Since then…

 


A reflection from a year and a half out from walking clean away a “church job”.


Do I wish I’d spent the last 30+ years in jobs that paid a nice retirement, etc? Sure, that would have been nice. 


My religious tribe promised so much through our religious educational institutions.


I worked for a “church” for 34+ years that promised a whole lot (you know, retirement benefits, etc that we had documentation for..), depending on who was on the governing board at the time - it just never “jelled” & so now I & others are on our own, as are so many “ministers” across the land who were sold a bill of goods with no backing over the years.


I’m good w/ what God’s doing in life, even if I & my family die w/ nothing - knowing more, better, & hard to explain good things that he gives are present & still ahead. 


Many blessings to the various incarnations of church leaderships that will come & go with the resources they have.


Until the last few years, I had no idea the un-needed & un-expected burdens placed on you by so many. 


My apologies for assuming you were more educated, concerned, able, and caring than you have time, resources, & interest for.


Me and mine (and many new believers who don’t fit the mold) might struggle greatly going forward, but my greatest sorrow will be for you and those you lead who’ve grown up “in the church” who assume you have their best interests at heart that are often basically your comfort zones.


May you all be blessed with a level of insight, grace, wisdom, and peace you’ve not yet experienced yet.


See you on the other side when all things are made new…


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A reason I quit

I'm not a Paul Washer fan, generally speaking, but his words here reflect one of or some of the reasons I left paid, full-time ministry.  I 100% don't buy into the "pastor" model he's talking about, or the “male only leadership" thinking, or a whole bunch of other stuff that he's about...  ...but I do agree that many in leadership positions inside of churches have eyes for "growing a church" or "planting churches" to the degree they will 100% sacrifice their own sheep so as to attract more sheep that are like themselves and/or attract the specific kind of sheep they'd like to have. That line where he says something to the effect of "you love the church as much as you love your most difficult member" is pretty true.   Our model(s) of church allow us to prioritize the reaching of/creation of certain kinds of "disciples" and the freedom to cast off, ask to leave, and/or, most likely, completely ignore those who ...
Read more

35 years ago - a ministry anniversary

Image
35 years ago this month, I officially began working full time for a church. I'd actually started during the months before, but the official start of a salary, a place to live, etc began December '89.   I'd begun working officially in "paid ministry" about three years prior, preaching, teaching, leading singing, etc for a small church south of Batesville and north of Searcy, just a couple miles down the road from the city center of Bradford, AR. It is amazing to leave behind a job and a career and have little to nothing to do with any of it or any of the people I was connected with before. Such a weird dynamic. But I'm okay with that. Some have asked if I had or have any regrets. Not really. I loved much of my time with many good people that God used to shape me and I'm guessing vice versa.  As mentioned in the other posts in this blog, I just got to a point where all the stuff came crashing in, theologically and relationally, and had to make a decision abo...
Read more

My experience with small groups @ church & where we might be going next

Image
In my experience, small groups are as different as people.   If you're joining a group in progress - doesn't matter what you call it - house church, small group, disciple group, huddle group or whatever - you don't know what it is until you get into it and see for yourself. If you're starting a new group, it will be what you make it to be. A lot of times groups are started without clarity on what they're going to be like and might or might not be a good experience, "successful", or even helpful. Expectations and assumptions vary greatly.  What I've seen for the most part are groups that are: 1) a kind of a Bible study with cheese dip or cookies, 2) a social group with religious flavoring/occasional "devotional" time, or 3) a home version of a very formal Sunday AM service (which is thankfully more rare). I went through a lot of training for developing and maintaining small groups for churches over the decades and even a good bit of study of n...
Read more