What Would You Do if This Was You?

[ChTatum]

Noah only convinced seven other people. Was he a failure?

If God has not lifted the burden, keep on keeping on......no telling what God has in the future!

[ILG]

This is a very hard situation...one that I can relate to, having been there to some degree. Only he can answer this question. He needs to consider that maybe his own desire to leave means something. He does need God to release him if he is to go but he also needs to understand that his own desires and perceptions could be God talking to him. I understand the heavy burden and toll this takes. His health, his family, his life is more important than this church unless he is absolutely convinced God wants him there. He may be confusing God's will with the church's will. It can be incredibly hard to leave.

[Falla39]

Originally Posted by ChTatum

Noah only convinced seven other people. Was he a failure?

If God has not lifted the burden, keep on keeping on......no telling what God has in the future!

Bro. ChTatum,

I believe it was 120 yrs. Noah spent building an ark for a flood
when he had never seen rain.
Then as you mentioned, he only convinced seven other people.
But that was HIS family. He built an ark to the saving of his OWN
house.
The Bible says that every man shall bear his own burden.
What is a man's own burden! Could it mean that he is responsible
for what he birthed. If he birthed it, it's his baby! His responsibility
to see that it is trained up in the way it should go. So that when
that child is grown (mature), he will not depart from the right path.

Just some thoughts!

Falla39

[Falla39]

Originally Posted by ChTatum

Noah only convinced seven other people. Was he a failure?

If God has not lifted the burden, keep on keeping on......no telling what God has in the future!

Brother,

I watched my parents struggle for many years, and worked alongside them
as long as they lived. The church grew in the years after they were gone,
but after 50 yrs., today my husband and I sit together with three generations
of our own family that remain from those humble beginnings. How I thank God
that they did keep on keeping on, until God called them Home.
Dad not only built a place of safety for his own house, but for mine also!
And many others!

Falla39

[Neck]

Originally Posted by rgcraig

How long should a pastor stay at a church under these circumstances?

He's been pastor for almost a decade.

- Membership is 30.

- There is minimal compensation and he works a secular job fifty hours a week.

- The church building is an embarrassment, but paid for.

- Started the church from nothing.

- He pays some of the church bills out of his own pocket.

- The church members are apathetic.

I am not judging this man.

However many pastors stay to carry the title of pastor.

So to family and friends they have appearance of being a pastor...

When really it is nothing close to the truth...

[rgcraig]

Can this also be a time when God is trying to show the person something about themselves?

[berkeley]

he needs an assistant pastor to lighten the load. Someone young, fresh, vibrant....

[ILG]

Originally Posted by rgcraig

Can this also be a time when God is trying to show the person something about themselves?

Yes, I think so. But the church puts a great deal of pressure on to stay as well. So, God's will and all the other stuff can be very hard to sort out. But, there is a reason he is dissatisfied internally. If I can say anything in hindsight, I wish I had listened more to my internal dissatisfaction and sooner....because it turned out to be on target. God eventually showed me what I needed to do.....but it was what my internal doubts were saying all along. So, should I have left sooner? I don't know. That may have been a shipwreck too and only God knows for sure.

[chseeads]

It could be a whole lot of things. It's hard to say what it is for somebody else without knowing lots more details.

I wish it was as easy to get assistants and stuff as these suggestions make it sound!

[berkeley]

Originally Posted by chseeads

I wish it was as easy to get assistants and stuff as these suggestions make it sound!

it's not??