What Was the Right Thing to Do?

I attended a church council meeting tonight.

It was probably the first one in which I invested any emotional attachment. My question is, though, was that the right thing to do?

Until tonight, I was detached, sitting back, learning the ropes, nonchalantly voting on financial statements and whether or not to purchase a new stove for the catering committee.

Tonight, though, our church school co-ordinator's contract was up for renewal.

Not to seem biased, I have to say that she is currently an invaluable part of my life - my spiritual life, anyway. But I don't want to seem biased. ;-)

First, as a church school teacher, I owe her a debt of gratitude because she makes my job do-able (Is that even a word?). She does virtually all of the preparation, she runs all of the joint portions of the time (ie: the opening singing, the large group prayers, etc.), and she completely co-ordinates the large-scale productions, such as our musical. Without her, there probably would not be a church school, certainly not to the extent that we enjoy now.

Second, as a parent, I owe her a debt of gratitude because without her efforts, I'm not sure #1's life would be nearly as inter-twined with the church as it currently is. She was hired almost two years ago now, right around the time when #1 started to get a hint of "pre-teen attitude". Without our co-ordinator causing church school to be cool again, I may have lost him from the fold, so to speak. Instead, now I have a 12-year-old who has volunteered to regularly change the saying on the sign in front of the church, advertising up-coming events and who engages in discussions regarding religious symbolism in the movies with the priest .

Third, she is my friend. I appreciate her work so much, but I also treasure her friendship and would never want to lose that.

So, I'm sure you can see why, in a discussion regarding the renewal of her contract, I could possibly get a little hot under the collar. Of course, there are only two people on church council who have anything to do with the church school, so several of the opinions put forward were overshadowed by ignorance on the subject (Again, no bias intended ;).

I tried hard to sound detached, intelligent, and impartial, but I'm not sure it worked.

The good news is that yes, we are re-newing her contract. The other good news is that, during the refreshment time after the meeting, I had a chance to suck up to all of the people I may have (just slightly) offended during the meeting.

I hope I did the right thing.