Thank but no thanks

Got my first official rejection last Sunday. I've had a couple no comments and a couple "thanks but we've already found our person." This was "thank you but you did not make it past the first cut." While I'm not at all upset by the lack of an opportunity, I admit I didn't care for the way the information was phrased. A simple "thank you so much but we're currently pursuing another direction" or something would be a lot friendlier than "you didn't make the cut."

A word to the wise.

Overeager much?

Today I came into the office and found 2 messages waiting from me from the same person. This person happened to call my cell phone twice - once yesterday afternoon and once this morning before I got to work. So that makes 4 phone calls in less than 24 hours. Now, had this been a church member I would understand the many phone calls - at least if there was some serious emergency.

But it wasn't. It was someone from another church who had been matched to my resume by the denominations EHarmony machine and wanted to find out if I was still looking/interested. And this person called twice and left a message (indicating she wanted to talk to me about my ministry) at my church. Seriously. Poor form!

Thank goodness it was the church secretary who took the messages and not a phone volunteer and the secretary thought the woman was a telemarketer.

First Conversation

Monday night I had my first conversation with a church. Of course, when I say conversation I really mean listening experience. I listened to the chair of a PNC talk for about an hour, interjecting here and there when I could. It was nice - I'm going to talk to the whole pnc sometime next week I think.

I've also sent out 3 sermon cds and may send out another one - not sure about this church, got to do some background research before I fill out their consulting firm's form (yes, they are using a consulting firm to help call (or perhaps it is hire) a new pastor).

Nothing yet ubber exciting but there's still lots of time for God to kick me in the butt.

First Round

The first 12 PIFs have been sent off and already I've heard back from 4 churches. 2 are at the end of their process, thank you very much, and 2 just wanted to let me know they received my PIF.

I must say, I have heard that committees are terrible about getting back to you and while I still assume this will be true for many - if not most - and especially after the first contact, it was nice to know that things had been received.

By the way, the 2 churches I know I'm not being called to - one's in Texas (thank you God!!!) and one in Minnesota (brrrr).

She Did It!

Okay, so it's been brought to my attention that my attention has not been paid to this little blog. I warned that was a possbility! But huge things have happened so I probably better blog about them.

I have put my PIF out there into the wide world. A couple weeks ago I was live online and today I sent copies of my PIF (resume for you non-church types) to 12 different search committees. I'll be happy if I hear back from 1.

But yeah - it's out there. And I've become more and more comfortable with the thought of leaving my current call. Less excited about trying to sell my house in this awesome market, but I'll just have to trust and all that.

Not much else is going on - Man Who Makes Me Cry... no longer comes to church when I preach and leaves before I pray when OP preaches. That's pretty impressive. I've had no more encounters with silly former boyfriends and have enjoyed some wonderful friends lately. Oh, and of course, I basked in the glory that was Jan 20th, 2009 at the National Mall. Yep, it was pretty much one of the best things I've ever done.

I'm sure as this call process continues I'll have some fun stories. So, until then...

much needed

I'm enjoying a nice stay-cation at the moment. Thought about heading out of town but decided that I just needed to stay put and do absolutely nothing. Well, nothing and just a little bit of work on that form. You know, the one we ministers put out when we're open to a new call. Yep, I've promised myself (and my dear friends who have had to put up with me and my lack of happiness in my job) that I'm putting that form out.

I love my church - I love the people - but I haven't been challenged in a way I enjoy for quite some time. And while there are things on the horizon that are exciting, I think I'm here to plant those seeds and then someone else water them. I think. Of course, I could be completely wrong (and I'd be okay with that) but it's time to not just say I'm open, but to actually be open.

So, lazy days with a little bit of future thinking. Good vacation so far.

(Unrealistic) Expectations

I was having some serious OP love earlier this week. The whole "of course you go to your sister's event" thing was up there as well as his hand in talking with Man Who Makes Me Cry In My Own Office (who had e-mailed me wanted to share thoughts on youth sunday... thoughts which consisted of "did I miss something because how was that considered a worship service." Oh yeah.)

But you know, I think that love is fading at the moment (it's not all gone, just the glow). The interferance he was going to run, I'm sure tempered Man Who's rudeness but I still got jerked around by him. I don't know exactly how he deals with Man Who but I sometimes think he could do even more. Does he ever call Man Who out on his down-right rude treatment of me or is it "well, that's just something they'll have to work out." Which would be fine, I suppose, except Man Who literally worships OP and I think sometimes if he just said "look, you two don't see eye-to-eye but you've got to stop patronizing and needling her" it might help. Or at least let me know I'm not alone in this.

Also, and this is minor and petty (but), we have an executive team meeting before our session meeting each month. At 8am. On Friday. My day off. So, that's lame in and of itself - a day I shouldn't be at work at a time that he knows I'm not at my best. Apparently they used to meet at lunch on Friday before the session meeting (which would me at least half better). So I've always kinda been bothered by the fact he never said "hey, we have a new team member on board who is off this day and it's ridiculous to ask her to schedule a meeting on her own time, so let's move it to Thursday."

So this morning I arrive at the meeting at 8:01am (there was traffic on my way over). And at the end of the meeting he asks to see me. To "ask" me to be at church 5 minutes before the meeting. Because, you know, it's been a couple meetings now that I've arrived exactly on time or a minute late (literally a minute). And, of course, he starts this meeting (not the session meeting or any other meeting but THIS meeting at 8 freaking am) before the actual meeting time or exactly on the dot.

This is just a small example of a constant theme. It's gotten much, much better, but I don't know if OP fully respects me or sees me as a colleague or is fully aware of his power over me and how much that, well, sucks for me.

Ah, rant done now. Now it's time to try and write a sermon about not fearing. Hmmm... one of these days maybe I'll take my own advice and actually talk to OP about some of this. Probably not, but maybe.

Edited to Add: Got an e-mail back from Man Who... apparently youth sunday begs the question of why the youth weren't challenged enough (I didn't realize they hadn't been) and while he thanks me for me e-mail, he doesn't appreciate my condescending tone. Wow. Um, didn't know I had been condescending in said e-mail - in fact had a friend look at it before I sent it to make sure all was pleasant. But I think what he reads as condescending is me answering his trap question - "how was that considered a worship service" - as best as I could. I drove back the the office to talk to OP - which meant crying of course - and while he said, there's nothing you can do, I wanted to say "well, what about you?" When a parishioner is just not nice to someone, even a minister, shouldn't we address that? Bleh...