Nostalgia

So, as of 9:00 this morning, $5700 has been raised for Kelli!  Kudos to the blog world!  I love people who blog (either readers or writers). 



Today was a little bitter sweet as I got a visit from an old friend.  Pastor Phil stopped by the church today on his way to a funeral and it was so good to see him.  It was like finding a long lost friend again, even though it has only been a couple of weeks since he left us.  For the record, things have been going better at the church and for that I am eternally grateful.  I hope it continues along those lines. 



The thing is that Pastor Phil raised the bar for me where pastors are concerned.  I have had several different pastors in my lifetime, considering the number of times we moved when I was growing up, but it wasn't until this very special interim pastor entered into the life of my church, that I realized exactly what a pastor was supposed to be.  Now, I totally understand that this man has been doing it for forty-two years, so he is probably very well versed in the emotions, personalities and attitudes of people and congregations.  It shows as he handles all of it incredibly well.  There was always something about him that made me feel very at ease.  I could talk to him about personal problems, about God, about anything and was never made to feel like any question was stupid.  He also just came to us at a time where we needed him (no coincidence there...God knew we needed him too!) and he endeared himself to us.  I miss him, much in the same way one would miss a friend who has moved away.



I hope very much that our new pastor is one day as natural at pastoring as pastor Phil was, but it will simply take time.  In the meantime, I think the soul of my church was very much touched by a certain interim pastor, and because of that, we will never really be the same again.



And that's a good thing.