October 24, 2018
"What Does It Mean for a Pastor to 'Leave Well'?"
from Rev. John MacIver Gage
Dear Friends,
I once heard a comedian say, "All relationships end poorly. That's why they end."
I couldn't disagree more.
Only God is eternal; everything else passes away. As the wise writer of Ecclesiastes put it, long before The Byrds so famously sang it, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." And in both our personal and professional lives, everything, every relationship, comes to an end, including the relationship between a pastor and a congregation. But I believe it is possible for them to end well, for us to bring these relationships to a close with care and respect and, indeed, with love. That's my hope as we draw near to the end of our relationship-yours and mine-as senior pastor and congregation at United Christian Church of Austin.
Both pastors and congregations have their own calls from God, our own lives' work, and sometimes those calls bring us together, sometimes for a little while and sometimes for longer. Earlier this year, I began to feel that my work here in Austin was drawing to a close and God was calling me elsewhere. It's not that things here are bad. (Trust me, I have enough colleagues around the country, I feel I have a pretty good idea what "bad" looks like, and this ain't it.) But I do believe that just as God called us together for a season almost five years ago to worship and work together here, God is calling us now to part and continue following our calls to ministry in different directions.
My call will take me next to Massachusetts, where I will enter into a new pastoral relationship with the folks at the Congregational Church of Needham. In order to do that well, I first need to end my professional pastoral relationship here as well and clearly as I can. That means, once I officially leave, I will not check up on the church or its members, nor will I offer pastoral care or support or advice in any way, whether in-person or via social media. That's not because I won't still care about you but because, ethically, as a professional, I can no longer care for you as your pastor.
I do hope you will remain a part of this congregation after I'm gone, if that is your call, to continue being part of United Christian Church of Austin. The saying is simple but true and it bears repeating: A church is never just a pastor-not any pastor! I believe strongly that, quite apart from me, this congregation is called by God to serve this community and is richly blessed to carry out that ministry.
But you will undertake the next part of your journey here without me. Once I leave, you will have an opportunity to spend a significant amount of time reflecting on who and what God is calling you to be and do together; reflecting on the past and imagining the future; identifying and addressing any unresolved issues in the life of the church; and taking an inventory of all those gifts; all this with the help of a skilled interim minister, someone whose own call from God is to help you prepare to enter into that new relationship, when it comes, as healthily and whole-heartedly as possible.
Before we get there, though, in these last few weeks together, it's our job, yours and mine, to do what we can to end this relationship well. It's time to remember and laugh and cry, to take stock of all that we've done together, and to ask for and offer forgiveness for our shortcomings over these last years, to bring this relationship to a close not simply smoothly, but as gracefully as possible. Toward that end, I am making myself as available as possible to have these important conversations, short or long. I hope you will take me up on that offer, if you that's something you'd like to do. We'll get a chance to do it more formally all together in our Service of Leave-Taking and Letting Go Sunday, 11/18 @ 10am.
Friends, through all this, I hope you will continue to trust God, and trust that, as our forebears in faith believed, God has "yet more light and truth to break forth" not only from God's holy word, but from God's living Word made flesh and blood in the life of United Christian Church of Austin, in your life here together.
I do.
Peace,
John
Rev. John MacIver Gage, senior minister
United Christian Church of Austin, UCC/DOC
"What Does It Mean for a Pastor to 'Leave Well'?"
from Rev. John MacIver Gage
Dear Friends,
I once heard a comedian say, "All relationships end poorly. That's why they end."
I couldn't disagree more.
Only God is eternal; everything else passes away. As the wise writer of Ecclesiastes put it, long before The Byrds so famously sang it, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven." And in both our personal and professional lives, everything, every relationship, comes to an end, including the relationship between a pastor and a congregation. But I believe it is possible for them to end well, for us to bring these relationships to a close with care and respect and, indeed, with love. That's my hope as we draw near to the end of our relationship-yours and mine-as senior pastor and congregation at United Christian Church of Austin.
Both pastors and congregations have their own calls from God, our own lives' work, and sometimes those calls bring us together, sometimes for a little while and sometimes for longer. Earlier this year, I began to feel that my work here in Austin was drawing to a close and God was calling me elsewhere. It's not that things here are bad. (Trust me, I have enough colleagues around the country, I feel I have a pretty good idea what "bad" looks like, and this ain't it.) But I do believe that just as God called us together for a season almost five years ago to worship and work together here, God is calling us now to part and continue following our calls to ministry in different directions.
My call will take me next to Massachusetts, where I will enter into a new pastoral relationship with the folks at the Congregational Church of Needham. In order to do that well, I first need to end my professional pastoral relationship here as well and clearly as I can. That means, once I officially leave, I will not check up on the church or its members, nor will I offer pastoral care or support or advice in any way, whether in-person or via social media. That's not because I won't still care about you but because, ethically, as a professional, I can no longer care for you as your pastor.
I do hope you will remain a part of this congregation after I'm gone, if that is your call, to continue being part of United Christian Church of Austin. The saying is simple but true and it bears repeating: A church is never just a pastor-not any pastor! I believe strongly that, quite apart from me, this congregation is called by God to serve this community and is richly blessed to carry out that ministry.
But you will undertake the next part of your journey here without me. Once I leave, you will have an opportunity to spend a significant amount of time reflecting on who and what God is calling you to be and do together; reflecting on the past and imagining the future; identifying and addressing any unresolved issues in the life of the church; and taking an inventory of all those gifts; all this with the help of a skilled interim minister, someone whose own call from God is to help you prepare to enter into that new relationship, when it comes, as healthily and whole-heartedly as possible.
Before we get there, though, in these last few weeks together, it's our job, yours and mine, to do what we can to end this relationship well. It's time to remember and laugh and cry, to take stock of all that we've done together, and to ask for and offer forgiveness for our shortcomings over these last years, to bring this relationship to a close not simply smoothly, but as gracefully as possible. Toward that end, I am making myself as available as possible to have these important conversations, short or long. I hope you will take me up on that offer, if you that's something you'd like to do. We'll get a chance to do it more formally all together in our Service of Leave-Taking and Letting Go Sunday, 11/18 @ 10am.
Friends, through all this, I hope you will continue to trust God, and trust that, as our forebears in faith believed, God has "yet more light and truth to break forth" not only from God's holy word, but from God's living Word made flesh and blood in the life of United Christian Church of Austin, in your life here together.
I do.
Peace,
John
Rev. John MacIver Gage, senior minister
United Christian Church of Austin, UCC/DOC