Ghosts of Conflicts Past
This church had been stalking its pastors for generations. Now it was time to stop.
By Dan Cooley
October 1, 2004
My wife and I moved from a youth pastorate in Tucson, Arizona, to a senior pastorate on the Canadian prairies just in time for winter. Here the high temperature on Valentine's Day can reach a romantic 30 below. But the weather wasn't nearly as chilly as the reception we received at our new church.
One month into our new ministry, "Marlene" called my wife, furious that JoLynn had used the word "intimacy" during a private marriage counseling session. (The fact that Marlene called on behalf of another offended woman should have warned us how bad things were about to become.)
"We don't talk about those things up here," Marlene said. "I knew we shouldn't have hired an American! You're all the same. I've been to California, you know. They do that kind of stuff in the streets!"
Amazing, I thought. I grew up in California. Guess I've driven down the wrong streets!
Marlene was only the first. In my inaugural year at Elim Chapel, I was criticized for using the wrong pulpit and sitting in the wrong pew. My preaching was called "shallow," my wife "ungifted," and the services "juvenile." Our worship was described in a letter as "absolute buffoonery, causing one to wonder if the person responsible isn't experiencing a delayed adolescence, rather than the expected maturity of a church leader."
Someone even told me to go back to youth ministry, "where you belong." It started to sound like good advice. Junior highers behaved better than this.
At first, the criticism shook me. Am I a lousy preacher? Am I that bad of a senior pastor?
Two weeks before our annual meeting, a new flurry of letters went to the board and membership alike, a clear campaign to oust the new pastor. But in those two weeks, I made a discovery about our church's history that ...
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