The intercom buzzer in my office sounded. "Pastor Bob Blake on line 2."

Blake served the church I'd left a year and a half earlier. I had never talked with or met him. I pressed the blinking line.

"Hello, Bob. How's it going?"

"Great!" he said. "I'm glad to talk to you. I hope we will get to meet soon."

"I have been hearing good reports," I said. "I'm glad you called."

"The Lord is doing some awesome things here," he said. "I don't want to take much of your time, but last Sunday, just about everyone came forward at the end of the service to confess wrongdoing and to seek forgiveness from one another. A number of people confessed that they were wrong in the way they treated you and your wife before you left.

"The church would like to fly you folks back here so they can personally and publicly ask your forgiveness."

I gulped. Old feelings of hurt and anger bubbled to the surface. Never had I heard of a church inviting a former pastor back for such a purpose.