Our Hangout

Up for air...

It has seemed that the last few months I really haven't been able to share about the things that have been front and center in my life and in my heart.

Today, six years after I started at Richview as the Pastor of Outreach and Discipleship, I resigned. It was a sad time. Many friends stung by the pain of being left, but still encouraging of what God might do in and through me in the future. I was truly thankful for the sending moment we had, especially when Steve, a mentally challenged young man in our congregation came to be part of the laying on of hands ceremony by staying close and just hugging me through the whole thing.

What will I miss? I will miss the people and the friendships. Someone else, a great friend turned to me just before he hugged me and said; "From Pastor ed to Eddie Baby!" We laughed and hugged really hard. He had been someone that had said he'd never be able to call me anything other than pastor 6 years ago. Eddie baby is a far cry from pastor, but I know there's more respect in that terms than perhaps in all the pastor ed's combined. So many people hugged, and lingered, some which I didn't expect, but it was clear their lives had been impacted. I will miss all the people at Richview. Yes, all of them...Richview is this whole group of people and it's been a joy even with it's difficulties at times to work through life together, seeking his will for all of us. I will miss this. I will also miss being part of shaping what Richview could become. I pray Richview goes on to new reformations, times of deeper commitment to each other, community and generation. As I leave there's a void.

But I leave for Port of Grace. A community church in Port Colborne. 20 minutes from St. Catherines, Niagara Falls, at the mouth of the Welland Canal on Lake Erie.

This hiring was by far the most strange thing I've ever gone through almost from day one.

It had at it's inception conversations from the blogging world. On this internet world, one friend asked a few other friends if they knew of someone that would fill the role their church was looking for, eventually getting to me, who got very excited at what I was reading. I got in touch with the church and a little later (a month or so later) I found myself invited to come and speak at the church. I had a rush meeting with the leaders of the denomination just before I went to the church and had a wonderful weekend. With one exception, I was never interviewed. That's right, I spend the weekend there, met people, went out with people, travelled the town, heard the leaderships thoughts on the church and on the town, preached, had a potluck and was invited to be the pastor. However, things weren't that simple, Port of Grace is part of the United Brethren Denomination and as such are not autonomous, meaning that the church didn't have the authority to just hire me, still by this point we were pretty confident of how God was leading. The process was asked to proceed as there were two more members to come through, long story short I was on the block again. And so I went again, and played baseball and ate some more and preached and left. A vote one week later confirmed the church's desire for me to assume the role of lead pastor, but the bishop was on holidays and I wouldn't hear from him until last week with the official denominational word.

Aside from all this, our kids had to start school in September and even without a final word we had to make a decision in terms of moving and buying a house so that those things could happen, and so, partly out of faith, partly out of a strong leading that this was where God was leading us, we sold our house in one week, and bought a home in POrt Colborne equally as fast. All confirmation to us that God's hand was in this.

Finally all the words came through and everything is set.

Port of Grace is a beautiful community. There are lot of needs but a huge heart reaches out to the community, that huge heart is causing people to reach and surrender to Christ.

I'm excited at the privilige of what the future holds for us. Yes, at this time we will miss our friends and where we are dearly, still there is an anticipation that is pulling, drawing us really toward a place where God is doing some really neat things. Some things, we as a family are looking forward to being a part of.

Is this the first blogging related hiring? Maybe. It certainly is a different world.

MOre later, I'm sure