Part 2 – You can read Part 1 here.

There was a lot of dejection and despair. When we got back, I started reaching out to people to see if they knew of anything. The person who first directed me to the church in White Rock encouraged me to connect with them and see if there was room for some sort of arrangement. The funny thing is, from the moment we were invited to speak, Alyssa and I had been joking about working there.

We started to be more intrigued by it when they invited us back, but really assumed it would never happen. But now, even though I was probably the most broken I had ever been, I allowed myself to think this might be something. The overwhelming grace and love of God and of Alyssa allowed me to be hopeful.  On the 15th of November, I preached my second sermon, invigorated by the opportunity to do something.  Almost two weeks later, I met with the board about the possibility of ministering there. It was a very informal interview, more so a time to see what each other had in mind and see any potential options.

A couple hours after I got home, I got a call from the board chairman who told me they were going to bring it to the church for consideration. Due to bylaws, the meeting was not until 20 days later (2 Sunday’s notice) on the 13th of December. In the meantime, I had picked up part-time work at London Drugs stocking shelves and preparing to do graveyards during the Christmas shopping season. The three weeks seemed to drag on and my patience was tested. Finally, the 13th arrived. Alyssa and I went to my parents’ church for a Christmas play and then stayed for lunch. All four of us kept looking at the time, as we did the math anticipating when the phone would ring. We left just after 2, so that I could get home and get some rest before my shift that night (you got to love midnight to 8:30 shifts).

About half-way home the phone rang, but since I was driving I let it go to voicemail. Expectantly Alyssa played the message, “Mat, its George from FBC White Rock. Give me a call when you get this message at…” no information, no hint at what it would be. I was trying to focus on driving, which was challenging as I analyzed every word and intimation. Finally, we got home and I nervously called him back. The first few seconds were painful and then finally he said, “we took it to the church and they want to consider you as our Pastor.” It was good news and a step forward. The board wanted to meet with me again, the next week, and I was invited to speak the first three Sundays of 2016. I had been under the impression that they were voting on us, not voting to consider us. However, despite my misunderstanding of where we were at, I was very excited about their due diligence and the progress we were making.

FBC White Rock is a small church, so Alyssa and I were under the impression that it would be part-time work. The thought of multiple jobs concerned us and we had been praying that somehow it could be full-time. This prayer was answered at the second meeting. The meeting took place at 10:30 on a Monday.  I had worked the previous two nights and had my family Christmas get together on the Sunday previous. So I was pretty tired as I drove to the meeting and really tired as I drove home. This meeting was more of a formal interview and the questions were a bit more focused. My initial feeling was that things were going well. They got even better when they mentioned the salary and hours as reflecting full-time work. I was overjoyed at the thought of this.

Christmas was busy and when it ended, so did the night shifts. This meant, I was back to work during the daytime, but always thinking about the upcoming opportunity. Let me tell you, there is a completely different feeling when you walk in to preach as a guest, and when you are preaching for a job. My fear was that I would choke, that I would become so fixated on what might be that I forget about the process to get there. I think this is a danger we all face, forgetting that when the process is perfected, the result we seek will follow. So as hard as it was, I really tried to slow myself down and keep my focus on the task of writing.

During the summer, someone called the process of being hired to a pastoral job a ‘soul-sucking.’ From my perspective, this has been true for most of my experiences. However, in this case, it was not true, as it had been a fairly smooth process. That doesn’t mean everything was perfect but I was happy how it was progressing.

It has been a while since I have published anything. This is pretty bad since I stopped in the middle of a series. The main reason for this break was, during December, I started to have serious discussions with a church about potential employment. I felt it was best to maintain a lower profile during that period. I was asked to speak the first three weeks of January and this took up most of my non-work time. At the same time, I was working nights stocking shelves, which exhausted me. Sleeping during the day just doesn’t work well. Over the next few posts I will chronicle our story from Willingdon to White Rock.

Part 1

My name had been given to a small church in White Rock and they asked me to fill their pulpit on Labour Day weekend. It was an exciting opportunity and, although my contract with Willingdon had been extended, I had taken that week off so I was available. It was a worthwhile Sunday, the weather was fantastic and the people were warm and friendly. We spent much of the early afternoon having lunch with one of the deacons and his family. (Really- it was him, his wife, his brother, his aunt and uncle, and us.) As we ate the buffet (I love buffets), we chatted about life, church and my goals. It was one of the many conversations I have had about my goals, hopes and dreams as I sought to find my place in pastoral ministry. I had no real church prospects at this time. Pretty much everything had closed or was something we knew wasn’t going to work. My best option seemed to be one outside the church.

Initially, I had been hired on a 12 month contract at Willingdon as an intern. Our exit strategy started in January, and we started looking, selectively, for place to minister after our time was done. After some discussions, enjoyable interviews, false starts and either silence or no’s, we were left feeling pretty desperate. In June, I initiated a conversation with Willingdon in hopes that it might lead to something, it didn’t. During the summer, Willingdon was in the process of looking for someone to lead their grade 11-12 ministry, they asked me to cover it for the interim and extended my contract for 2 months (taking us to October 30), almost immediately after extending me they decided to hire the candidate they had been considering for the previous few weeks.  I now had 8 weeks to find a job – in a church who often takes 6 months to find someone.

So on the 6th of September, I sat there with Alyssa not know where I would be working or where we would be living. All I really knew was that my week off was over and in 2 days I would be back at Willingdon, back in the interns’ room, preparing for a BBQ kick-off to introduce the guy who would take the job I had for about a week- that I didn’t want or maybe I did, but not really. There I was, with very little to do, but thankful that there was money coming in. I had one specific task and a couple minor ones. The major one was researching and contributing to a detailed paper discussion sexuality- sadly the sights for the paper were set far too low and it didn’t even reach them. But I am familiar with that as an Oilers fan. I did learn that most books on same-sex-attraction are not very good (both the side A and side b ones) save Washed And Waitingby Wes Hill, which is by far the best book I read in 2015. Willingdon starts humming in September, most ministries restart after the summer and there are new interns to break in, so I was left to do my thing- which was somewhat fun. This meant reading, research, and the occasional podcast, which led to Pope-Gate (I will tell you about it sometime).

As November drew nearer, we found ourselves still looking for work. The church in White Rock had asked me to speak again, but this was still pulpit supply. I had interviewed with MCC Thrift (Mennonite Central Committee) about a management position in Abbotsford and that seemed like a real possibility. It was not to be as I was the second choice; I have a habit of finishing second for jobs. I was, however, asked to consider a position in Powell River.

As this was happening, Willingdon realized I was a stray dog and compassionately euthanized me and I was let out of my contract a couple weeks early. The next week, Alyssa and I headed out to Powell River for a visit and to prepare for what we thought would be a new start. I can’t speak for Alyssa, but I left full of excitement, but came back in utter dejection and despair. First, there was no place to us to live.  More significantly, the more I got to know the store and leadership, the more understood that it was not, and would not be, a good fit. On the ferry ride home, I stood on the deck soaking in the crisp and chilly ocean air, watching the setting sun, and knowing it mirrored my fading hope. I was empty, broken and defeated.

A couple days later they called to get some references, I told them it wasn’t going to work out and that was the the end of it. We had a job and we turned it down, something I said I wouldn’t do. I had spent much of the previous few months thinking about my calling and was really questioning it and what it looked like for me. Powell River played a small but important step in re-focusing me. One day I will write about this, but not now.

I do not want to make too many comments about a topic like this on a blog because this is the worst place to have a discussion. Issues are best discussed in person between people with a pre-existing relationship and the ability to show humility. Thus I am a bit nervous to comment but felt like a couple notes, not about abortion itself, but about related issues that have arisen in this Planned Parenthood discussion. This is not a discussion on the morality of abortion, a diatribe against ‘pro-choice’ people or even a comparison to Cecil the Lion. Those articles have been written and their venom has been spewed and I want no part of that. Instead, I want to point a couple things out.

First, I find the claim that “all anti-Planned Parenthood articles are biased and cannot be trusted” to be annoying. This is a social media phenomenon that drives me crazy. Supporters of Planned Parenthood feel that they cannot trust certain sources because they are biased. I think they are right, the sources are biased, but so is every source. There is not an unbiased source in the world. (See my post: This Post may be Biased) I will concede that certain sources are more trustworthy than others. I personally have a hard time trusting lifesitenews.com or theblaze just as I have a hard time trusting some left wing sites. However, the effort to dismiss this out of hand as a ‘propaganda campaign’ with biased sources is wrongheaded. This really seems like just a clever way of skirting the real issue. Dismiss it as biased and you don’t need to engage it.

Second, I think we need to be careful that the Planned Parenthood controversy (for lack of a better title) doesn’t turn into a discussion on the morality of abortion. I think the question of abortion’s morality is an important question, but I don’t think it is the primary question for the discussion. The videos demand we ask “is Planned Parenthood acting ethically and legally in these circumstances and should they be held accountable for this?” This means that if the videos are shown to be inaccurate and false or if everything they are doing is deemed legal and ethical, we need to apologize for judging too quickly. But this also means if the claims are true, the videos are accurate and this is shown to be illegal, Planned Parenthood must face the consequences and even its ardent supports need to call them out on it.

Let’s remember these things before we waste our time on Facebook about it.