Change of Leadership

Yesterday was the most difficult day I have had since being an Elder in the United Methodist Church. I have been with people in their most intimate times, I have buried those who should not yet have needed to be buried, yet yesterday was the most difficult day of them all. Yesterday was the day I had to tell the church that I have been serving that I was leaving to go to another church.

Itinerancy is the hallmark of the United Methodist Church; and for good reason. Itinerancy can teach us to rely on God as the faithful one, not on any one person. Itinerancy can teach faith communities to grow in their own leadership abilities and help them stand strong as a mighty force for God. But nowhere is it said that itinerancy is easy.

As Elders of the church we are to love those whom we serve. I love this congregation, just as I will love the new congregation. The Apostle Paul is very clear as we read in Romans 12:10, “Be devoted to one another in love.” When we love, it is difficult to let go. Yet our lives are so much richer for having loved, and having loved well.

My own relationship with the Apostle Paul has been this love-hate thing going on, but more recently the love has prevailed. I have grown to respect Paul as such an authentic voice of God that it is overwhelming–and convicting. Paul who planted church after church in the known Roman world, and then, just when he got to a point of loving a new church community, he left them on their own so that he could go plant another church. Why? His love for God was more overwhelming, more demanding, more powerful and more convicting than any other love. It was agape love that empowered Paul to leave those whom he loved to go start all over again. This was a love for fellow humans so that they too would come to know Jesus in a new, profound way.

And so, as much as I love the current congregation that I serve, I want to follow in Paul’s footsteps. I want to empower as many to know Jesus as possible, and I want to love new people. In turn, those new people can love new ones, and they in turn can be all that God is calling them to be. Love is hard, but God’s love prevails.

I am excited about the new possibilities that God has in store at the new place where I will be serving. They, too, are feeling loss as their beloved pastor is retiring.

And so, we all go forward, knowing that change is difficult, but that God’s love prevails. God is always at the helm, for both congregations. We will all be faithful in witness and service.  And God’s love will lead us into new, undiscovered possibilities!