Staying the Course in Ministry
I have been both strongly encouraged and somewhat discouraged in recent months. Our candidate school in Spring 06 provided a great deal of encouragement! We had nine couples in attendance and accepted eight couples. One couple will serve as an Associate couple and one couple is from Canada. In addition, Pastor Nelson Betoney attended so that he would become familiar with VM. He will be our advisor as we move forward with ministry to the Navajo nation.
All were extremely sharp couples but particularly gratifying to me was the fact that four of the couples came from fields served by Village Missions. At least two of the four and perhaps more came to Christ and were discipled by Village Missionaries. I am extremely grateful that we are being used by God to develop our own missionaries! Please pray for all these couples as they raise prayer and financial support and as we pray about their first assignment.
I have, however, been discouraged by some recent resignations. Generally, it appears to require at least ten new Village Missionaries each year just to keep pace with resignations and retirements. The spiritual need is so great and without missionaries, many churches will permanently close. We could be so much more proactive in finding fields if we just had the missionaries to send! Please pray that missionaries will stay the course in their calling by God and that we will grow in our recruitment of new missionaries.
Here are some of my humble suggestions for staying the course in ministry:
- Cultivate your relationship with your spouse. Make sure that your spouse is your best friend and that you have enjoyable times together in ministry. Constantly work at a team approach to ministry. Carole so often provides the lift and support I need in ministry.
- Give all your expectations over to God. You cannot produce spiritual growth in your people. Your job is to be faithful in the ministry, growing on your own, and letting God direct His harvest. Otherwise, you will become angry and bitterly disappointed with your people.
- Make sure that God truly comes first in your life. Ours truly is the life of the cross in which we forsake all to follow Christ. We must never allow family, location, circumstances, possessions, or any other person or thing to interfere with our following Christ. If you are leaving ministry or even changing ministry, make sure that you are still carrying your cross and following the path of Christ.
- Remind yourself of your call. I assume that you once became convinced that God called you into this ministry. He did not call you conditioned upon results or even your enjoyment of the ministry. We serve at the pleasure of the Master and only for His good purposes and not our own. I am completely puzzled as to why God would call me, of all people, to do anything for Him. As the decision to obey God’s call was an extremely important decision, so the decision to abandon God’s call, with the possibility that you might be disobeying Him, is extremely important. Leaving pastoral ministry is not like changing jobs!
- Develop, by God’s grace, godly leaders around you and be patient as they develop. A group of godly men shared with me and were partners with me in my most difficult time of ministry—the church fire. Other situations arose during those times that were even more difficult. But we prayed and worked together. Even having one godly man helps.
- Laugh at yourself and refuse to take yourself too seriously. Life is a mere vapor and we are but blades of grass! God Himself holds all the issues of enormity and eternity in His hand, not our hand. Therefore, we can laugh and poke fun at ourselves and just plain lighten up.
- Talk to your District Representative. We want you to do well and for you to stay the course. He and his wife have many resources available to help you. The greatest resource, their listening ear, is instantly available. They will not think less of you if you tell them you are discouraged or thinking of quitting. They might have some counsel that will prove to be extremely helpful. Most of all, they can begin praying for you specifically. Don’t you realize that Satan will gain a great victory if you quit? Have others join you in the spiritual battle.
- Study and apply Hebrews 12:1-3. This passage speaks of our life as an agony race that we must keep running. We are to run the race that God has set before us. Running this race requires memory—remembering those (the cloud of witnesses) who stood firm by faith. It requires discipline as we get rid of things that weigh us down and trip us up. Most of all it requires focus, as we look away to Jesus. We remember what He endured on our behalf. His great joy was redeeming you and I. What a joy it is as a Village Missionary pastor to share His joy of announcing the Gospel!
I pray for the day when we advance the cause of the Gospel in rural North America by finding the churches about to close and having the missionaries to send them, so that we have hundreds of spiritually vital churches. Stay the course and develop some missionaries!
