Wired Jesus Podcast

As many of you have noticed, Wired Jesus has been pretty quiet for almost two months. Simply put, the situation at the congregation I was pastoring here in Illinois became untenable and after conversations with my bishop and the congregation’s leaders, we agreed to end our relationship. So as of November 19, I have been “on leave from call”, which in our church lingo means I am not pastoring a church and looking for another job. I was given a severance package to tide things over.

So since October, I was trying to end well for the sake of the congregation, which has a hard road ahead of it, and begin a healing process for me and my family. There is actually a name for what has happened – “an unintentional interim” – which means you ended up being a transition pastor rather than a permanent pastor because of unresolved and unexpected issues in the congregation. Which is not to say I didn’t make my mistakes, but that there were other things that should have been dealt with before I arrived.

During the last few months, I had several listeners email me because of similar issues that they were dealing with as pastors in congregations. I’ll do a podcast this week and say more about what happened and some resources that have helped me.

However, I plan on using this time now to get Wired Jesus back on track. Conflict can just suck creativity and imagination right out of you and that is vital to not just being a healthy pastor but being a healthy person.

So, more later today or tomorrow. But thanks for the thoughts and emails and here’s to a happier new year.

tom