[et_pb_section admin_label=”section” background_image=”http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/CLC-prayer.jpg” transparent_background=”off” allow_player_pause=”off” inner_shadow=”off” parallax=”off” parallax_method=”off” padding_mobile=”off” make_fullwidth=”off” use_custom_width=”off” width_unit=”on” make_equal=”off” use_custom_gutter=”off”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” background_color=”rgba(209,209,209,0.8)” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” custom_padding=”30px|30px|30px|30px” text_font_size=”16″ text_text_color=”#000000″]<\/p>\n
Well here goes …<\/p>\n
You have to realize that I never … never … never imagined I would be pastoring again. \u00a0To be quite honest, I had lost faith in the church. \u00a0I was called into ministry and 34 years later I came to the conclusion that somewhere along the way I got a job. \u00a0In my naivete, I imagined that the ministry had something to do with “ministering” to people.<\/p>\n
I found out that there was a lot of paper that needed to be pushed …<\/p>\n
I found out that there were endless organizational details to be cared for …<\/p>\n
I found out that sometimes Christians can be more difficult to get along with than those who make no such profession …<\/p>\n
I found out that the pressure of performance lay squarely upon the pastor’s shoulders and that the most important performance seemed to take place on Sunday morning …<\/p>\n
I found that we had lost the art of discipling men and women to Christ …<\/p>\n
Need I go on? \u00a0I can.<\/p>\n
Pastor Jeff asked us to fill in for him this summer. \u00a0I was happy to do that and really didn’t pray too much about it. \u00a0It wouldn’t require what that day to day grind of ministry often exacted.<\/p>\n
The craziest thing happened. \u00a0I began to rub shoulders with Lifers. \u00a0You won my heart. \u00a0Your minimalist commitment to the organization was compelling and your maximal commitment to the organism … the Body and beyond. \u00a0Well that was something I had worked toward for 34 years and only rarely caught glimpses of it. \u00a0Without knowing it, Jeff and Marcia picked their successors.<\/p>\n
Now I am home … in so many ways. \u00a0I feel a greater freedom than I have ever had in ministry. \u00a0It was the LAST thing that I expected to find.<\/p>\n
You need to know that I believe in you. \u00a0Not your perfection or your “slick”. \u00a0We are pretty ordinary on Sundays and that’s okay. \u00a0But I think we are extraordinary between Sundays, where the Christian life is meant to be lived.<\/p>\n
And you need to know that Elaine and I have fallen in love with you in a very short, unscripted period of time.<\/p>\n
I believe that God is at work in all of this and we have no idea what he has planned for those that love Him. \u00a0That’s always been the case. \u00a0Are you ready for the new thing that God is doing? \u00a0Can you perceive it?<\/p>\n
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Well here goes … You have to realize that I never … never … never imagined I would be pastoring again. \u00a0To be quite honest, I had lost faith in the church. \u00a0I was called into ministry and 34 years later I came to the conclusion that somewhere along the way I got a job. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-between-sundays","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6IX45-au","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":655,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions\/655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ikemediology.com\/clc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}