Good morning, church. Today, I have an important announcement. One that’s difficult but also exciting.
As some of you know, I’ve spent the last twenty-five years in ministry. The last fourteen of which, have been dedicated to planting and building Pierce Point. For those doing the math in your head, that’s right, I started when I was just nineteen years old. As you all know, (show ministry meme) with ministry comes a very close relational element that element includes blessings along with challenges.
Seven years ago, our church went through the most significant of these challenges: a church split. That challenge fundamentally changed me as a person. Though not all of you were here to experience it, those who were know very well the profound wounding I and my family experienced.
Repeatedly over the past seven years, I have been met with—what feels to me—a recurrence of this wounding on micro levels. Multiple families and individuals deciding to leave our church family. Some have been willing to speak with me about their decision. Many do not. (And an even smaller number allow their opinion to be better informed) Adding to this, the repeated feedback that we do receive focuses on me personally and on perceived disappointments in my care or leadership.
With each person or family who walks away, I am forced to relive misconceptions, mistruths, and accusations against my character that I endured during the church split. Each time another person or family—whom I’ve poured love and help into—blames me for their dissatisfaction and accuses my care of not being enough, it becomes more difficult to recover emotionally.
I find myself relating to Scriptures such as Proverbs 16:28 (A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends.) and Psalm 55:12-14 (If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God as we walked about among the worshipers.).
As time passes and these instances continue, my ability to bear up under this weight has diminished to the point where I am unable to continue. Please understand I love what I do, church. I know what gifts have been given to me. I know how God has used them. I know the care I’ve given and the man that I am. But I also know the toll that this takes and the healing I need.
So, I’ve created a strategy for that healing and it begins with stepping down from leadership and focusing the strengths and skills that God has gifted me with in a new and different arena. My goal will be what it always has been: seeing people grow, but it will be achieved in a way that allows me to heal and recover some of the joy I lost. I owe this to my family.
Moving forward, I will be focusing on the launch of a coaching business in which Steph (whom most of you know) and I will work to bring life, purpose, and clarity through meaning and worldview coaching. Also, with the approval that I’ve been given by the leadership here, we’ll be offering more traditional forms of coaching and Christian counseling to individuals, couples, and/or families through the church.
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