February 10th, 2008 - Pastor Mark's Resignation Announced / Prayer Corner for Lent

During and after the council retreat there was concern around Sunday worship and the Adult Ed where we would discuss with the congregation their reaction to Pastor Mark’s resignation.

Some anxiety lightened before worship started. Pastor Mark read the opening paragraph of his letter of resignation. In the service a brokenness was made evident and acknowledged, so was a path to address it. Both Pastor Mark and Pastor Dayle made the sign of the cross on one another's forehead and spoke Confession and Forgiveness together.

The liturgy today was David's. His Kyrie communicated part of the underlying plea shared by those in the space. There was a fragile beauty, a request for mercy; to help, save and protect us, that was expressed from a deep place of shared Holy Spirit.

Kelly’s All That I Have captured another piece of the morning's worship. In the performance the grand commitment of those lyrics to the Lord was conveyed. The emotional knowledge reached my heart in a new way. It was a commitment I saw revealed at the council retreat as well, that this music simply and deeply affirmed.

Pastor Dayle created a prayer corner for Lent. She referred to that corner in the announcements and introduced it during the Children’s Time. Each child lit a candle or had the candle lit for them.

The prayer corner was used during the service and, for me, the sense of being isolated while still in community was overpowering. Larry knelt with me and there was a new dynamic and support I could suddenly apprehend. Finally there was the "adding light to the greater light" piece that is often there when individuals light candles together.

The sermon pulled aspects of the readings (with an emphasis on the Genesis story about Adam and Eve eating from the tree of knowledge and the gospel of Matthew describing the temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness) and wove the particulars of those texts with our personal Creator story.

We associate the Adam and Eve story with original sin and the fall of man. Pastor Dayle pointed out there was no sin mentioned in these Genesis verses. Instead there were consequences for disobedience. Progression to knowledge and maturity is hard and leaves us exposed, naked and vulnerable. These are times of temptation. Evil thoughts can creep in, yet by turning to prayer, scripture and worship we can always return to know and experience that God is with us.

In talks before and between the services and Adult Ed I found members talking from shock, disappointment and anger. Many felt communicating to the congregation that there was tension in the team ministry before it completely deteriorated would have been a positive step.

This communication, they argued, would have allowed for congregational concern and their support to attempt to make an impact. For most of those I talked to, there was no sense of the broken nature of the team ministry until they read the resignation letter.

In many conversations I had this morning another common thread concerned who knew and who didn't know in these last few weeks about what was happening. Many felt something that we have struggled with before as community, a sense that there are insiders who knew what was going on and that many were left feeling like outsiders because of when they were told about the resignation.

Many in the congregation attended the Adult Ed hour to understand more about Creator's immediate decisions and plans. Susan guided the discussion. The High School youth remained with the adults and felt comfortable voicing their concerns and requests. It was acknowledged that people were in different stages of accepting the news of the Pastor Mark’s resignation and there will be different perspectives on the impact this will have on Creator.

Susan praised the High School youth and encouraged the adults to consider the knowledge and perspectives the youth could bring to both this transitional time and for the long term plans that are to follow.

There were questions and some tentative, perhaps only temporary answers. This is the beginning of something new for Creator. As Pastor Dayle said at the end of her sermon:

Leave taking is never easy. It’s a process. God will journey with us through this process. Just like God journeys with us all the days of our lives. Amen