Resignation lessons

On Thursday I tendered my resignation to the leadership of the church of which I am pastor. The past three years have been times of great joy and encouragement as we have seen God's Word take root and flourish in people's lives, opportunities for the Gospel opening in the most amazing of ways and a church that seemed destined to die have life breathed into it by God's grace.

The past year has been one of some difficulty as the core convictions and priorities of my ministry have come under challenge. I thought it would be helpful to indicate some of the things a young pastor has learnt in the course of discerning, often painfully, where and how he can serve God in the most honouring fashion.

1. God is faithful- His grace and mercy are the true source of help in my time of need. It amazed me that after every difficult meeting, every difficult conversation God provided encouragement of future ministry and teh accompaniment of friends both far and near.
2. God's Word is sweet- To awake in the morning and feel the pain of present circumstances and to be refreshed by God's holy Word addressing my life in sovereign ways is marvellous.
3. Expository Bible ministry is a hill to die on- and die on that hill we must, if necessary, to remain faithful to our calling. That if you are convinced of this then people's attitude to you will be defined by their attitude to this.
4. God honours faithfulness with fruitfulness- in this it is important to remember that faithfulness involves patience.
5. Pride is my greatest enemy, humility my greatest friend. (Stott)
6. Liberty in preaching comes from recognising one of two things- that everyone is rooting for you (especially in leadership) or that, and this most important, that your truest audience is not man but God. There is best liberty in realising the latter regardless of the former.
7. The order is rightly God then family then church.
8. It is the duty of the pastor to preserve faithfulness to God according to His Word, and protect his family (particularly his wife).

This all feels a bit unpolished and I will most likely return to this in due course in order to record and remind more effectively