Moving on?

So I had a bit of a rant about St Mary's last night - whoopsy!!
Anywho, I met with a friend this morning and we had quite an uncomfortable discussion. I tried to tell her how I'm feeling about St Mary's, although I had a lot of trouble articulating it properly. We came to the decision that I feel trapped by it. After all, it is my home church, I've been there for almost 21 years. That's a long time to be in the same place!!

So she suggested I leave (or say I'm taking a sabbatical) and go to a new church. We talked over a few possibilities, but nowhere really struck a chord with me. But that doesn't mean to say it's not right.

We both recognised this would be a really hard thing for me to do. Especially coz I've been and still am involved in so much at St Mary's. It would be quite an uprooting. What would make it even harder is that my family would still go there and I'm still gonna be living in the same place.

After the initial shock of this suggestion I thought back to yesterdays entry. What is it actually keeping me there? And I guess there are only 3 things; there's a handful of friends, there's the fact that I do so much there and there's the fact that I have wonderful opportunities to develop my gifts (preaching, leading services etc).

I guess if the friendships are so important to me, even if I left St Mary's we'd still keep in touch coz it's not as if Addiscombe is far from where I live. Come the summer I can take myself off every rota, I can step down from all I do and I would no longer be tied to St Mary's. And if it is really my calling to go into ministry, God will give me other opportunities to develop my gifts in other places.

So what's my conclusion? I guess I feel God is opening some doors. I think it may be right to move on, and I need to pray my socks off for God to reveal his will in this situation. If I'm gonna move churches I really need God to show me exactly the right place to be. So if you wanna join me in prayer, please do! And if God says anything to you about it, let me know!!!