These are some days of celebration for me as of late! This week Rhonda and I celebrated 20 years of marriage, which, when I was a kid and my parents did the same, I remember thinking they were ancient. This means, I guess, that I’m now firmly on the trajectory toward becoming “ancient” if you were to ask my kids. Sigh. And in other celebratory news, this week coming will be my official 1 year anniversary as the pastor at Grassroots! And what a WILD ride it has been! ….and that’s saying something because I’ve ridden the Leviathan at Canada’s Wonderland! 😂
But in all seriousness, these past 12 months have been some of the most fulfilling and meaningful of my “ancient” life thus far. However, that’s not to say they haven’t had difficulties. In fact, this week I came across this X post from Rich Villodas, asking pastors what the most challenging aspect of pastoring is today. The responses were varied and, of course with an audience largely in the States, there was no surprise that the majority listed the current confounding of politics with the Church as being the most challenging aspect. That said, as I read the responses from others, I found myself agreeing with a number of them – some with a slight nod and others with an emphatic “yup!”
In a spirit of vulnerability and transparency with the intent of conveying where my heart is at as your pastor (and at the risk of coming across as a Negative Nelly (please don’t conclude this!)) and what the challenges are that both myself and maybe we as individuals and a community are facing, I thought I would share some of the responses that aligned with my own experience as I round the bend on this first year of pastoring at Grassroots. These are for all of us to ruminate on and to spend some time praying about as we enter the fall and beyond because I suspect that even though we play different roles in this church, we might all relate to some of these at least on some level. So without further adieu, here, in no particular order, are a few verbatim responses from pastors across the Internet that have also rung true for me at various points in this first season of pastoring:
- “My own hardness of heart”
- “People leaving who you’ve invested much into”
- “Understanding the multiple ways people view the Bible”
- “The internet”
- “As a pastor of a small church, remaining faithful and bringing the same energy, devotion, and passion regardless of who shows up. Some Sundays we have 8 people. Some we have 30. Its a challenge to keep practices, rhythms, and energy not knowing who and how many will show up.”
- “Prioritizing enough space for your soul — to live and lead from a quiet mind.”
- “Helping people (and myself) die to self. The protection of comforts and preferences over surrendered life to Jesus and others is exhausting.”
- “Accepting that you can’t please everyone and there will be those who misunderstand you and be your adversary.”
- “A lack of awareness (me included at times) of how the everything is forming us into great Christlikeness or away from it.”
- “The fact that Christian community is such a minority part of most Christian’s schedules. We’re trying to disciple people who are already being discipled by 2 or 3 other entities.”
- “Not being concerned about attendance but being concerned about attendance.”
- “People having other priorities than their spiritual growth. Also sometimes feeling like you have to hit one out of the park sermon-wise each time. Everyone wants to have the spiritual highs without putting in the effort to cultivate a relationship with God”
There you have it. This is not an exhaustive list of course because it’s not my list, per se, but it gives a good idea of where I’m at. Where do we go from here? Well, I think the first thing is to have awareness and then to commit to praying through these challenges regularly. I ask that you’d do this for my own sake but also for our collective sake, moving forward.
With all of this said let me not close on a downer because I would be absolutely remiss if I did not also declare just how truly grateful I am for this gracious and accepting community I get the honour of pastoring. I could not imagine stepping into this position with any other community and I can’t begin to say how much I’ve appreciated the flexibility, acceptance, patience and perhaps most of all, the encouragement from this community. I get choked up (big surprise!) every time I think of our church family and all that it gifts me and each other with. Truly. So thank you, Grassroots, for giving me (us!) such a fantastic first year here! And with that, let’s keep going, serving Jesus and being his willing hands and feet as he builds his Kingdom in our midst.
Amen.
will be praying for you – and us as a community! Thanks for your honesty and faithfulness.