The Big Think

When we moved to Austin almost five years ago (!) one of the first things we did was look for a good church. We’re from different denominational backgrounds and went to all kinds of different churches while at Baylor. BU isn’t just for the Baptist crowd, though it wasn’t unusual for the predominantly Baptist students to go to all sorts of different churches. While I was there I went to baptist, methodist, presbyterian, evangelical, you-name-it. The basics are all the same even when the minor details differ.

So we moved here with the idea that we would “church shop” a lot before we settled on something. We were surprised how quickly we settled on our current church. The senior pastor there was one of the very finest that I’ve ever seen, and we soon discovered a very vibrant and enthusiastic group of people, a very fine music ministry, and a bunch of good friends. One year after moving here we had formed a new support group and felt like this was home. There were four main minsters that really made the church feel like home- our stellar senior pastor, his two assistant pastors, and a really fine youth director/pastor.

Unfortunately, about six months ago our youth pastor accepted a call to become the co-pastor at a church in frozen Montana. It was understandable that he would leave since he was essentially “moving up in the ranks” and the move made sense for him professionally. A couple of months later, however, our senior pastor moved on to a bigger church in Colorado Springs. We were all shocked and disappointed to lose him, but the church still had two fine head-ministers left. About two months ago one of the assistant pastors announced that he had accepted a call to be on staff at a big Houston church. This was starting to feel too familiar.

We got the letter today with the opening paragraph we’ve become very familiar with. Within the first few sentences it was apparent that we were being set up for the Big Announcement. Yup. Lost the last one. This particular minister has been a wonderful, accessible, gracious and peaceful presence and in some ways the one we’ll miss the most.

So in the course of less than one year the entire top leadership of our church has gone. I know on one level that each leaving can be explained as better opportunities, career starting, being closer to the grandkids, whatever, but we still can’t help but feel that we’ve been abandoned, and I’ve heard several friends at church say the same thing. There is a lot of frustration, anxiety, and even a little anger. It’s like having the captain of the ship leave mid-voyage, followed by the co-pilot, then the steward, then the guy who mans the boilers. “Sorry to leave you like this, but there’s a better ship for me to sail over there! I’m sure you’re in good hands with the staff that’s still onboard!”… It’s painful but understandable until you hear the speech several times and notice how empty the place is getting. We even got a letter today that said “transitions of pastoral staff during an interim senior pastorate are quite common and to be expected, but that doesn’t make the sense of loss go away.”

You can say all the true things about a church not consisting of the leadership, or that the church shouldn’t be simply a group of people dedicated to one specific dynamic speaker, or how it’s the people, and not the leadership that really makes up a church. It’s all true, but to have the leadership of our little community of faith eviscerated so thoroughly in such a short period of time is jarring. I get the sense that people there have started to shelter themselves from the emotional risk of attaching too closely to anyone new for fear that they too will find a better opportunity elsewhere.

Today is the 14th anniversary of the first date with my wonderful wife Erin. In December of 1991 we went to see Beauty and the Beast. How appropriate.

Thanks for fourteen wonderful years, sweetie.