Where do we go from here? What do we do now? I have been on staff for 10 years. My fourth pastor is moving. May 25th will be his last Sunday. He’s been on staff since July 07, so he couldn’t even make it for a year. The church has just been hard. So many are so willing to voice their complaints. Some wrote anonymous letters. There’s been a lot of complaining amongst ourselves. There are so many unwilling to do anything new and different. So many are unwilling to even look beyond their own desires to even consider what might be wrong with us.
I’m mad, because of the 4 pastors I’ve served under, he was the best one. He’s young (28), energetic, brilliant, talented, dedicated, a great preacher, has an insatiable desire to learn, has good leadership skills, and more. He loves God, knows the Bible, knows how to preach the Bible, and knows that the Word of God needs to be our foundation, He brings so much to the table, it’s sad that people in our church have just sucked the life out of him. We told him when he came that we were ready to make some major changes. I think some of us thought that was true. The reality is that we were not.
Because we have folks who vocally resist change, many younger families in the church have left. Even some that were on the pulpit committee. These were families that had invested, sacrificed and served for many years. They were generous with their finances, always willing to help, and desired for us to be a God-led, God-honoring church. We were counting on them to help us lead the way. It’s sad they felt things would never get better, so they left.
How do you get people to see the problem? How do you get folks to desire and seek after God and what He would want? How do you get folks to realize that we’ve got to change, or the past is all we’ll have? When will folks realize that 1965 is gone and is never coming back? How low can we go? Who are we? An old church for old people? One heartbeat from heaven? Preserving the past with pride?
Here’s what I think we need to do. We need to pray. We need to pray without an agenda. We need to just let God show us what He wants. We need to pray about our sin. We need to get life or death serious about what it means to be His people. We need to pray as long as it takes. We need to pray not fearing the answer He might give. That’s about the only thing we need to do right now. We won’t have a future without God. We’re in bondage. But I believe God has a good track record leading His people out of bondage to bright and better days.
