"They Gave Me a Lifetime Contract..."

The only thing I ever got to use the FLC  for-
a group picture.

I promised in a earlier post that I would not use this forum to tell everything I know about my final days at Wesley Memorial UMC- Tampa in 2005.   My forced resignation in June of that year was brought about primarily by my own actions, and though it was handled very poorly, it was the right thing to do.  But I do want to recall one story today that lets you know the state of things at WMUMC at the time of my departure, especially when it came to finances.


In late 2004 our pastor and the Staff-Parish Committee of the church came to me with an offer. They wanted to increase my responsibilities within the staff and place me in charge of both our part-time Children's Ministry Coordinator and our very part-time Pre-School Ministry Coordinator. In fact, my first task would be to fill those positions.  This increase in responsibility was matched with a large salary increase and a discussion of what my role at WMUMC might be if I ever decided to stop doing youth ministry full-time.  Their plan was to work with my job description to keep me around for a very long time.  I was excited.


At the same time, the church was finishing construction on a new million dollar Family Life Center.  On the surface, there was great excitement.  Behind the scenes, things were a disaster, and the church was getting ready to be in great financial distress.  A total lack of leadership had led to the building be built without a loan actually being secured and without the required sprinkler system (as a side note, I never got to use that building.  It finally opened 18 months or so after I left and the sprinklers were installed).  Our ministry budgets were stripped away, leaving me to find creative ways to finance previously planned events- like our March, 2005 trip to New York.  Just prior to the event, we received a $2000 gift from a church member to use at my discretion.  I went to the Finance Committee chair, and asked if instead of taking the cash to NYC I could just use the church credit card and then pay the bill from our money.  With the pastor standing right next to me listening to the entire conversation, he said "yes."  Several weeks later, after our trip, I was called into that same pastor's office and absolutely destroyed by that same man for using the credit card without permission.  When I implored both men to recall the previous conversation they looked at me like I was speaking Swahili.  Everything went downhill from there, and most of it was my fault.  But NOT the finances.  They came to me in mid-May and told me to resign, effective immediately.  I convinced them to let me stay through our planned Youth Week the first week in June. I told my family Memorial Day weekend at Walt Disney World that we had to be out of our church-owned home by June 15th.  It was a nightmare.


I can look back at my 4 years at WMUMC with fondness because of the opportunity I had to serve so many great students and to work with an amazing group of adults on the Youth Ministry Team.  I enjoyed working with many of the staff members.  We accomplished a lot in the name of Jesus, and Graceland had become a place of refuge for students from all over northwest Hillsborough county.  I am very sorry that my time there ended the way it did, and that I hurt and disappointed people along the way.  I am also sorry that the church used my departure as an excuse for another budget cut, having not paid a youth pastor a living wage since.  So as I bid farewell (at least temporarily) to my stories of our Wesley years, I'll use the words of the late, great Jimmy Valvano to sum up my final year at WMUMC- "They gave me a lifetime contract...and then they declared me dead."  But praise God, we are a Resurrection People, and many of our wonderful friends from those days are coming back into our lives, and our story together continues.  As the scripture says in James 1:2, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds..."


Because of Jesus,