I have received emails from Church Staffing for years. I signed up for it at some point, but have not actually read any of their emails in years. These are the kind of emails I delete without thinking about it and sometimes wonder why I don't take a moment and remove myself from their list.
Today I was both glad and sad that I still receive their emails. Glad because it is good to know what people are thinking in the ministry world and sad, because I got a glimpse of what people are thinking in the ministry world.
The email itself was pretty much an invite to use their services, but the subject line of the email, "get to the next level faster" is troubling. I am not against a pastor moving from a smaller church to a larger church, nor am I against a pastor moving from a larger church to a smaller church, the issue is why would we take a ministry position at any church, how long should we stay at a church and why should we leave one when and if we do?
Now I am sure that pastors with much skill at preaching and good leadership skills will often end up at larger churches and those with less to offer may end up at smaller churches. However, there is something troubling about going to a church that you see as only a stepping stone to the ministry you really want and/or feel you deserve.
I must not cast the first stone, in my flesh I have sometimes thought I deserve a bigger church and sometimes like I am very inadequate for the church I pastor now. When I am thinking rightly about it, I know I am inadequate accept for God's empowerment, and I believe God has brought me to this church in His time and for His own reasons.
Why would a pastor seek to move to the "next level"?
Greater influence? Maybe that is good?
Provide better for my family? That could be reasonable?
It is between the pastor and the Lord to sort out what is right in any given situation, but a passage of scripture suggests great caution before we try to "get to the next level faster".
Jesus said:
John 10:11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. 12 But a hireling, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them. 13 The hireling flees because he is a hireling and does not care about the sheep. 14 I am the good shepherd; and I know My sheep, and am known by My own. 15 As the Father knows Me, even so I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep.
There is only one "good Shepherd" who "owns the sheep"! However, we, as under-shepherds, need to put the safety of the sheep above our own desrie to "get to the next level faster"!
"Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved."
Sorry to be posting so latish, been a good but full day..Wanted to firstly say that Sundays sermon was a powerful teaching that cut me, only because it exposed my guilt through it, but also provided the balm of healing in bringing me back to HIM, always Him..Seems as though this post speaks into the theme of temptation,even to turn something so good in itself, serving our God and Savior in ministry, into a self serving idol..I do not see you as casting stones, I for one need to be reminded of these potential traps still often, thank Christ His Spirit enables us to love each other and His Glory enough to do the work often requiring the boots..and I find mostly by the time I would think to dare sling that medicinal rock, I have already had to bash it upside my own fat head countless times..tj
ReplyDeleteI have heard Paul Washer touch on the all too common error of getting fulfillment in ministry, when not it, nor even Heaven itself is the main prize His children receive..It is Himself, only and always Himself..to think that He is so All, so Other, that we will need reconstituted, glorified minds and bodies to even be in His presence..because we are sinful yes, but also because His Awesomeness would drive our present minds mad, and learning of and bathing in His Unveiled Glory would melt our weak cells in an instant, much less the Eternity He Has promised..Next level? I need it not a bit, as I cant begin to even grasp what I already know is coming..it almost sounds like Catholic works-striving, dressed in evangelical garb..The Scripture you provided gives a loving warning, telling us if we put ANYTHING before Him, even His Own sheep,we have no part ourselves with Him..terrifying thought, "Lord, Lord, have we not..." He also correctly tells us that in the end, even the beautiful redeemed sheep themselves will not be enough to keep the false shepherd from totally leaving them to their slaughter, when the true hatred of God at the hands of the world arrives..I counter the lie suggesting God's child lacks ANY good thing with 2 Peter 1:3-8..Every Word is pure Truth,i covet your prayers only that I would live like it more..Grace and Peace tj
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