I still remember the Sunday in August 2018 when Ryan and I went to church for what we thought was going to be a normal Sunday morning. Our first clue that something was wrong came during prayer at the beginning when I realized the entire church board was filing onto the platform. That couldn't mean good news. We found out that morning that our pastor, who was planning to retire in a few months, was done early - effective immediately, actually.
Shortly after the announcement, the utterly silent congregation watched as a gentleman came to the platform. Ryan and I didn't know him, but we learned later that he had been the senior pastor for a length of time before the pastor we knew. He had since retired, but the church had placed an emergency call to him to see if he would be willing to come out of retirement for a time to help us while we tried to find a new minister.
That's how Pastor Garey - and his wife, Brenda - left their home in nice, warm, Tennessee, drove miles from their children and grandchildren, and landed back in central Indiana to work full time again in a big church that suddenly found itself in a place it never expected. Pastor Garey called this time with us his "second tour of duty."
I remember that Sunday. He told us that the person on the platform might look different, but he was there to preach the Word of God. He promised us he would pray with us, baptize us, marry us, dedicate our babies, and preach our funerals. Whatever our needs - he would care for us. And we would get through this, he promised.
We were all stunned that day, and I don't know that most of us grasped what he had to say. And even though I didn't know this man at all, I found a strange sense of comfort in knowing we had a leader. A consistent leader. Not a different guest speaker every week, but a person committed to knowing us and loving us for the foreseeable future.
None of us - Pastor Garey most of all - knew that the "foreseeable future" would last eighteen months.
A month after his second tour of duty started, Ryan and I were the keynote speakers at a leadership conference at our church. Pastor Garey sat at one of the front tables, and I could see him out of the corner of my eye throughout our talks. I wondered if he wondered who these whippersnapper kids were and who on earth thought it would be a good idea to give them microphones and let them talk! Both of us let out a long exhale when he found us after the conference and thanked us for our work.
Pastor Garey kept every promise over the last eighteen months. He indeed brought the Word of God every Sunday. He invited people to pray at the altar, and we did. He baptized believers. He dedicated babies. He preached funerals. And even though he didn't have to, he got to know us. He invested in us. He treated it like a real, long-term job, even though it was always temporary. He took seriously the task of helping us find our next pastor. And we did get through this long season.
Brenda joined the choir, prayed with people, and sent sweet notes in the mail. When Ryan and I took the membership class last month, Brenda was there beside Pastor Garey, taking notes and helping him make the morning go smoothly. She always had a hug and a smile for us.
About a month ago, the board announced a new pastor has been found. Our church is so excited to welcome him. It's been so long since we had something concrete and lasting to look forward to, and you can feel hope rising in the hearts of the people.
So Pastor Garey and Brenda have returned to warmer temps, retirement, and the grandparent life. They packed up their little apartment into every nook and cranny of their vehicle and pointed their car toward their permanent home. But before they left, we had a chance to say a final goodbye (for now) to them. The church held a farewell reception on Saturday, and we scooted out of Ryan's family Christmas a little early to get there to say our goodbye. We couldn't miss that moment. For eighteen months, they've sacrificed to invest in us - and they did it so well. We will miss them, but we are profoundly grateful for what they have meant to our story. It has been a privilege to serve alongside them in ministry.
Our year begins with a goodbye and a hello - and both are beautiful in their own way.
2 comments:
They sound like very special people!
They certainly are!
Post a Comment