Finding the Courage to Stay Put - Staying Planted When You Want to Run Away

Are you and your spouse secretly fantasizing

about leaving your current church and

applying elsewhere?

Come on, it’s just you and me here. You might be surprised to know that many people in full time ministry dream of greener pastures in other churches.  This was a favorite hobby of mine on rough ministry days.

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Here’s the problem people in ministry discover when they leave a church before it’s God’s time for them to go.  When you’re outside a church looking in, all you see are the beautiful green pastures that are filled with crops of healthy ministry.  All kinds of programs to feed the happy, contented congregational flock who are grazing and working in that church. 

Once you are inside that new pasture, on the working end, you find out there's just as much sheep manure as there was in your last field.

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Church hopping is not just a problem with laypeople, it’s a problem with pastors too. In one church where my husband, Ken and I served, in over a hundred years, only one pastor before us stayed longer than three years.  Mature congregations are not produced by that kind of ever-changing leadership.

Healthy congregations grow naturally when pastors and their spouses put tent stakes down deep to whatever place God has called them and do not pull them up until God says so.

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Hey, I’m not judging anyone.  Years of my ministry passed before I had a handle on this and started getting some inspiration and courage from Moses and Nehemiah.  Ken and I also hung out with some local pastors who had been in their churches for decades. We picked their brains and listened when they shared their successes and failures with us.

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Here’s the thing I’ve learned from watching churches and pastors for many years.  Satan is always trying to ruin pastors and their ministries and will use any means he can.  Much of the time, he uses strife and division within a church to wear a pastor down. Sometimes it’s financial hardship or membership numbers that refuse to climb.

Much of the time it’s the exhaustion that comes from wearing so many different hats, working long hours and struggling to maintain quality days off and vacations. Unfortunately, deaths and tragedies do not respect vacation plans.

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Whatever it might be that’s causing you to dream about how much better it would be in a new place, I’ve been there. Ken and I struggled with everything in the above list plus other challenges like chronic and serious illness and treachery and betrayal from within a pastoral staff. 

Please don’t let Satan drive you out of your current assignment. Wait for God to lead you out in his perfect time and way to just the right place.

For specific ideas on courage in ministry and how to stand firm when your emotions are telling you to run away, check out part two of this series, “The Courage to Stay Put- Part Two- Practical Help,” on this page.