Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

Saying “fare thee well” to Bangor

Photo credit: me

(A four-minute read.)

January 18 will mark thirteen years since my family and I moved to Bangor.

And it’s with a heavy heart that I share that thirteen years will also mark the end of our time here.

Starting in March, I’ll be transitioning to southern Maine, where I’ll pastor the Freeport Seventh-day Adventist Church and begin the process of slowly and methodically starting another church in Portland.

Though we’re very hopeful about our future, we’re extremely sad that we’ll be leaving a place that has meant so much to us—where our kids grew up and where, honestly, we grew up in many senses spiritually, theologically, and missionally.

We never thought we’d ever live in Bangor, much less enjoy living here. But we eventually got to the point where we never wanted to leave.

So why are we moving?

Primarily because of our children.

Our son is in eighth grade this year and obviously needs a place to go to high school. Camille and I have wrestled with and prayed about a million different options for his high schooling, but we’ve determined that enrolling him—and then, eventually, our two daughters—in a Seventh-day Adventist high school is seemingly what’s best for him and them.

And thus, absent a Seventh-day Adventist high school in Bangor (though we made a run at getting something going at our small but growing Seventh-day Adventist school—but it just wasn’t feasible in the end), we feel God opened the doors for the next best thing: moving to southern Maine and enrolling them at Pine Tree Academy in Freeport (where my wife was a student for her elementary and high school years).

As I said, we feel very torn about the move—extremely sad about leaving our Bangor congregation and community behind, but excited about what God has in store for the next chapter of our lives.

And we would solicit your prayers, of course.

There are so many questions and unknowns about this move—beginning with our desperate need for housing. The housing market is historically awful, as you’re already well aware, which makes it complicated enough; but I also feel very strongly that we should live in Portland in order to most effectively plant the type of congregation I feel called to plant.

Simply put, I don’t feel called to plant a “commuter church”—and a congregation thus won’t really get off the ground if we ourselves are commuting from 20 or 30 minutes away

Of course, I’ll be pastoring the congregation in Freeport as well—though we can’t live in two places at once, and I know there’s already strong leadership in that community that can help shoulder the load there. In Portland, however, we’d be starting from scratch, with no one already “on the ground” there. So that’s one of the big differences.

Plus, as I heard someone share recently about missional church planting: it’s not so much that I’m trying to plant a church, as I’m trying to plant myself and the gospel—with the hopes that a community of faithful Jesus-followers will emerge. This is what it means to be incarnational.

We’re not simply trying to put on a program once—or a few times—a week. We’re trying to live with and among those we’re trying to reach, seeking to serve and share life with them—and to live out the love of God before their eyes in everyday life.

So please pray we can find a house during a very challenging housing shortage and crisis.

Please pray also for the congregation, community, and school we’re leaving behind. These are all, in many ways, our “babies.” We’ve put so much time, effort, prayers, and tears into all of these—and we’re not only sad about leaving them behind, but anxious that the vision we were a part of will continue to move forward.

We’re not claiming to be exceptionally and uniquely gifted—as if we’re irreplaceable. We just want to make sure we’re leaving our “babies” in good hands, with leaders who have as much passion as we do for the people and vision we were able to enjoy for thirteen years.

So that’s the major update from our lives.

In many ways, I never thought this day would come—though I dreaded it might. I’ve spent over 30% of my life here (the longest I’ve been anywhere besides my childhood home). And I’m an extremely emotional and nostalgic guy.

So don’t be surprised if, over the next few months, you find me grieving in this space from time to time—even while I get more and more excited about what lies ahead.

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Shawn is a pastor in Maine, whose life, ministry, and writing focus on incarnational expressions of faith. The author of four books and a columnist for Adventist Review, he is also a DPhil (PhD) candidate at the University of Oxford, focusing on nineteenth-century American Christianity. You can follow him on Instagram, and listen to his podcast Mission Lab.