5. God called me here, and I’ll stay until He says otherwise.
He/she is committed to God’s will.
This is the only solidly Christian position, for my money. After all, it’s the Lord’s church, not mine. The program of ministry is His, not ours. The people belong to Him. And regardless of whose name is on the deed, who functions as trustees, or who can vote to sell the property, it’s the Lord’s church.
The only question for members of the Lord’s church—I mean the only question–is “Lord, what will you have me to do?” It was the question Saul of Tarsus asked Jesus outside Damascus the day he was unseated from his high horse. And it’s the right question for all of us today, pastors and people alike.
When we come into a meeting to discuss church finances and budgets, the only question is Jesus, what do you want done with your money?
When we come into a time of worship where we seek to quieten our spirits and still our bodies and find God, the only issue is Lord, what shall we do?
And when churches try to self-destruct and to linger there any longer threatens to give one a nervous breakdown, the only prayer is Lord, tell me what to do, please.
There is no more liberating thought for church leaders than this: This is the Lord’s church and not mine. He died for it; I didn’t. He has plans for it, and I don’t. So Lord, tell us what to do with your church, and we’ll do our best to obey.
Once in a while, the answer will come back that we are to leave this church and go elsewhere. That’s not all bad.
A pastor told me today that some of the disgruntled members of his congregation are leaving. They led an uprising against his ministry and lost that fight, and now they are walking away. Ideally, we could wish they would have reigned in their rebellion and submitted to their godly leader–this is not an abstraction; I know these folks–but they chose not to do so.
So it was good for them to leave. The smaller congregation they leave behind will struggle for a while filling the vacancies in leadership and compensating for the loss in contributions, but the new peace and unity of purpose will be worth the effort.
I suppose we should go back and revise the opening statement. Maybe there are three groups of members: those who leave churches easily and often, those who plant themselves in concrete and will not be moved, and the reluctant ones who by their leaving bless two churches, the one they leave and the one they join.
