Pastor Rich Lang announced this past weekend that after eleven years with Ballard's Trinity United Methodist Church, he will leave Ballard to become the pastor of University Temple United Methodist Church.

Lang said his sermon on Sunday was a "blubbery event filled with deep emotions" as he leaves the people he greatly loves and respects. 

"When I came to Trinity 11 years ago, Trinity was a church in decline. It was down to 30 or 40 in attendance," Lang said. "Now, it's a church with 110 - 120 people on Sunday mornings with a real impact on the community."

Lang said his specialty is in church redevelopment.

"My specialty is in helping churches that have lost their ways," he said. "In the years I have been here, Trinity has become a healthy, vibrant part of Ballard and the city. It is a political and moral voice for the homeless and against the war. So it's time to say goodbye."

The goodbye is bitter sweet for Pastor Lang. While his job to redevelop the church has been completed, he is saddened to leave his congregation.

"I've fallen in love with the congregation. For many in the church I have been their first pastor. It's like raising a family and I have the papa role," he said.

"The emotions were huge," he said about announcing his departure during Sunday morning's sermon.

"It was a really, really hard sermon to preach. I thought I would warm into it but by my second sentence I felt my throat tightening and the butterflies in my stomach and I knew I wasn't going to make it through."

Pastor Lang will start his new post at University Temple United Methodist Church on July 1st.

"It gives us three months to find a replacement, to grief, to heal anything that was broken and to transition," Lang said.

"It has been a fantastic adventure to be a part of this church and to see it develop," Lang said. "I will miss it."