Inevitably at some point in life you’re going to ponder leaving the church you’re at for another. Either someone’s going notice that you’re doing a great job and invite you to their team, you’ll get frustrated where you’re at and be tempted to jump to another place, or you’ll be uninvited from the team that you currently serve on. Whatever the reason before you make the decision to leave your church for another, make sure you take the time to wrestle through the following questions. These were given to me about 10 years ago by a friend of mine who asked them to me and I’ve held onto them ever since. Hope they’re helpful!
Like many pastors I’ve made a couple of moves along the way from one church to another. In reflecting about this at one point, my heart was stirred about why Church Staff change churches. And while this isn’t an exhaustive list, I thought it was a great place to start. So in no particular order, here is my top 10 list of “Why Church Staff Change Churches:”
It’s ironic to me that in church-world where honesty is inherent we have such a difficult time telling the truth to ourselves and to those around us. Very few churches that I’m aware of have built a culture of or even simply have a plan to do evaluation well. My experience has shown me that the majority of people on staff or in a high level leadership role in the church are afraid of evaluation. Maybe it’s more convenient or simply easier to keep our head in a hole. But our lack of courage to take an honest look in the mirror does nothing to help us become more effective in reaching a lost world for Christ. Socrates said it this way, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” So here are a couple of reasons why we run from doing the work of evaluation.
I can remember as a young teenager going to bed praying and weeping night after night, begging God for the opportunity to influence thousands of people for Him. From the time before those prayers were ever uttered until today, God has been shaping me, forming me through His Word, His People, His Spirit, and His Wisdom for this very moment. For this moment, this community of people, this church, this mission…this is what I was made for.
Cornerstone, I could not do what the Lord has placed in front of me to do without you. What the Lord has done in my life through you and during my time among you will be treasured. I’m honored to have served along side of you and will take with me the many friendships, memories, and incredible moments that we’ve shared together. Thank you for your kind words in this moment. They have breathed affirmation, empowerment, courage and life into me and I am grateful.
North Metro, I cannot tell you how honored, humbled and excited Lisa and I are to be a part of what God is doing among you. You have already embraced us through emails, phone messages, and direct messages and it is so good to feel your love and affirmation, even from across the country. I cannot wait to get there this summer and get into the thick of life with you, and what the Lord has in store for us together.
While there is so much that could be said about how the Lord moved each step of the way in this process of calling us to North Metro and bending our hearts towards one another; I’ll simply say out loud to the Lord thank you for Your kindness and both shaping in us and leading us to what You know is best.
In order to finish well where I currently am, my family and I won’t I won’t be making the move to North Metro until later this summer. So as a result, we decided to have a video put together to introduce ourselves to our new church family! Below is the video that was shown this weekend at North Metro, happy viewing!
BTW got to give a big shout out to Chris Loope for doing the video work, the guy is simply amazing!
You cannot meet and get things done at the same time. In a meeting you can develop plans to get things done, you can decide what things you are going to get done, you can form consensus and get buy in from team members about what things you are going to get done, but you cannot get things done in a meeting. Meetings that work are meetings that prepare you and the team to get the work of the organization done.
