Leaving Hood River Alliance means saying goodbye to "family"

 

Leaving. After almost 12 years, saying "Goodbye." For the last 12 years, my vocation has been pastoring Hood River Alliance Church. This means praying often for HRAC. Going to bed and waking in the morning with some concern, idea or person on my mind. Marrying and burying those who are part of this church family. Laughing with you. Crying with you.

 

We are so much like family: we choose to love each other even though we are so different from each other. Why? Because we actually are family—God’s family. And He tells us to love each other. In a few short weeks, this will feel different.

 

How can we just say our goodbyes and leave? Is this okay? For some of you, I’ve been the only pastor you’ve had. And you wonder if this is going to make everything different. Know this: The Lord has not changed. His commitment to you and to HRAC has not changed in any way. In fact, in times like these we have the opportunity to rethink our orientation. Your connection to HRAC is not Tim Saur, but the Lord Jesus. He is the head of HRAC, not me.

 

Some of you are saying, "We won’t miss you, Tim. We’ll miss Marily." Of course. Marily is special to so many of us. Her steadiness. Her love and loyalty. Her heart for people. Her lack of guile. And for so many of you, her friendship. For Marily, the relationships are the difficulty of leaving. Twelve years of friendships. And they will soon be different; miles of distance change relationships. Marily knows that from before—the other times we’ve left friends.

 

If the new commandment is to love each other (and it is), we shouldn’t be surprised by the pains of love—the pain of separation. You feel it. We feel it. But in the middle of those feelings there is a knowing of something greater: God’s love. God’s Kingdom. God’s presence and purpose.

 

So, to answer the question, yes, it is okay to say goodbye and leave. For we move on to new adventures and you stay here living the new adventures in the life of Hood River Alliance Church. We all serve His adventure, under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And that’s what it’s all about.

 

Pastor Tim Saur

May/June 2008