A New Sunday

Today was our first official day back to our church. I say "back", because we left for a time. We felt a bit shaken after our pastor was asked to resign, which to me is always a nicer word than "fired", but it feels the same sting.  Ironically, we didn't feel the instability just because he left, but because of how it all spiraled downward together and exploded at the end. I remember hearing a TV preacher say "when the shepherd flees, the sheep scatter". I felt I needed to scatter. I didn't care about the "why".  I only cared about the "who" and standing up for the person who stood up for me when it counted. It was about loyalty and making sure the person I trusted was treated fairly and with respect. I was responding to the only side I knew. The fact that it all got explained to me later didn't seem to help. All I could say was "and what did you do to help?"
 It's not that I needed to place blame, I just needed to put it in perspective. I wasn't "mad" that our pastor left and decided to "punish" the church by not coming (not that we could anyway!), but we needed time to find out if we were in the right place. I can't tell you how many people explained that "no church is perfect", as if that was really my issue. True, no church is perfect. But it is up to each person to know which church is right for them, and at the time, it didn't feel right for us. We're not the type of people who go to church, warm a seat, smile at the people around us, call it good and go home. We really take it to heart. We really try to figure out where God wants us, what He wants of us, where He wants to use us. Sometimes those questions lead to a little chaos in us. And feeling chaos makes us want to find a place where we can just blend in! Problem is, God provided the stirring in our hearts, and He's going to keep stirring no matter what building we choose. 
So we begin again. New pastor, who, by the way, is a wonderful pastor and we like him very much. We will support him in the same way we supported our last pastor and the one after this.  God moves in interesting ways. He makes sense when nothing else does.  We searched out churches and asked lots of opinions, but God brought us back to this one. He gave us a new mission, and we have a new attitude. It will definitely be different for us, as we have changed our outlook and even reassessed what it is we need from a church. We used to seek fellowship and feel disappointed when relationships didn't seem to "click" the way we'd hoped. We now seek more  knowledge of God and if we get some fellowship, that's okay. We used to want to get involved and be a part of things, and we will be pulling back from that for awhile or until God moves us back. This time it's all about Him and not about what we need. It's about remaining loyal to Him, not a building, not the leader, and not even family who begged us to come back almost weekly. It's about not letting distractions take us from what our great purpose is, and not letting anyone's rudeness keep us from being where others may need us to be. 
And for the record, our former pastor is a good person who we still respect and will continue to support as a friend. Because that's the way it is when you're in God's family. Amen?