Dear Huffman UMC Family,
After a great
deal of prayer and discernment with my wife Carrie, I have made the difficult
decision to leave Huffman. This process has been a long time in the making, and
I don’t want anyone to feel like they have done anything to run me off or hurt my
feelings (or those of my wife). I am leaving Huffman without resentment or
anger, and I still believe that the church on Gene Reed Road has a vital
role to play in the community around it. Unfortunately, I simply do not see myself
being a part of that role. I request that this decision be respected as a final
one. The purpose of this letter is not to solicit reasons to reconsider, but to
part with Huffman UMC on good terms.
I want my
reasons for leaving the church to clear. When my family left Huffman in 2002,
there was a bitterness to our departure that left me feeling like I still had
unfinished business there. When I came back in 2010, it was with great joy and
relief to be in a familiar place with a church family that I knew cared for me.
I want to thank everyone, and in particular, the folks in Limbo, for giving me
a chance to come back and feel welcomed with open arms.
During the last
four years, Huffman gave me a place to grow spiritually without feeling judged,
and that has meant the world to me. Huffman also gave me a chance to believe I
can be a leader in the church. I was privileged enough to serve on the Staff
Parish Relations Committee from 2011-2013, during which time I feel we made
important progress towards equipping Huffman with a staff that is ready and
able to meet the needs of the congregation and community. Most importantly, the
last four years have taught me that I have something to offer to the church;
that regardless of my own imperfections, God can use me in the service of His
kingdom.
The previous
point is one of the primary reasons now is a good time for me to find a new
church home. Huffman is the church I “grew up” in, both during my teens and a
difficult time during my 20’s. It is the church my family attended and worked
in. But it is not the same church my family went to, and it shouldn’t be. I am
not the same person I was four years ago when I returned to Huffman. Huffman is
a comfortable, secure place for me, but what I need now is a place for my
family to live into the identities that God is calling us to. To move
forward, I have to leave what is comfortable for new challenges, new
friendships, and new opportunities for service.
I do not want
anyone to misunderstand me on this point. I do not feel like Huffman has
“failed” me or doesn’t care about me. My family and I have a lot of history
with Huffman, good history, but the plain fact of the matter is I need a church
home where I don’t have a family history. To be faithful to my identity in
Christ, I need to find a church where people’s ideas about who I am are not
defined by who my parents and grandparents were. I need to find a church
without preconceived expectations about who I am based on who I was 15 years
ago, or even 4 years ago.
In the same way,
Huffman is not the same church it was 15, 20, or 30 years ago, and this is a
good and natural thing. I firmly believe that Huffman UMC has a wonderful
opportunity to serve the community around it in new, Christ-inspired ways. But
to do that, it needs the room to develop a church identity that is not burdened
by the history of the church it used to be. I see new and different faces
emerging to lead Huffman, with new ideas about what the church can be. I
applaud that. At the same time, I recognize that I am part of Huffman UMC’s
history, not its future. As much as I need to make this change to become who
God is calling me to be, I believe Huffman needs the voices of the past to give
way to the voices of the future. If I can offer one hope for the church, it is
this: that Huffman UMC will embrace the changing nature of its mission, let go
of its past, and open itself to what God is calling it to be. Instead of
clinging to the question “How can we get back to what we used to be?” I hope
Huffman UMC will fearlessly pursue the question “Who are we called to be now?”
The first time I
left Huffman, it wasn’t on my own terms, and it didn’t feel good. Now, I am
choosing to leave on my own terms, and I have zero regrets about the time and
energy I’ve invested into being a part of the Huffman UMC family. As my wife
and I embark on the next step in our journey, I want you all to know that we
love you very much, and this is not goodbye. We may not see you at the building
on Gene Reed Road, but the relationships we have at Huffman are important to
us. When Limbo officially disbanded a few months ago, we made a promise to stay
in intentional relationship with one another, and it is my hope that the same
will be true of the other relationships I have been fortunate enough to build with the
rest of my church family.
With Love in Christ,
Philip Gibson
