Thankful for Fellow Servants

Last weekend was my last church leadership meeting before stepping down at the end of the calendar year.  In our denomination, you are elected for a three-year term, and are allowed to serve up to two consecutive terms before you have to come off.  I served for six years from 1999 to 2004, and then again from 2007 to now.  It is no small commitment of time and heart, so partly I am glad to have some time off.

But I will miss serving with my fellow leaders, all of whom I learned so much from.  As the broader church community is most beautiful in its diversity, so is a leadership team precious when it consists of differences and not sameness.  I loved being able to contribute where I felt gifted and moved, and I loved deferring to others where they were gifted and moved.  Even our disagreements were opportunities for blessing: seeing things in a new way that you wouldn't otherwise have seen but for someone else feeling strongly about it, being able to trust others even when they weren't coming around to your side and you instead had to stand down, and even being out of line and realizing it and asking and receiving forgiveness.

It was all good, and I am glad for it all, and glad for my fellow servants and for our time together.  Now I will pray faithfully for next year's leaders, that they would similarly lead and similarly be blessed.