A Church Divided

Image: churchgraphics.blogspot.com

Last Sunday, my church had a big party celebrating the retirement of our senior pastor. There were tears and laughter, as we had a full church for service and then a full room for the meal afterwards. It was bittersweet, especially since Pastor Mark has been Emily's pastor her whole life.

And now, our church will get an interim senior pastor and we will start the call process. May not seem like a big deal but for me, it brings up bad memories. Because when I was not all the much older than Emily, this exact situation tore the church I grew up in apart.

When my parents moved to Holland when I was fairly young, we joined Peace Lutheran Church. It was a great church that my family loved. But the senior pastor was getting older and finally when I was in high school (I think), he retired.

The new pastor that was called was very different. He introduced a lot of pomp and circumstance that we had never had before into the services and in general left a bad taste in people's mouth. I wasn't very privy to the ins and outs, but I do remember my mom saying that she was just angry all the time going to church because of the new pastor.

Enough people agreed with my parents, which caused the church to split in half. The people who left, including my family, left the ELCA (one of types of Lutherans) and formed a brand new Missouri synod church called Christ Our Savior.

Starting a brand new church is really hard. I'm sure it was more stressful on my parents and the other adults, but as a young person it just felt strange. We had no home for a while because we had to rent space before we could raise enough money to build a new building. And one we had a space, it took a while for it to feel church-y and home-like.

And there was quite a bit of drama that sounded the 2nd church as well, having to do with different pastors and the like. I don't remember a lot of the details because it was years ago.

In the end, I have a very uneasy feeling. I hope that my current church is able to find a pastor that fits in well with our congregation. We've been lucky to have Pastor Mark for 22 years, and now there is unfortunately a big hole. I pray for my community because I don't want to go through having a church divided again.