Well, friends, it's just about official, and in 1-2 weeks, my church will know it, too:
I am officially resigning from my position as children's pastor of our church.
Not because I hate it - but because God has told me to. He is calling my husband and me back to northern Minnesota [Duluth, to be specific - about an hour from where we grew up] to do arts-based ministry in the communities of northeastern MN. I'm not sure exactly what this is going to look like - we have been working diligently making a plan...we just had a brilliant idea [I'm sure this was God-inspired!] of re-working a play I wrote awhile back called "Church Brat" [a play about the ins and outs of growing up in the church - a "memoir" of sorts!] into a two-person show and booking it at different places...it will also involve arts education - classes and workshops - that we will offer to the community.
We've been in conversations with our senior pastors about this over the past year and they are completely supportive and standing with us on this.
So it's a good thing, and completely in line with what God is calling us to do.
And I'm scared to death.
I have never NOT done kids' ministry in a church setting - this is completely new territory for us. And we will be publicly announcing it to the church either next Sunday or the Sunday after. We will be stopping by the board meeting Tuesday night to officially give our resignation.
I could use your prayers - for open doors, provision once we get there [including a dog-friendly place to rent!], and for the kids' ministry at the church I will be leaving; for my nerves, and for me not to be TOO sad as I prepare to leave a really great church!
Two things besides asking for prayers:
1. Please keep this confidential at this point!
2. As part of this new venture, God has told me [and it was definitely God - I argued with Him on this point!] to not renew my A/G credentials at this time. Where we are going is very "hardened" to Christianity in general, the Assemblies of God in particular - and going into the community to minister aligned with any one denomination will severely cripple what we are called to do. I don't know if He will ask me to pick them back up again at some point; only that this is what He has called me to now. For those of you here who are credentialed A/G ministers and receive the quarterly letter that lists all the resigned/lapsed ministers, you will see my name on that list. I want to let those of you who I consider friends to know what's up and that I am not going apostate or anything - I may even end up attending an A/G church :o).
UPDATE: It is official...it has been announced in church...it was quite amusing, actually...
Today was "family worship Sunday," where the kids stay downstairs for worship and Communion with their parents and are [theoretically] dismissed for the teaching portion of it.
My pastor and I talked JUST LAST NIGHT and confirmed what was going to happen. So today, about halfway through worship, I realized that, for the game we had planned, I needed to be there just a hair before the kids. My husband was already up there. So after communion, we were standing and it looked like a logical break in the service, so I started booking it out of there so I could beat the kids to the room. Well. Some friends of ours [who already knew] saw me leave, and hustled their kids upstairs because they knew the announcement was about to be made. Other parents saw those kids making their way toward the door, and then nudged their kids to kids' church.
This was all without my pastor ACTUALLY dismissing the kids, mind you :o).
When he saw the kids making the mass exodus out the sanctuary door, he then said, "Oh, and the kids are dismissed to kids' church..."
Then, after the service, one of my leaders ran into the room and said, "He forgot to announce it."
WHAT?!!?!? No. This was not happening. He was not going to put me through the emotional wringer of dreading the announcement for another week. I ran downstairs, and it turns out his wife or one of the deacons or someone had reminded him and he caught most people who were leaving 1st service and everyone who had arrived for 2nd service, all in one fell swoop!
The reaction?
The adults were happy for us, but sad for themselves. The idea was that the parents are supposed to tell their kids - since they know the best way to break bad news to their own children. So the kids don't know yet [well, they may know by now...we opted out of the Superbowl party, because we just didn't want to deal with a ton of questions, and we wanted to give the kids some time to process the news!].
So - it's no longer a secret. Now we can stop being all evasive and vague, and start really making plans to transition out as well as plans for our future. Even though I will technically no longer be a pastor, I truly hope that you will all still consider me a "pastoring partner" of sorts....and we do have some ministry workshops and a dramatic presentation that we'll be developing, so [**shameless plug**] please contact me if you would be interested in having us come to your church ;o).
Thanks for all your prayers...I'll continue to be in touch, and of course will be updating my blog regularly....
As far as I am concerned I hope you stay around here! I personally do not feel you have to be credentialed to be considered a "pastor". If you are in ministry of any sort you more than likely will need support and this is the best place to come. Here for you no matter what and will continue to pray God's blessings, favor and guidance be upon you and your husband.
