It was one of the hardest Sundays of my life. Vince was announcing that we were leaving. We started the morning at our Chesapeake campus where Vince had a special meeting for all the key leaders before service. He told them about our decision to go to Vegas and all that led up to that decision. I sat in the front row and cried. One of my best friends missed the meeting so we had to tell her and her husband after the meeting got done. She cried and said, "Just when I was going to go off my anti-depressant..."
We drove to our Virginia Beach campus where Vince dropped the bomb in his sermon. Again, I was crying my eyes out. The church gave him a standing ovation, which was so encouraging. I would have missed it because my face was buried in my hands, but our Executive Pastor tapped me and said, "You might want to look up." How cool is that? We're leaving and they're clapping. Wait, maybe that isn't a cool thing! Ha Ha!
I walked out of the service knowing that people would be sad. I wasn't prepared for the weeping and wailing that I was about to encounter. All my girlfriends came up to me with tears in their eyes saying, "No...tell me this isn't true!" Even people that I'm not really close to came up crying in disbelief. Again, I was crying my eyes out.
We decided to announce our departure long before we are actually leaving. We thought it would be best for the church, so they could feel like they were sending us, as opposed to us deserting them (remember, we did start this church...think mom and dad abandoning their child).
My biggest fear in all this is that I'm going to be left behind far before we leave. It's just human nature. If you know someone is leaving you mentally prepare yourself for them to be gone. You start living life like they are already gone; it's a self-defense mechanism. Only time will tell how this is going to play out relationally. I'll be sure to keep you posted!
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