a mix of good and bad
As I’ve mentioned a few times here on All Blogs, my church is in the midst of hiring a new senior pastor. I’ve known for a few weeks how serious this search had become, but I wasn’t able to talk about it until now.
But it is now official that the church will be voting to hire our interim pastor as the full time senior pastor this February 27th.
While this is a good thing for the church, it will remain to be seen if it is a good thing for me professionally. I have been faithful to this church for the last 14 months. I have helped keep things afloat and helped the church remain viable in our community. But it is also a reality that none of that matters now. In another 2 weeks I will be seen as a resource that the new pastor can decide to throw away at his good pleasure or keep if he wants. But since I am an expense that he may think he doesn’t need… Anything can happen.
the depressing reality
For all of this time I have labored here and it could all go to waste. I know that, I accepted that risk… In fact I embraced it… But it comes at a super high price. I have been faithful to the job I’ve been called to do and it is scary to think that this guy could dump me. But it’s also my role. When I stayed through this transition I knew that the new guy was capable of dumping me. It won’t matter that the people of the church like me or that they can see the ministry I am doing with the students… If he wants to dump me they will support him and not me.
the naive hope
Since I know this guy, I know that it seems unlikely for that to happen. I may have to learn to wear some new hats but I may be able to survive this transition. I hope so. We really like it here and we can see that we have been effective. But with this new person will come new pressures. I know that he may become infatuated with numbers. There will be a push to build, and with that will come the pressures to get cost effective. That is my angle. Currently, my ministry touches 75% of the people who are paying the bills here. I feel pretty strongly that I pay for myself… But we will see if he feels that way.
time will tell
The next 30-90 days will be scary. Dear God, allow me to continue serving the adolescents of Romeo and their families. Amen
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