The big meeting was a big bomb.
Not the kind that goes bang, but the kind that goes wheeeeeeeeew through the atmosphere and then makes a thud.
The elders arrived to the meeting enmass 5 minutes late. Power move. I wasn’t that impressed, nor intimidated. I was a little irritated. (I guess you should probably read this entire post knowing that little bit of information).
They took the first 15 minutes explaining in painfully many words with very little new information how they came to write their little letter and deliver it to our hands. The summary? They prayed a lot and agonized over the whole thing. Translation, “Don’t question the wisdom of what we did because God was in it.
Then they asked T and me how we came upon our response–and how we had spent the last two weeks. I decided to stay spiritual and say, “I prayed, thought about it, met and then we sent you the response.” That sounded better than I drowned my sorrows with a gallon of whisky, but it doesn’t change anything really. (Relaxxxxx, I don’t even drink whisky.)
The point of all this? They wanted to scold us for not coming up with a spiritual enough answer. Their letter, after all, had Scripture references in it (they said that…) I got a little snotty and said, “Just because we didn’t use Scripture to justify our position, doesn’t make it any less spiritual. Further, you misused the Scripture and used it to take a cheap shot.”
Apparently that was the wrong answer. We moved on.
They didn’t like any of our suggestions and rightly surmised that I had simply given in to everything T wanted. I calmly explained my way had obviously not worked to bring about great harmony, so I was willing to try his way.
They asked if I thought it was best for the church. I told them, “No, but that was not one of the criteria for the plan–it was for us to work together. Every time something like this comes up, T says he wants to preach once a month, so I figure our goal is to make him happier and so he will want to engage with small groups.”
The meeting lasted an hour and a half. The end of the meeting was the conclusion we need to all pray more.
Lovely. Now, where is that whisky?
Dude! I’ll be sending the whiskey up with Steve.
B.
I hear Long Island makes a great tea!!
So basically their gutless failure to exercise leadership is a result of your lack of spirituality, correct?
What I find so very painful about this is that your family has just lived through a huge, huge trauma with your dear wife’s surgeries and recovery. I feel like they have no grace, no vision and no compassion. No leadership, and there does not seem to be any logic to the decisions. (big sigh) Plus, they may not realize it but facing a major medical event does not just end and then everything is fine…..they need to be loving your family.