Endings & New Beginnings

Tomorrow — well I guess it's today now since it's past mid night — during the services, my departure from Trinity Episcopal Church effective October 1 will be announced. I was hired by the previous rector, who has since retired, to create an alternative worship experience using multimedia and a band, and to do youth ministry & evangelsim. The current church leadership wants to go in a new direction and not use any more of their endowment funds to pay me. The interim-rector, who has orchestrated this, has been exceedingly gracious and caring. I will miss working with my band. I'm really proud of what we have accomplished together in the face of adversity. If you haven't seen them before watch them here. They're awesome! You'll need QuickTime. God of Wonders Light The Fire Again Spirit In The Sky My peeps are really brokenhearted. They've worked hard for this. That's the painful part for me. I haven't talked with all the youth yet. I love those kids and that will be excruciating. My son Carter was sad today when I broke the news to him and Katelyn. He's a tenderhearted little guy. All my kids have loved ¡alive@5! and will miss it. But they understand that Daddy is not disappointed by this, no one's mad at me and I haven't done anything wrong to get fired. Their friends are still their friends, they'll just see them in other places. They could see some positives with it also. On the other hand, I feel really good. I like change. I learned a ton and have grown a lot since being there. It has helped me heal from previous experiences and I won't leave this one wounded. I've met some incredible people and made friends. It allowed me the opportunity to coordinate the North Country Encounter (a 4 county-wide evangelistic crusade) and work with dozens of really great pastors and lay people. I feel this change will be good for my personal and family's spiritual well and I'm excited about that. I will be paid through the end of the year by Trinity. And if I move any time soon, I'll make tens of thousands of dollars profit on my house. So what's next? I'll blog about that tomorrow. After my visit to Cooperstown, I'd love to live there and work at the Baseball Hall of Fame. I still work half time for an evangelist and am working on creating events in a couple of new cities for him. I also have a agreement with him through the end of the year so my needs are met. Overall, I thank God for this change and His great provision for my family. What next Lord?