Happy New Year!

We had a laid-back New Year's Eve.

Laid-back seems to be the theme of these days, and honestly? I'm good with it.

Church in the morning was bittersweet. It was the final sermon of our current pastor, who is retiring to go be, effectively, an itinerant pastor--filling in here and there for a week or two at a time as needed. His sermons were a huge part of what we love about our church, and honestly, with the rest of the shenanigans that went on there in 2022-2023, him leaving feels like that final straw.

Of course, eldest is still very involved and most of his friend group is there, so I doubt heavily that we'll actually look for another place. But church is no longer a place I look forward to going, and that is sad.

The new pastor is fine. He hasn't been here long - he came as the "outreach" pastor maybe two years ago? Three? Something like that. (For all I know, it's been five and I just have no concept of time, but I feel like it was toward the end of covid, so 2 or 3 feels right.) The times he's preached have been...fine. But he's young and his sermons reflect that. They aren't deep and thought provoking. And maybe with time he'll grow into a fraction of what the exiting pastor was, but honestly? I'll be surprised if he does. Pleasantly surprised, but still surprised.

Of course, that means we'll need to hire a new outreach pastor to do...whatever it is we pay that person to do. From my perspective, that seems to be greet people on Sunday morning, but maybe there's more to it than that.

Anyway, I digress.

We headed to friends' around 7 and spent until about 10, when it was clear youngest needed to get to bed, hanging out and chatting. It was lovely, even if the group was about half of what it "should" have been. One couple took the opportunity to say they weren't going to be continuing with our small group on Sunday nights anymore but hoped to still do the hangouts. I told hubby in the car on the way home that I'd called it (I had) and he laughed. Because he'd said I was being pessimistic. And sure, I was. But I'd venture to say pessimism is rarely wrong.

Still, at home, we managed to make it to 12:02, at which point I called it and we headed to bed.

And now, we embark on 2024 and whatever it is God has in store for us in the days, weeks, and months ahead.