping and praying that they might have an impact. He spoke of growing up in the church, how they supported his call to ministry, and how throughout his time as pastor he had worked to sow the seeds of faith that they had nurtured in him. He mentioned that we don’t always get to know the impact we have. We do not get to see where the seeds land, or if they grew and bore fruit. We can hope and keep the faith that we made an impact, but we will not necessarily ever know for sure that we did.
 
Then came the whack upside my head. Because I was there, I could show this church part of the ripple impact they had on the world. So, as the congregation spoke the Affirmation of Faith, I walked to the front and spoke with Dave Endriss, who was leading the next part of the service, and told him, “I have something I need to say.”
 
I stepped into the pulpit, and I said essentially this:
This wasn’t planned, but the Spirit has nudged me this whole service to come up and share this with all of you. You know by now, from earlier mentions in the service, that I am Jessica Paulsen, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Corning. What many of you may not know is that I grew up as part of the congregation of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Sioux City, where Richard served for many years. He was my pastor through junior high, high school, and college. When he questioned the impact he may have had over the years, I knew I needed to say something, because the answer is “yes”. Yes, Richard, you had an impact. And yes, to this congregation, the church of Platte Center, you had an impact. Richard was the one who answered all the questions I had about faith growing up, the one who would just sort of look at me each time I said I was never going to be pastor and nod, and the person who supported and guided me through the beginning of the ordination process with the PC(USA). So, yes, you had an impact, and I want to say thank you to this congregation for that. Y’all nurtured and helped his faith grow, supported his ordination journey, and he was then able to nurture and help my faith grow, supporting my ordination journey. So, thank you. Thank you so much for your good and faithful work through the years.
 
I didn’t go to this worship service thinking I would get emotional, but I did. Because God revealed to me just how connected we all are, and that part of what we need to be doing is thanking those who have gone before us—those people and congregations who have shaped our lives.
 
The Platte Center Presbyterian Church kept the faith and has now finished its race, but the ripple effects of who they were will continue through Richard, through me, and through so many others. God is at work in this world, extravagantly and magnificently at work, and I was so blessed to see, and be able to acknowledge, the fruit of some of that work made manifest when I attended this closing worship celebration. May this story, this work of God, remind us that our impact is probably far greater than we can even imagine and that all we are called to do is to sow the seeds. God will take care of the rest.
 
Oh…one other note…as I was writing this, I remembered something, and my notes confirm my memory. The very first sermon I preached on my own, when I filled the pulpit at Westminster for Richard, the experience that really forced me to look at considering ministry…it was on Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23…the Parable of the Sower.