Category Archives: Dealing with stuff

I’ve just come home from my last council meeting. I’ve served enough time they are letting me go free. I guess it has been almost ten years now, some under the old board system and now a couple of terms under the new council one.

They have been good years. Sometimes the meetings were hard; for me a non-administrative type, quite hard in those first years when I was trying to follow the acceptable procedure of drawing up proper agendas, making motions, trying to follow the correct protocol. It is good that we had a pastor leader who helped us learn to lead in more of a style that was suitable for us non-CEO types, who helped us focus on the important work of the church without getting stuck on protocol. Goodness knows there were enough people around who would straighten us out on the protocol if we forgot it. It is good to have those consultants around too, you know, when the situations needing protocol and such arise.

Today, I have begun the mourning process for this loss of function. I was reflecting on what a gift it has been to work for the church in its leadership, what a growing experience it has been to be so involved. The growth has occurred both because I have given myself to the tasks needing to be done and because I have been able to work closely with others who shared this same spirit of devotion and commitment, both to God and to the body of believers that we call Gateway. I am going to miss this level of involvement.

But of course there are new days ahead. There are new ways to serve and I am pretty sure that with a bit of effort, I’ll find my place, a bit of a new place perhaps. Maybe I will try some new ways of being part of these people I worship with. Right now it is a bit hard and there are tears of separation down inside kind of welling up making this screen blurry.

And since it is late, perhaps I had better go to sleep.

There are some people I want to spend some time praying for in the morning. 

It was.  And still has a bit to go before its over. 

There was so much grief and sadness wrapped in with excitement and anticipation.  The adventure of new things mixed in with the loss of the old ways and customary things.

Final – well not "final" is the true sense of the word but conclusive enough for now – goodbyes were said to the Friesen’s, Randall, Lauralea and Micah, as we all sort of hung around, not really wanting to be the ones to leave first.  Maybe not so many tears were shed as just a sense of deep aching in the heart.  These last ten years have been so good.

Beginnings took place as well.  Marc begins his new adventure as our part time office /administrator/speaker on some Sunday’s person while we wait for a new pastor.  He is going to do well.  I appreciated what he said this morning.  I think that means he is going to let God use him to take us along the next steps of the path.  So this will be a good adventure with him and God. 

I began teaching the youth class today as well.  What a great bunch of youth.  I am going to have a good time with them.  We are exploring Spiritual Pathways together and the truth is that I will probably learn at least as much from them as I teach.  So, this part is my little corner on the adventure too – as well as speaking about once a month. 

In some ways today seemed a bit like spring – like the mother and father birds giving us the final nudge off the edge of the comfy nest, watching us spread our tiny little wings as we flap them furiously and begin flight on our own.  The nice part is that there seems to be this updraft that is carrying us along.  Our wings may be way too small for the job but we are helped along by a force way bigger than we are. 

So, this is it.  We are off and flying solo with a lot of help.  And it is, I believe, going to be good.