Epic Complain Session, Part Deux

So here I am, at half past one in the morning following the most ridiculous debacle of backstabbing and lies and nonsense with which I have ever had to deal.

When I last left you, we'd had the *emergency council meeting* with regard to Mike the Band Leader and me as a church council member being forced to agree that we needed a sort of *intervention* where Mike would more or less be forced to apologize to Pastor Fusspot and be forevermore obedient. 

For the sake of the church, Mike actually considered going along with this. 

And then the drama began.

Someone--later I found out Other Drummer/fellow council member--went and told Pastor Fusspot that I immediately told Mike every single detail of what was said during the emergency council meeting. Which I absolutely did not, at that time. Mike asked should he be worried, and I said you're not fired, but this isn't going to just blow over. 

That is all I would say then, because I was still trying to be loyal to the church while also being a loyal friend. 

Something I did not get into in the last post because I was too frustrated/angry/FDNJKDFGBHDFGBJSFDBJSFBJKGDFJKN

A few weeks ago, Pastor Fusspot was away and Junior Pastor filled in to do the Sunday sermon. A week before that, Junior Pastor emailed Mike a detailed outline of the sermon he had planned, so that we the worship team could plan the songs to tie in to Junior's sermon. 

It worked really well. After service that Sunday, Mike told Junior, "You did a really great job, and sending that outline was really helpful. Maybe we could pitch that to Pastor Fusspot, so then every week we can tie the music in to whatever Pastor Fusspot is addressing in his sermon."

At the emergency council meeting, Pastor Fusspot informed us, the council, that Junior told him Mike said, "Your sermon was so much better than Pastor Fusspot's, I wish his sermons were more like yours."

Junior would not lie about what Mike said, it's just not in his nature. So Pastor Fusspot deliberately twisted Junior's words to support his own personal witch hunt. 

In the days following, I learned that Pastor Fusspot lied about several other things. Important things that were told to the council to support Fusspot's anti-Mike agenda. 

But we still tried to keep it together for the sake of the church. We had a good band rehearsal Saturday, we had a really good set planned. We could do the set, break it to the congregation gently that the band would be leaving, and everything could go forward in a civil and grown-up fashion. 

But also on Saturday morning, we noticed that someone had unplugged and moved one of our speakers on the stage. One of three identical speakers. Two of those speakers belong to the church, one belongs to Mike. 

It was Mike's speaker that was moved. Not a big deal. But recently, we've had incidents of our equipment getting moved and damaged, most of those damages only discovered when we had a band rehearsal and noticed the speakers/amps/microphones/etc were broken. So Mike texted Fusspot to see if he knew of anything being moved/damaged, and Fusspot says oh my bad, I needed that speaker for a thing so I took it and then brought it back. 

And we were all like ........... um ................... there were two speakers that belong to the church that he could have taken, but he took Mike's without asking? Mike wouldn't have cared. It was the fact that Fusspot just took it for his personal use without asking and then didn't put it back where he found it that really pissed Mike off.

Knowing Fusspot as long as I have, I have no doubt that he did that intentionally. A passive aggressive move intended to set off Mike. And it worked. 

So Saturday night, in a fit of broiling emotions, Mike posted on facebook saying he was looking for a place in a church that needs a band. He threw in a few too many angry details in the post, which he regretted, but hey we all do stupid sh*t on social media when we're upset.

One council member saw the post, took a screen shot of it, and sent it to Pastor Fusspot.

I got a text at 10.45 on Saturday night from Pastor Fusspot--a message to the whole council that we MUST be at church on Sunday morning at 8.00 for an emergency meeting. 

But I was like yeah f**k that. I responded Sunday morning with my apologies and said I was asleep before the message was sent and would not be there at 8.00. I felt horrible lying, but I knew I couldn't go to that meeting. 

I get to church for band rehearsal a little early, at 8.30 (we usually start rehearsal at 8.45). I go in and find the council, Pastor Fusspot, and Junior Pastor sitting in the dark looking very grim. Fusspot, who I realized then must actually believe all of his own BS, says that he cannot allow Mike to lead the band because of the *~*slanderous nature*~* of the facebook post. 

This might be hands down the dumbest move Fusspot has ever made. 

We packed up all of the band equipment that belongs to Mike, which was pretty much all of the sound equipment in the church. Pastor Fusspot summons the rest of the band upstairs so he can feed us such an incredibly disgustingly vague and one-sided explanation of the *events* that I almost punched him in the face. 

And Fusspot actually thought the rest of the band was going to stay. Like we would actually stay there and go on like nothing was wrong after all this BS went down. 

We left. The band had a very nice breakfast at the Goshen Diner, and we are now actively looking for a new church to call home. 

I feel ok with this, but I feel awful about how all of this went down. I had several teary and emotional phone calls with friends I've made in the church who are absolutely devastated over the band's departure. And what kills me most is how this affects our two 13 year old singers. They couldn't just walk out with the rest of the band--they're still kids and thus have to stay where their parents stay. And they were DEVASTATED this morning when Fusspot announced that he wouldn't let Mike lead the band. 

I sent my official resignation to the council this evening. Not like anyone expected I would actually stay after all of this, but still just writing that short email was rough.

It is now twenty past two in the morning. I think I'm ok with everything that has happened, but I'm still processing it, and it's hard. 

I hope y'all are having a better weekend than I am.