well, that's done

The meeting I was somewhat dreading is over.

Yes, we accepted the resignation (really, there was no choice) BUT we are going to have a "supply pastor" during the transition (in a couple past transitions, it seemed as if the regional wasn't as willing to help out with that - and as a result, we wound up having to lean on local folks).

AND we have what looks like a promising candidate who could probably start fairly soon. (Hope springs eternal: maybe THIS will be the person we need to help get people in the doors*)

(*I know, I know: It's really the congregants' responsibility. But as I've said before, I know three groups of people in re: church attendance: people I already go to church with, people who are firmly ensconced in a different denomination, and people who have expressed a certain disinterest-bordering-on-hostility to the idea. So I don't push it in my circles. If I meet someone new to town and they express an interest in trying places out, I suggest it, but that's about as far as I go with cold-calling type of evangelism).

I know I've maundered on about this a lot, but my church is very, very important to me: after my family, my fellow congregants are the people I care about the most in the whole world (more even than my colleagues, I have to admit) and I would hate to see us dissolve and people scatter and then my having to decide whether I follow the biggest group where ever they go, or if I try more to find somewhere that I suspect will be a theological good-fit rather than, "Well, my mamma was a Methodist so I'll go there" (My mamma was a Congregationalist - the old-school kind - and there aren't any of those churches here (if old-school Congregationalists still exist at all). And my dad's family were very lapsed Catholic.... the Disciples were a compromise of sorts for them, but one that worked out well)

I was even able to shake our now-former pastor's hand and wish him well without tearing up, and believe me, I haven't always managed that in the past.