Farewell to a Church, Part 1

This morning was my last Sunday with the church that I have been working at for the past year or so.  The pastor asked me to speak this morning and my plan is to post a slightly modified version of my manuscript on this blog in a few bite-sized chunks over the next week or so…

Part 1:  Huge Thanks to the Church:

There are basically three things I want to do this morning. The first is to say thank you all for allowing me to be a part of your church family here, I have appreciated my time here more than I could ever say. I grew up a church in Memphis that really was like a family to me, and since I moved to Birmingham, I have worked or been involved in probably a dozen churches and this is the first one where I would really say that I have actually felt at home here and with all of you, so thank you for that! I hope that I have served you all even half as much as I feel like you have all blessed me in the last year or so. I’m gonna miss you guys, I’m gonna miss this place, but I’m hoping and looking forward to a time in the future when we can all reunite, if not in this life than in the next, and hear about the things that have happened in our lives in that intervening period.  I think that God has great things in store for all of us, an I'm excited about the future, even if it is hard to leave behind a place as great as this one.  So I guess I just want to say thank you for making it so hard to leave!