To Stay at your Church . . . Or Leave?

Perhaps you've thought of leaving your church for another, but you're not sure. It can be an agonizing decision.

I've done it twice in my adult life -- voluntarily left a church for another. Sharon and I have been at Grace Church Roseville now since 1997 and have no plans for another switch.

I'd like to offer a word of caution that stems from some recent discussions I've had with wise friends, and from my own churchmanship of 35 years:

If I choose to leave, I'm trading in one set of problems for another set of problems. No church is perfect, no pastor is without flaws, no elder/deacon/session group is permanently in charge.

No preacher will be there forever. No music will stay the same. No ministry style will remain unchanged.

If any of those reasons are the "main reason" I decide to leave, I'll be in the same position in six months or two years (or five or ten) in my new church home.

Will I leave then as well?

It seems to me there has to be a deeper set of reasons to make such a major move. Next week I'll explore them a bit.

Wonderful, Merciful Savior

A departure from my normal blog:

I had the good sense to marry into a musical family -- the Doedens, of Worthington, MN.

My wife Sharon (left in the video) and two of her sisters, Linda (middle) and Brenda, sing some tight harmonies at historic Emmanuel United Methodist Church.

Emmanuel is the home church of the Doedens.

(The guitarist is me.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MEQuNeScP0

Motive

In my last post I mentioned my difficult decision at Grace Church Roseville to leave the music ministry in order to serve in adult education (our curriculum is called "Catalysts").

The main reason (of several) for making the move is gifting. Teaching is my sweet spot.

Think of your church for a moment. Do you see people serving in places for which they're not gifted?

In my travels to college campuses around the country, I also hit a lot of churches! I see it all the time: Round pegs in square holes.

Of course, sometimes it can't be helped. Sometimes there just aren't enough willing servants to fill all the needed positions at church.

Then you just serve "where needed most."

But assuming an adequate pool of workers exists, why don't they land in the right slots, quite often?

I can think of many reasons. Here is one:

Unchecked motives.

A sampling, then, of what I consider to be good and not-so-good motives for choosing a ministry slot:

Yeah!

• to humbly serve others
• to use my spiritual and natural gifts for God's work
• to fit into the overall ministry plan of my church*

Boo!

• to get my political and stylistic agenda across
• to be noticed, acclaimed, respected by others
• to run my own ministry under the umbrella of my church

As I come to various forks in the road of my life, I've noticed that my spiritual director, Wayne Thyren, shows little interest in which way I go. Left or right, he usually doesn't care.

What he cares about (and asks me about) is why.

Motives, my friends. It's all about motives.

*assuming such a plan exists

See you next week.