A changing church

When I resigned as pastor of the church I had served for two decades many of the members insisted I remain a member of the church. Normally, that is not a good idea. But, as an Area Minister with 80 churches, and whose area included that church, I would seldom be able to attend my home church anyway. My wife and I kept our membership in that church and continue to support it with our tithes. I am able to attend services there a couple of times a year. Yesterday was one of those times.

A couple of years after I resigned the church it began to have some problems leading several people to leave. The church lost nearly half of the people who attended there during my pastorate. It was very hard to see the church I had devoted so many years to go through such times. When I attended the church during those times there was a tension in the air so thick you could almost cut it with a knife.

A year or so ago the church called a new pastor who is rebuilding the church. Although he reached out to those who had left, most of them had already found other churches, and he rightly started reaching out to new people. When I attended services there yesterday the attendance was about what it was when I resigned, but I didn't recognize at least half the people. In the past when I attended there it was like a homecoming; yesterday many of the people assumed I was a visitor. The service is different, and new music has been added. A praise team with four guitars and three singers have started bringing part of the music. We didn't have any musicians except for our pianist when I was pastor there.

It felt odd as I was driving home to see how the church has changed in the six years since I left as their pastor. I had made a mark on the church and it resembled me in a lot of ways. The church is now changing in ways that reflect their new pastor. The good news is that it is still focused on Jesus Christ and His challenge to reflect His light in everything we do. It felt odd; but it felt good. I'm excited about the future of our church.

The only problem I had yesterday was that one of the long-time members introduced me to someone as their old pastor! I asked him to please clarify that remark.:)