I am so disappointed and sad this morning. I lost more than enough of a support system and someone who centers me this year and my senior pastor is now retiring. Whether you share my beliefs or don't share them at all, just understand that he is an awesome person.
He is one year older than I am so he isn't a young man. When he had his first church, he stood his ground by welcoming people from other races into the small rural church that he served. Even though he had a family to support, he didn't back down and was asked to leave and hasn't changed throughout his entire life. (This was a different era) He jokes about what a rebel he is.
He gladly accepts invitations to speak and offer prayers at BLM gatherings. After the pulse nightclub massacre, he gladly did the same in our local community. When shelters wouldn't accept migrant workers who had no papers and a hurricane was heading for the little rural area, he asked the bus drivers if they would be willing to risk their lives since the hurricane was near and 25 people needed shelter and he welcomed them into the church and made sure there were blankets and plenty of food here for them and kept checking on them throughout the storm.
Instead of being boring, he had some awesome sermons and I hope I remember a lot of them and apply it during my lifetime. One of my favorites was, "God doesn't kill people to increase the population of heaven."
My denomination is now splitting apart and the last several years when he went to conference, he begged many of the others that we stop singling out groups and judging them and just welcome everyone equally.
Anyway, just really sadness me.
