No Pain No Gain!

So here I was left to work through the details of the call. Looking over the call documents, there was not much to cause me any concern. What I was left with was the work done in the past four years in Virginia and all that has happened to me as well. The good, the bad, the ugly came to mind as I reviewed the ministry here. There were other things that came into play as well. First, what about the house! We are in a down market, with housing prices having dropped by an average of 47%. We bought our house at the height of the housing market. Now we are upside down in the market. It was a heavy burden to think about. The housing value had already dropped to the point our down payment was gone and now we were under the mortgage value. Not a good place to be and finding ourselves facing a call. But in the end, this could not be a factor in the decision. I had to place that aside and concentrate on ministry.

Secondly, was the current ministry state or should I say the lack of ministry. Christ Community had gone through her share of struggles from the worship wars of those who wanted traditional worship settings only. We had a blended service to meet all the needs, but did not have the facilities to offer two services on Sunday. The joys of rented facilities! It has it's shares of problems and one is not having enough time in the morning to do all we wish to do. Several families decided they knew better and tried to force the issue. Well, conflict resulted and enter in Peacemaker Ministries. After several weeks of conflict resolution, there was some healing and restoration, but not getting what they wanted, they left. The "remnant" took on the motto..."the view from the windshield is bigger than the view from the rear view mirror." We moved on. Even though we had moved on the residual effect of the conflict had done it's damage. As much as I tried to work through the issues, one more would pop up. It was frustrating. But I had to put my feelings of hurt, anger and frustration aside as I sought the Lord's will for my ministry.

This was painful! I wanted to rest my decision on those things that gave me justification to move on. It would be so simple to make the decision based on what had happened or based on financial decisions. What was I to do?! What was the basis of my decision? It was hard and in seeking the counsel of other pastors it was not any easier. So many things to consider, but when it all boiled down it came to one things...where would God have me minister. Where would my skills be best used? Which ministry needed me the most? That is what I needed to focus on. All other aspects of the call did not matter. Then one morning I woke up and was thinking of Prattville and I was excited! Linda even commented I was whistling and she had not heard that for a long time. Through the pain there was gain. I sensed a peace. I sensed a need. I sensed His presence in my ministry in a way I had not felt in a long time. I sensed His calling. His calling me to another ministry. His calling me to Alabama!