Tom Harper’s recent blog, “Pastors Under Pressure,” brought a couple of thoughts to mind.  I am one of those 50% of pastors who will not finish their careers as pastors.  One of my pastoral role models recently said that pastors should listen to other pastors and not to those who choose easier ministries. 

I love pastoral ministry.  I love communicating God’s truth.  I love leading a congregation to accomplish its mission.  I love influencing people toward becoming fully devoted followers of Christ.  I continue doing this, but no longer as a senior pastor.  I will do this for the rest of my life whether I am known to others as consultant or coach, mentor or pastor.  That calling has not changed. 

I often wondered why God called me and set me on this particular journey.  I grew up in dysfunctional churches with pastors whose weaknesses were at least as prominent as their strengths.  I’ve endured the worst kinds of church fights and splits.  I had no close, personal mentors when I began my pastoral career.  I had to learn almost everything the hard way. 

I’ve known exhilarating success and catastrophic failure as a pastor.  I’ve made the hard decisions and kept the confidences of those who used my integrity against me.  I agonized through two years of questions without answers.  I was overwhelmed by the waves of God’s grace when he refined me through fire for his purposes.  Did I mention that I was struck by lightning?

Why did God set me on this journey with all of these agonies and ecstasies?  I think I knew the answer about a year into my first senior pastor position.  He would take me down a more difficult path so that I could encourage others with what I learned along the way.

Today I provide consulting, coaching, and mentoring to pastors and their churches.  I preach regularly.  I introduce people to Jesus Christ and his church.  I work long, hard hours.  I drive 3,000 miles per month.  I feel about my job like Eric Liddell felt about running: “And when I run, I feel his pleasure.”  I’m like that GEICO Gecko: “I love my job.”

God gave me a Barnabas personality and a Barnabas position.  I love it when the pastors and churches I serve succeed.  I love it that I get to walk away relatively unknown to the larger congregation.  It’s not about me.

I love forming pastoral peer groups for encouragement and accountability.  This keeps pastors from becoming isolated.  Pastors who go it alone are more vulnerable to the enemy’s attacks.  Every pastor needs at the least a mentor, a coach, and a friend.  Pastors need colleagues who can keep confidences and who can pray the heavens down.  We will stand together or we will fall one by one. 

I began reading about men at midlife when my birthdays piled closer to the magic 4-0.  I took two full years to seek God’s direction about my second half.  I truly wanted to move from success to significance.  I narrowed down what I do best.  I wrote my ideal job description.  That job did not exist.  Yet.

Two years later, nine of those positions were created in Texas.  Shortly thereafter I was hired for one of those positions in the area where I felt strongly impressed that God wanted us to move.  My wife’s career is significantly specialized and job opportunities are few.  Most hiring is done from within those organizations.  Yet when God provided me with the job he led me to write for myself, there were also five positions like my wife’s in the same area as my new position.  We began work on the same day in our new jobs.  She works less than before and is paid more. 

God is good, all the time.  All the time, God is good.

Pastors, do everything you can to be who God created you to be and to do what God created you to do.  Remember that you belong to him.  Give him the freedom to change your assignment at any time in any way.  That is where purpose and meaning are found.  That is where joy lives. 

More about preventing pastoral failure in the next installment.