What Got Us Here Won’t Get Us There

March 22, 2011

A few recent conversations with a pastor friend of mine have raised an issue that I’ve found true for my life. Maybe you can relate to it as well.

My friend has been in full-time ministry as a Senior Pastor for over 30 years. He’s served in his current assignment for about 25 of those years. He faithfully served this congregation and city for the first 13 years whittling away with a few handfuls of people that quickly became dozens of families.

Over the past 12 years, he’s been privileged to see numerical breakthrough happen, so that now the Church he serves is averaging almost 1,000 people every weekend.

Not that numbers are everything. They aren’t. Matter of fact, this friend of mine will gladly tell you that numbers come with their own burdens.

Anyway, he’s been conversing with a few other pastors of similar size churches and larger. These guys are coming to a painful, but truthful, conclusion. They’ve been honest enough with each other to admit that much of their pursuit to this point of their lives has been rooted in validating their own insecurities.

Imagine that! Pastors being honest with each other! Go figure!

It’s NOT that everything they’ve done has been selfish or egocentric or for their own personal gain. It hasn’t. I know these men. They follow hard after God and want the best for people and for God’s Kingdom.

It IS that as they are growing personally and maturing as men, they are learning that everyone is insecure! Did you hear that? We are ALL insecure.

We are all humans who battle with our insecurities on a daily basis, whether we recognize it or not. The only difference between these guys and others is that they are starting to recognize it while others aren’t.

Those unaware busily go about their lives spinning their wheels for one supposed reason, when all the while, the truth is that the wheels spin to make them feel better about themselves and what they are doing (whatever it is they are doing, ministry or not). And the numbers validate their worth and busy-ness.

What is also true for my friend and the group he is talking with is that they are fatigued and spent. They’re not burned out, just uncertain that what they’ve “achieved” to this point has been worth the cost and energy. They know that they must change the way they do life and ministry in order to get where God wants them to go from here. So, their learnings don’t stop here.

They are boiling down their lesson to this: what got us here won’t get us there!

Here is this current place of recognized achievement and supposed success shown in an ever-increased followership. There is the future place that they know God is calling them to go that is beyond the current place they now find themselves in.

They know without a doubt that what got us here (insecurity) won’t get us there (God’s intended future). So, what are they doing about it? That’s for another post.

For now, your thoughts on what they’re learning?

Posted by Paul | Filed Under Anxiety, Burnout, Church life, Church people, confession, duplicity, Emotional health, Expectations, Failure, Insecurity, Leadership, Pastor, Personal Pace, Physical health, Spiritual health, success, vulnerability 

Comments

2 Responses to “What Got Us Here Won’t Get Us There”

  1. Amber on March 30th, 2011 9:04 am

    Well…my first instinct is to ask “what are they going to do about it?” (which is for another post, apparently!) Mainly because insecurity for some reason is so deeply rooted within us, it sometimes seems impossible to overcome.
    Its also something that other people find hard to accept and help you move through because of its ugly nature.
    My gut instinct says “draw near to the Lord” during these times. This is a deep rooted heart issue. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our heart above all else, because basically everything we DO is rooted in what our heart is doing. If our heart is thriving and being nurtured by insecurities there is a big problem.
    God’s gotta fix it. But what does that look like? I suppose it has something to do with self sacrifice and putting on the mind of Christ, battling the evil inside us so that we might come up for air and breathe in the sweet love of Christ for a moment and remember that we are WHOLE with Him. That we are worthy IN Him, and that nothing else will validate us besides Him.

    Looking forward to hearing what these Pastors come up with. Its amazing and breathtaking to hear that they can be so honest with each other and support each other with one of the biggest secrets in the church – that we ALL have insecurities.

    If we all have them….why don’t we just talk about them, get them out of the dark, into the light and move on?

  2. What Got Us Here Won’t Get Us There, Part 2 : Pastor For Life | Healthy Life and Ministry for Pastors on May 31st, 2011 6:05 am

    [...] my last post (too long ago), I mentioned I would be writing more on the issue of insecurity, especially within [...]

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