5 Lessons I’ve Learned Since Leaving Full-Time Ministry

My years in ministry rolled on and so did the changing roles I held. I left the youth pastor job at the church in LaGrande after one year to become an itinerate minister. Somehow, it felt more authentic and real for me to be living “by faith” and not just collecting a paycheck. I travelled, taught, preached, led people to Jesus, and did my best to encourage leaders everywhere. I was always hungry for more and always looking for God to do something huge. But slowly I began finding myself battling a two-headed snake of cynicism and disillusionment. It would come and go and I somehow always find a way to press on. But I never was able to behead that darn snake entirely.

Eventually I took jobs in the marketplace and ping-ponged through a couple full-time ministry positions. And, after some time, I came to an uneasy truce with myself and God – I would work a “regular job” while my friends, Jim and Mike, and I planted a Church in Salem, Oregon. We had some good times and some good fruit but it didn’t last. Mike moved away and Jim and I were left wondering what God had next.

That something, which we had been conversing about for years, was a 24-hour para-church prayer ministry to the city of Salem. That, as well a school of leadership development and a ministry for college age students, began and continues even to this day.

So, why am I sharing all of this?

Perhaps part of the reason is for my own processing. Maybe part of it is because I believe my story is not all that different from many others. Either way, I feel it’s important because of what I’m about to share with you next: some things I’ve learned since leaving vocational ministry.

Was it all for not? I don’t believe so. God did many great things through my time in ministry and lives were changed. But was my path in and around vocational ministry what He had (or has) in mind for me? I can’t say for sure. But my heart, some twenty years later, says “No, I don’t think much of it was.”

So with that, here are some things I’ve learned – in darkness, pain, healing and a new lease on life – since leaving vocational ministry (in no particular order):

1. I am not what I do. Our value, as humans, is derived from only one thing: that we bear the image of God. This makes every human of infinite and undeniable value regardless of any other factor or station in life. I had to untangle my worth and my identity from the vocation of ministry and it was hard and messy.

2. Human sacrifice is bad. It’s never ok to sacrifice people on the altar of a ministry’s vision or mission. We would probably be quick to agree on this. However, chances are that we have all done it or have eventually became a human sacrifice ourselves. Ministry is for people, not people for ministry.

3. Vision is important but not at the expense of losing the present. All we have is today. I have truly come to believe that endless cycle of pushing for more in modern ministry and never learning to be content is not only wrong but it’s evil. I am not saying we don’t do our part to keep things healthy and growing, and I am not knocking vision or goals either – after all without vision the people will perish – but I am saying that what I believe God intends in this arena and what we accept as normal in our westernized church culture is profoundly different. And skewed largely due to our consumer culture. I think it’s important to learn to be present and undistracted.

4. Challenge what you believe or hold to be true. When I was in what I now call “my valley of shadow,” things got pretty dark. I was self-medicating, hiding – not from God but from people, and existing in a survival mode. One of things that began to open my heart and mind again was feeling permission from God to give myself some permission to examine everything I believed. What I realized was that God is not intimidated – even a little – by my poking and prodding. He welcomes it because He is Truth.

5. Simplify everything. Jesus was a simple man. In fact, it was His simplicity that the religious leaders loved to ridicule. My experience is that Christians tend to over complicate everything, even if we don’t mean too. Spend more of your energy on living life and less on the matrix you construct on how to live it.

What are some things you’ve learned along life’s path? And how are you growing today? Leave a comment below with your thoughts or questions.