"I'm sorry... I really didn't keep good records for my work last month," I muttered to the committee, feeling at first ashamed, then relieved when no one seemed to think this a yelling matter.
Amidst the sounds of understanding from the committee members, one joked, "Well we may have to fire you now."
I laughed, feeling like a weight had dropped off of me at their response. But the other committee members grew serious in an instant.
Not funny.
I'm still not sure why everyone thought firing a member of the ministry was not something to joke about, but I have a few ideas why.
1) The committee members know people who have been "fired" from ministry.
I've only know one man who was asked to leave his pastorate, but I know plenty of others who left because there was no going forward in the face of the opposition. There are plenty of pastors, youth workers, missionaries, monks, etc. who have been let go by their churches, organizations, monasteries, whatever; for
- horrible, awful reasons that people in the church don't like to deal with: like molestation and adultery,
- being generally disliked by the board or other decision-making person/group in their organization,
- not filling some sort of ministry quota: their youth group never grew in size (maybe a bunch of kids left and parents complained to the decision-making person/group).
The first one is totally legitimate, and highly uncomfortable to think about. The other two are uncomfortable because of the rediculous and petty attitude they can stem from.
I heard from an aquaintance about a youth pastor who was let go because his youth rallies failed to bring in "enough" teens. But who can determine how many teens are "enough" at an event? Especially when your group believes that God decides who will and who won't show up? Your committee or whoever decided to fire him has no say in the matter if you truly believe it is God's work and He'll do what He wants.
Granted, there are legitimate reasons to ask someone to leave their ministry position. If they are not doing what their contract states, if the work is suffering because of something they are doing (or not doing), if they are living in known sin/rebellion...
Which brings me to #2.
2) The committee members know that asking someone to leave ministry is serious biz.
They've asked someone to leave the committee before; that can't have been a fun step to take. And now that I'm hearing about the tensions at the church of one committee member... ouch.
At present, I'm super uncomfortable, not because I think the committee actually wants to fire me, but because I'm not sure that I'm doing a good job in ministry; I know I'm not doing a good job at trusting God, and I know I have failed at many, many parts of my job this summer.
Can people fail at ministry?
I would say, yeah they can. I don't know exactly what that means for me. But after a particularly rough day at the fair trailer this month, I prayed all the way home, "God, please don't fire me."
Amidst the sounds of understanding from the committee members, one joked, "Well we may have to fire you now."
I laughed, feeling like a weight had dropped off of me at their response. But the other committee members grew serious in an instant.
Not funny.
I'm still not sure why everyone thought firing a member of the ministry was not something to joke about, but I have a few ideas why.
1) The committee members know people who have been "fired" from ministry.
I've only know one man who was asked to leave his pastorate, but I know plenty of others who left because there was no going forward in the face of the opposition. There are plenty of pastors, youth workers, missionaries, monks, etc. who have been let go by their churches, organizations, monasteries, whatever; for
- horrible, awful reasons that people in the church don't like to deal with: like molestation and adultery,
- being generally disliked by the board or other decision-making person/group in their organization,
- not filling some sort of ministry quota: their youth group never grew in size (maybe a bunch of kids left and parents complained to the decision-making person/group).
The first one is totally legitimate, and highly uncomfortable to think about. The other two are uncomfortable because of the rediculous and petty attitude they can stem from.
I heard from an aquaintance about a youth pastor who was let go because his youth rallies failed to bring in "enough" teens. But who can determine how many teens are "enough" at an event? Especially when your group believes that God decides who will and who won't show up? Your committee or whoever decided to fire him has no say in the matter if you truly believe it is God's work and He'll do what He wants.
Granted, there are legitimate reasons to ask someone to leave their ministry position. If they are not doing what their contract states, if the work is suffering because of something they are doing (or not doing), if they are living in known sin/rebellion...
Which brings me to #2.
2) The committee members know that asking someone to leave ministry is serious biz.
They've asked someone to leave the committee before; that can't have been a fun step to take. And now that I'm hearing about the tensions at the church of one committee member... ouch.
At present, I'm super uncomfortable, not because I think the committee actually wants to fire me, but because I'm not sure that I'm doing a good job in ministry; I know I'm not doing a good job at trusting God, and I know I have failed at many, many parts of my job this summer.
Can people fail at ministry?
I would say, yeah they can. I don't know exactly what that means for me. But after a particularly rough day at the fair trailer this month, I prayed all the way home, "God, please don't fire me."
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