Wednesday, January 04, 2006

How would you answer this one?

Since every once in awhile I throw something youth ministry related up on here I thought I would toss this one out to see what those few of you who read this might have to say on this topic...Here's the scenario, while I was home I ran into a student who was from one of the youth groups that I used to speak at often when I was in Ohio (no John S. This is not you). I asked him how he was doing and how things were going in his ministry. He kind of hesitated and gave me the typical youth pastor answer, but I could tell there was more to the story. There were a couple of people around, so when I got him alone I asked him what was really going on. He was sharing with me how he is really struggling in his ministry right now. He went on to explain how things were really tough. After asking a little bit more he shared how he is really wrestling with whether or not he should stay at this church and he doesn't seem to be getting any real direction from the Lord (no clear answer). To give you a little more background this is the church he took right out of college, he served there for a year and then got married to a girl from his school that he had been dating for some time. The two of them are now serving in this church together. She is really having a tough time since it is 600 miles from anything familiar and she has yet to find a job...Basically she hates it there and is really struggling with being there. This has caused him to struggle since things are not going as well as he would like them to be at the church either. He said he doesn't want to be a youth ministry "statistic" (under 18 months) and really cares for his kids, but is just having a tough time seeing the Lord in all of this since his wife is having such a tough time. He asked me if he should resign and start over somewhere new (closer to home) or stay put and stick with it. I told him that I really couldn't give him a definite answer, but to pray with him and walk with him through whatever decision he made. So how do you answer a question like that? Our roles in ministry and the Christian faith are in this order-God, family, church right? There is a big part of me that wanted to tell him to uproot and go with his feeling so he could better minister to and "with" his wife (if she isn't happy he can't give his all to his ministry-believe me I've been there), but there is also the part of me that says if God calls you to a place then you need to be faithful there. What are your thoughts on this? How would you have answered him? I guess I copped out on him by not giving him my opinion, but I didn't feel like I could do anything but pray for him. I'm going to be following up with him so any thoughts?
Until next time...
-Matt

1 comment:

DAKOTARANGER said...

This is my plug nickle.

If there is no direction on moving then they need to wait on the Lord.

I would tell him to remind his wife that this is where they are at for right now. And ministry isn't like anyother job in the world because you just can't do it any where in the sense you need to be where God has you.

He needs to remind his wife that she is a vital componate to the ministry.

I know the easiest thing would be to move closer to family but they need to cling on each other more.

But it sounds like you handled it pretty good, and may be the only way you could have at the time