The Associate

You've been preaching for a while now, haven't you? You've been faithful, diligent, and reliable in your function as associate minister/assistant pastor, but admittedly you're beginning to experience feelings of being "weary in well doing." You're beginning to notice inconsistencies in your pastor's preaching/teaching versus his practice. You feel like you're not being fed spiritually. You've talked to your pastor about it and it appears as if his answer is littered with subtle manipulation that is deferring the inauguration of your personal ministry. It seems the only time he calls you now is when something is wrong, he wants to tell you something you did wrong, instruct you in some church matter, or to inform you about a preaching opportunity of which the last one was months before. Lately, you've been thinking about leaving the church. You've received invitations to serve at other churches in the same position, but you feel that your gift will be more appreciated more there than at your current church.

Your church seems dead. You can't necessarily find anything doctrinally incorrect, but you can remember when the church was on "fire" and now it seems it has dwindled down to the final sputtering embers. All of the young people have initiated a mass exodus explaining to the pastor that in order to grow they need to go. You look around you, you watch TV, you see other ministers who are getting more opportunities than you, and it seems clear that it is time for you to exit. But there's just one thing: you haven't found peace about leaving and you can't figure out why. If you've got a few more reading minutes, I'd like to tell you.

Welcome to the LORD'S SCHOOL OF MINISTRY. The school that is more interested in taking you through the PROCESS than giving you something that is PROCESSED. Everything that I have just described in the first two paragraphs I went through and am currently going through and more. I've been mad, confused, ready to leave, ready to give my pastor a piece of mind, etc., not realizing that although from a preaching perspective I had been blessed with wonderful gifts I still lacked the poise, responsibility, emotional stability, grace, wisdom, compassion, and humility needed to shepherd the people of God. God was using my pastor to create necessary scenarios to mold, shape, and discipline me and as long as I viewed as something being done TO ME and not FOR ME so that God could effectively work THROUGH ME, God would never really be able to USE ME.

I don't want you to get bored with this post, but obviously there is MUCH more. Those of us who are waiting in the wings, God is preparing us to do something great, but we have to wait our turn and learn to see the wisdom in the waiting...

I promise I will continue this...