Actually I don't but this is Sunday morning and generally the best time for pastors to quit. Since I didn't do a big event this weekend I will survive but I can understand the sentiment. You work hard, you preach your heart out, you try to model the life and get next to nothing.
Sure Jesus Christ, you know God's own son, did all that and ended up deserted on a cross, so I guess a bit of frustration isn't really all that bad, but it is frustrating none the less.
Still I think it is important to keep to what God has said and to keep spirits high I thought I would try to come up with the top ten worse things that could happen and then pray they don't.
- 10-I could still be in high school. Sure I loved high school, and I love working with teens, but the drama is off the charts and I'm glad I'm not still there.
- 9- I could be in (name of state I don't want to live in). Hey where ever God has called you is great but if God wants me to go to certain places I expect very clear direction. On the other hand if God calls me to Hawaii I just need to not hear a "no."
- 8- I could be the Senior Pastor. Not only does he get to deal with everything he is blamed for doing he also gets to deal with all the stuff I probably really did do. I don't know how he does it and I'm glad I don't have to.
- 7- I could be living in the 80s. I admit I love a couple of movies and the cartoons from the 80s but I'm glad they are over. Why are people trying to bring them back? If they bring the mullet back I'm moving to another country where mullets are illegal.
- 6- I could be married to Kate from John and Kate plus 8. Sure the 8 kids would be fun but I would drive that poor OCD woman so crazy that she would kill everyone in their sleep. That would make me feel bad.
- 5- I could be the Children's Pastor. Sure it seems fine, yo don't go crazy as quickly but in the end you have to go much more crazy. For Youth you reach the level of crazy where you know you are crazy but aren't sure it is a bad thing with children you reach the level of crazy that you actually stop believing you are crazy. For any Children's church pastor the fact that you just said "I'm not crazy" is proof that I'm right.
- 4- I could be on "What not to Wear." That has to be incredibly insulting when you think about it. Sure you get $5k for clothes but they basically are telling you everyone secretly thinks you look like crap.
- 3- I could care more about money. This is why I'm not Senior Pastor material. I would forget to take up offerings. I don't have lots of money and I'm happy. The only time I worry about money is if we have a need we can't meet. Since God is faithful that really doesn't happen to us no matter how little we have. I am a living testimony to why you should tithe.
- 2- I could take myself more seriously. Hey I know things are bad sometimes but I don't really take it that seriously. I only really worry about one thing and that is people going to Hell. If I can do something to help them see the light then I'm happy all those "Christians" griping at me for being too extreme aren't my problem.
- 1- The number one worse thing that could happen ..................... (that's a drum roll) I could be a full time missionary. I love full time missionaries. I love missions. I also love snow buy I pray God doesn't send me to some snow bound place. Missions, like snow, is great for a little while and then I can go back to my comfortable life here where my daily struggles rarely involve insects known to carry small children away.
Hey look I worked a sermon in. If you are in ministry and are considering turning in your resignation today I hope you laughed a little and remembered what God called you to. If you are not in ministry and wonder why your minister is so burned out on Monday morning, well know this, we pour ourselves out and that leaves us feeling a little empty, but God is always faithful to top us back off so we can do it again.
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14 comments:
Hey yea, i jumped from Jon to you. It may be that I got some deep stuff, to vent, when I saw your "I quit" My spouse says this occaisionally, but I never verbalize it.
We are a ministry, so we do things different, we set the dress code to t-shirts & shorts, we don't do hymns, we have constant food, we do nothing in the AM.
Mo,
"We do nothing in the AM" Are you sure you're not in Youth ministry :)
It is funny that Jon has his post on getting a church and Stacy has her comments about churches chewing up and spitting pastors out and I have this post. I wrote this on Saturday actually and maybe God has this all to help encourage someone.
God is cool like that.
It's just the last few days have been kinda hard. I have been physically sick (which is most unusual). Sat. started about 4PM had a great time with teen ministry. Then go help with another teen ministry (we work together) last, took around 25 teens home in the van & at around 11PM looked at Myspace. There I saw a meloncholy teen Robert (that seemed in a good mood at both ministries) going off on his status, cussing, angry, hate. So I asked & it was of course his dad. The dad is prepetually depressed, sick & yucky, just mean spirited. Anyway along with the usual tormenting, insulting, cussing he gives his son as he follows him from room to room, he kicked him. The teen is over 6' & 320 pounds. is emotionally immature & unstable & angry. He just walks out though.
I have talked & tried to train the teen how to turn to God, treat his dad, pray, talk etc. Robert needs a place to go, we cannot take on anything more.
Mo,
Wow, yeah I totally get that. I have a couple of teens that are in very rough situations at home to the point that I have to wrestle with at which point I am suspecting abuse since I am a mandatory reporter. It really frustrates me because the ones in those situations are usually the ones I love the most because they are so desperate for love.
I am fortunate that we have been getting a great network of Youth ministries together so we can rely on each other in those times. I have one ministry in particular that is geared towards hurting teens and the people in that ministry are great with them and have really been a support to me here.
I don't know if anything like this exists where you are but if it does get plugged in. I love my pastor but we are very different and it is difficult for him to support me the way that my peers can.
If nothing exists I'd say try and get it going but be warned that it takes some effort and lots of prayer. We have been getting ours off the ground for about 8 months now. We started with just the two of us and now we have about 6 to 8 and growing. We are now trying to get official 501C status and incorporate, which is taking even more work, but in the end it will be worth it because of what we will be able to do for each other.
I think maybe this weekend Super Youth Pastor is going to have a smack down with Angry Dad. For me it can help de-stress to fantasize about those sort of things. I have an Angry Dad of my own but we can pretend it is every Angry Dad. Super Youth Pastor gets to do what we only dream of.
Well I say nothing in the AM except the Cowboy Breakfast, which I do not attend not because I'm not a cowboy, but because it is 6:30AM. Afterwards my husband usually naps as I go up at 10AM.
However my husband didn't wind down, doesn't nap, I decide to watch GodTube & find "Rock & Rolls Satanic & Homosexual Influence". Which I felt was God's way of setting me up.
The Children's Ministry doesn't start until 2PM, until then I have a worker that comes in to prepare the meals for that day. 2PM we load up over 20 children, to eat, sing, dance, learn about Jesus, play, just fun. Except this week we have a puker, which my husband cleans, I'm already quizzie, good excuse, I take it.
As we take the children home, we pick up teens to come that nite (which is supposed to be for adults, but teens call & come anyway). I find myself at 6PM with a room full of teens as my husband joins the band.
I see Robert(the big teen) with the usual ipod earphones in & his ICP shirt on. I try to tell him gently that b/c of something I watched on Godtube, b/c I loved him I couldn't let him listen to ICP & advertize their band. Not only Robert but 3 others chimed in about "what is wrong with our music", etc, etc. I thot Robert was the only one, so I gave them my computer & played the GodTube about the music, I could feel the anger as they defended thier music.
We had 25 teens & me for PRAYZE, 10 were praising God arms raised & singing, the others either just sat or talked or laughed. After repeated warnings they, continued talking to Robert. (Looking back I wondered why I didn't ask him to leave.) One of the girls got mad & told them about it & there was a yelling match as they defended their right to not praise like them (which she said, you're not praising, you're talking).
Anyway the drummer steps up & says there is a spirit of "interference" & prays about hurting teens, then opens the altar & 15 teens go down & pray about 10 I felt were sincere, wer crying. All of the ones that watched the video, went to the back except Robert, he did pray in his seat.
I began to pray & weep for these teens. It was only later when I prayed that I realized that the spiritual battle that during Prayze, began when I confronted them with their music.
My husband was on stage, I did keep the teens quiet enough, the band didn't hear them. He told me next time to motion to him & he would be down in an instant. Afterwards I took the teens home, it was 10AM, afterwards my husband & talked then both crashed.
M-W 10AM-6PM is our regular week schedule.
Anyway pray for us, just needed to say if I was ever going to quit it would have been last nite.
So when I say "I quit" I didn't just came & vented...
Yea agree with the Super Youth Pastor.
Problem 1 we have a support system on Saturdays, but Sundays was supposed to be for adults! There is a band both nites.
Problem 2 I really wanted a nite for the 20-40s, but the teens came anyway.
Problem 3 Do we ask leaders to come on Sundays also (we are not a church) or tell the teens, you have your nite, now leave us alone (literally)
Yikes I'm tired, will rest.
Hit anonymous instead of name.
nite.
If you add a comment please give me notice on myspace.
Thanks
PS, WV is prout,
What too proud to pout?
Mo,
Yep, I totally get the problems with getting people into Praise. honestly I wish I could get even that many involved. I've tried so many things but feel like we are hitting a real brick wall most of the time.
I am in charge of our Young Adults as well. Right now our typical Sunday Morning and Evening crowd is about 90% over 40. I have a decent (20-30 most weeks) youth group but very few come to the regular services. I'm in the process of revamping Sunday Evening into something for the 20-30s crowd, but I don't know if they will actually come. I expect that we will see the Youth populating the service, which is cool because I want them more involved in church, but I really don't want people to just think of it as a second Youth service.
Oh well, I guess I'll just keep praying.
I am glad I'm not a youth minister. Teenagers scare me. Even our babysitters. I used to feel like a teenager myself, and now when I get around teens I feel like I'm in the category called "Other." Not quite their mom, but still suspicious.
I don't like all the stuff they're into, don't trust them, and every time one confides something to me (one of my babysitters) I try not to be shocked, but I am.
And I'm not one bit prudish. I just feel like it's a different world. And they scare me.
I thank God that fun and funny people like you make it their life's work.
Especially since I guees my own girls will be teenagers one day. (yikes.)
WV: "ingly"
I'm getting all ingly thinking about it.
Thanks Heartafire, Nick the Geek
Wow I guess I was complaining about the abundance. After discussion with my husband & others, we came to some conclusions.
We don't want to stop the teens from coming on Sundays.
Telling the teens, we love you too much, to allow music that is satanic. (Not about sound, but about content, our bands are contemporary/rock.)
Telling them that Sundays are for those that seriously want to praise, if they want to talk or laugh, then it is not for them.
I decided that someone had to lead in praising God. To forget all my other jobs & just totaly praise God. There is an old song that says, "I've been a fool for lesser things than this." I so totally got into expressing myself, that a mere raising their hands was not even noticed. It was not pretty.
If I had a teen to step up & praise, I praised them, telling them how great they did. Funny the other teens would say "I praised too". I would give them a hug & say either "you did" or "I saw you".
One weird thing is we had some homemade streamers left from the Children's Ministry. They were either children's batons or pvc pipes (with caps so they don't guage their little eyes out), with ribbons tied onto them.
Anyway we have them in a big bucket by the stage & the teens will ask if they can use them, well sure. So they wave their homemade streamers, even the boys,they can be silly running & leaping, but hey didn't David say I will become even more undignified than this?
Because this is a ministry, that praise & worship is an outreach, we can be untraditional & loud & undignified. We have to rely on support outside the ministry b/c we have not blue hair supporters.
We have a family of homeschoolers that help with the ministry. I ask one of girls (14), if you could design a church what would it look like. This is the conversation:
I wouldn't have any stain glass windows.
I asked why?
Because old people would like them.
So, why is that a problem?
Because if they liked them, they would come.
Why would that be a problem?
Because old people are bossy & mean.
I replied, "oh". That had been her experience, well mine also.
WV: haivin
Should say, "We are having a great time, miss you/"
Instead, "We are a haivin a great time without you."
Hey I do have a lot of anxieties about the teens making purple. However here that means a truly blending of pink & blue as in getting pregnant. We have teens void of morals, b/c their parents are void of morals.
I once was on a committee that was made up from many agencies (mostly government in the community). When they asked, "What is wrong with the teens today?" I blurted out "There parents are idiots!" Feeling embarrassed that I blurted that out I turned to the Scriptures to nice it up. What I found was scripture that backed up what I said & even said it harsher.
I love your fear of being married to Kate. Ha! I agree 100%!
Also about the 80's... I still want them to put out Muppet Babies on DVD... hmmm...
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