THE GHOST OF PASTORS PAST
Ed Gouedy
October 1, 1983
It's now been a year since I came to this church, and nearly two since my predecessor left. It's been a good year. Attendance and giving have increased (following trends already in motion); the men's group shows encouraging signs of life; we're expanding our weekday program from half days to full days. And yesterday, one long-time member said she senses an attitude of caring here the likes of which she can't remember. She even said it publicly. Then there's what happened at last month's fish fry. The emcee noted I had just bought a car shortly after a rather strident sermon on pledges and tithing. The audience was delighted. Carl Dudley of McCormick Seminary says you're accepted "when they start to tell stories on you." By the end of the evening, I could have used a little less acceptance. One of God's blessings here has been a predecessor who has deliberately not "come back." Jim, if you're reading this from your new perch, know that I am grateful. If a pastorate is like a marriage, then relocation is something like divorce. And if things have been going well (as they were with Jim), the congregation left behind often feels the pain of an abandoned spouse, and the aftershocks include any of the stages of grief. Here, for instance, one family who had suffered through an agonizing death showed great anger at being left in the middle of the struggle. In others, denial showed up in one of two forms. Some insisted the old was gone, the new had come, and there was no sense looking back. They shut the door on the memories of Jim, claiming it would be easier for us all. I made it clear that Jim's memory did not intimidate me and, in fact, mattered a great deal. Most who wanted to "forget Jim" were only trying to protect me. When they ...
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