Time Out

There is a change of the guard coming in the worship leadership of our church, and we aren't sure how we feel about it. We have also been wanting to take a break from playing on Sunday mornings but hesitated because we didn't want it to look like we were taking time off as a response to the coming changes. We (at least one of us) usually end up playing 3 Sundays out of the month, and with one car that means we have to have all 3 kids dressed and ready to go at 7:40 on Sunday morning. Then, the kids have to entertain themselves (unless one of us has the morning off) for almost 2 hours. We usually spend about an hour Saturday night getting their breakfast and clothes and toys ready to go. The kids actually enjoy the whole ordeal, as long it is not all the time. But that is the problem, we were starting to feel like it is all the time. When we do have a Sunday off, we are like "WOW, we don't have to be to church until 10:00, this is so relaxing!!!" I almost feel guilty that I am so happy about having the morning off.

Like I said, we have been wanting time off for a while-about 3 months probably. When we first decided that we needed a break, we felt like there was some weird tension going on with some of the other worship people. We decided to stick around and try to help resolve tensions. Then we found out that the tensions had something to do with the fact that our worship pastor (Bryon) had decided to leave our church. So once that became public knowledge, it would look like we were taking a break because Bryon was leaving - and that would look bad to lots of people. So, in October Bryon will be gone. We were still hesitant to take time off because we know that it could still like we don't want to play if Bryon is gone (we were close to him). But we really feel like we need a break, and we aren't sure about the direction that worship is going in, so Todd decided we will take off October, November and December, then re asses things for January.

Now, Todd is calling this a sabbatical. And the reaction from the interim worship leader was "I thought you were just going to take a break - like a month." We decided to take more time because last time we took a month it didn't feel long enough. But here is where the problem lies - the interim guy then asked us if we would be willing to play for the church's birthday celebration at the beginning of October "before" we start our break. My initial reaction is - No. The birthday thing falls in the time we asked to have off, you have other musicians - use them. But then that leads into the pride filled we are the best musicians and they don't want the music to suck for their birthday thing. This leads to the irritated - they "value" me, and want to "use" me, but won't let me lead worship ("there is a stylistic problem" - I'm a little too modern and edgy) and really grow in my gifting. After that egocentric tirade, I come to - I don't want to be arrogant, so I guess I should play. But, it still bothers me that my boundaries aren't being respected...we asked for Oct-Dec off, and they are already asking us to make an exception. How many more times in the next three months will there be exceptions? So to play or not to play - that is the question. I want to have a good attitude, but don't want to be taken advantage of. What do I do?

During our time out, we will be exploring the idea of a "college and careers" group. There are not a lot of people in that age group in our church, but there are some, and we're thinking that could be a good ministry for us to head up. If we meet in our house, the kids won't suffer, and we will have a chance to build some good relationships. So maybe this is the beginning of a new season for us.