I haven’t really mentioned it here or on the various social media outlets but tomorrow will be my last day at my current church in Orange, Texas.  Due to the decline of church attendance and the economy, the church informed me back in May that come September 1 I would no longer be able to be paid.

I have spent the last few months interviewing and traveling trying to find a new placement; it hasn’t been the most pleasant of summers.

I guess it didn’t really hit of the finality of it all until last week when I was writing my second to last sermon.  It wasn’t like I didn’t know that the end was coming, but like most things we dread, we try to put it away from our mind; I think the professionals call it “denial.”

And now on the eve of my last sermon at First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Orange, Texas I am struck with the notion that it truly is the final one.  I struggled at times to craft the right parting words and realized that no such words exist.  So I composed a hope filled sermon based on the final words and commands of Christ in John.  (I’ll post the sermon audio tomorrow).  Through it all I was reminded that the words that I write do not matter, rather it is the Spirit’s movement in the moment and in the hearer’s life that makes the difference.

It has been a roller coaster of emotions- anger, fear, sadness, grief, etc. and I am not sure what the future will hold.  I am hopeful and I there are good things on the horizon (more of that to come later).

In Christ,

Rev. Evan