"It ain't the heat, it's the humility." - Yogi Berra

He's now single.

A little over seven years ago Pathway held it's first meeting with four families crowded into Josh & Aubri's living room. We've been nomadic since then - a dance studio, meeting rooms at a resort, two successive elementary schools - and experienced all the things a small startup church goes through. In a part of the Phoenix metro area home to predominately young families we've seen people come and go, some decide a small church didn't work for them, and others stay, grow, and serve.

This morning the good people of Pathway were told that will end on Sunday, June 7, the date the elders have determined we'll hold our last services.
A condensed version of how this decision was reached:

We vacation every summer with our teardrop in the state parks of Oregon, a place so beautiful it has to be seen to be fully appreciated. Last July we decided it's where we want to retire and came home to begin a search for the specific place that might happen. After a roller-coaster search that involved two failed deals we finally found it early this year, exactly the place we've been looking for. Three wooded acres complete with a creek running through it just outside of Elmira, OR, 20 minutes west of Eugene.

In future posts I'll write more about that site with some pics of the structures currently on the lot, including Fred, a tiny cabin straight out of a fairy tale, and about the tiny house we hope to build there. But for this post the relevant item is that we plan to move up in November of this year. That's when I'll be 65, go on medicare, and begin drawing Social Security.

The elders have been kept aware of our progress all along because, among other things, I won't leave town without telling them when, where, and why, and this lengthy search involved several trips to various parts of Oregon. So when I told them we'd purchased a place (with the very gracious help of Pam's mom) the issue of transition needed to be addressed.

At first the plan was to go through the normal search process, just starting it a little earlier than typical to shorten the stretch a young, small church would go through without a pastor. So a search committee would be formed in August instead of after my departure. But as those conversations progressed some hard realities came into focus. We are a small church that would struggle to pay a pastor, especially a younger one with a family to support. The summer months are always tough and there was concern that following the summer stretch with an announcement we were moving would be fatal to esprit de corps. So after a lot of prayer and back-and-forth the decision was made to do before summer what seemed inevitable after.

That means we have five more weeks together as a church. Frankly, my head and my gut are still trying to come to grips with this, and I feel conflicted in many ways. But as the preacher stressed this morning, our good and gracious God is in control.

My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9

We'll still move in November. Until I can go on Medicare and S.S. we need Pam's income and insurance. In between now and then we trust God's gracious provision for our other needs. The elders have assured us they'll be active in that regard.

There's a LOT more, including info about our upcoming homesite, some ministry opportunities that may be opening up, and what we need to get done between now and then But that's enough for now. It's been a long, stressful day and I'm ready to crash!