Well, Tammie and I are leaving Tennessee. Last fall I left United Methodism. At that time I began to wonder if this wasn’t a time to make a big move to a place where we could be near our son’s family. So we went and bought a house in Greensboro, NC. And I began looking for a place to serve God there. We’ve both been amazed at the ways God has opened doors for us.

On May 1 I will start a new chapter as pastor for a Global Methodist Church in Pleasant Garden, NC, about six miles from our new home.

This new chapter is one where I’m officially retired as a United Methodist, disaffiliated, and newly identified as a part of a new denomination that is still forming. It was time to go. And though I still have close identification with the region I was called to serve during my years as a Holston United Methodist Pastor, I feel God is leading us out to this new place. I leave with gratitude for the ways God has moved among the people I’ve served in the region. Belfast-Midway (in Cedar Bluff, VA), North Tazewell-Mt Zion (in North Tazewell, VA), Jonesville First (in Lee County, VA), Jonesborough (in Tennessee), Pearisburg First (in Virginia), Bluefield First (in VA), Trenton (in Dade County, GA), and First United Methodist/First Methodist (in Sweetwater, TN). I have watched as God has drawn people deeper into relationship with Him, called several into ministry, and built new ministries across a three-state area. From country churches to county seat churches to small town churches, I’ve watched God work.

Although I helped start the Wesleyan Covenant Association chapter for Holston Conference, I was also deeply invested in the conference itself and continued leading in positions I was asked to serve until the very end. I didn’t get my church into the first round of disaffiliations, as they just weren’t quite ready. But we did get in the second round and I made my decision to go with them when they got out. I could have stayed on, and I could have had a good appointment in Holston. But attendance at last year’s annual conference (which occurred after many had disaffiliated) confirmed for me that Holston was no longer my home. I had given service on the conference’s Invitation Team the last year I was in Holston. I tried to keep the voice of traditional UMs before the body as we struggled to keep the conference together. Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett was a deeply effective leader, and I respect her more than any bishop I have served under. All this made it hard to go. But I saw that leaving Holston was the only real solution for me to get peace of mind and be able to live with my convictions. I have been confirmed in that many times since I made the decision to go.

I have found in the aftermath of leaving that people I thought were my friends really weren’t. A few stalwart members of the conference have remained in touch and I respect them and will not do anything to hurt their reputations. They are doing what they have to do to lead in this very strenuous time.

Ministry is a strange thing. You live with people for a while, love them, cry with them, laugh with them, watch God do amazing things among them, then you go on to the next place and start all over. I’ve noticed over the years that most of the people I’ve known and done ministry among have already gone to glory. Very few remember me, and perhaps that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Because ministry is God’s work anyway. We’re just the servants who show up.

And since it’s God’s work, we’ll let Him have the glory.

So, on to North Carolina. I want to see my grandkids.