Restoring Your Ministry
We mount to heaven mostly on the ruins of our cherished schemes, finding our failures were successes.
A. B. Alcott
Yesterday's errors let yesterday cover.
Susan Coolidge
Animals have a marvelous instinct: after a major trauma, they nest for a while, allowing life to return to normal. For days after our cat's encounter in the neighbor's house, she hung out in the bushes. Katie not only lay low, she walked low, slinking around like a tango dancer. It took about a week for her to become her old self again. But Katie's tactic for recovery made good sense.
Errors inflict grievous wounds — in a pastor's confidence, in a congregation's regard for the pastor, in a church's progress, in interpersonal relationships, in a pastor's family. A kind of depression can set in (sometimes actual clinical depression), making recovery appear only a fleeting hope. I've blown it; I'm a failure! No one will want me now.
One pastor recalls his feelings after a devastating church split: "Early on in ministry, my confidence was strong. Every church I was in grew, and I developed a success syndrome. But a denominational change tore our church apart. We decided to part from the denomination, and in that decision I lost many of the people I had pastored for years. We even lost title to the buildings we had built. I began to doubt myself. When two of the elders closest to me opted for the denomination, I felt like quitting." After a few years of turmoil, this pastor recently moved into a beautiful new facility with an enthusiastic congregation. Life goes on.
Wounded pastors sometimes want to crawl into a hole and die. A Band-Aid and a stiff upper lip usually will not patch up the damage imposed by a mistake. Often only a period of recuperation will restore ...
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