Worn Out by Obedience by Ron Moore

Author:Ron Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Moody Publishers
Published: 2017-04-09T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 7

THE GRACE OF CRISIS

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. —HEBREWS 12:11

Now it is time to go home.

And here is a reminder: The God of the universe will not remain in the back seat you have attempted to put Him in while you drive the dangerous roads of Ziklag. He, who sent His Son to die for your sins on the cross, will not let you wallow in selfishness. There will come a time when He jolts you back into reality, often with a crisis of grace.

I moved to Pittsburgh from Texas to become an associate pastor at The Bible Chapel. After two-and-a-half years the senior pastor left, and I was asked to take his spot. I learned early on that I had a great gift for growing a church. We grew from five hundred to three hundred … overnight! The numbers were changing dramatically, but in the wrong direction.

The transition was rocky, to say the least. One group of fifty people left to start a new church less than a mile down the road, while another group told me that they would stick around for six months to “see how things go.” Part of seeing “how things go” was evaluating my sermons. Every weekend I felt the pressure of trying to hold on to the people we did have by preaching a sermon that was true to the text, deeply theological, peppered with just the right amount of humor, contained moving illustrations, and included rubber-meets-the-road applications. One man I really wanted to stay gave me a library full of books by Puritan pastors. So of course, I tried to mix in a quote or two that I thought would make him happy.

While the only other pastor on staff was doing a great job in his areas of ministry, I filled my days with operational responsibilities and personal meetings, trying to talk people into remaining at our church. Most of my evenings were tied up teaching a class, meeting with the ministry teams that I had led as an associate, leading elder meetings, editing our monthly newsletter, doing home visitation with new attenders, or dealing with the inevitable life issues of believers in community. On top of everything else we had outgrown our first building and were meeting in a high school and in the process of building a new facility. So, of course, I was a part of the building team.

We had just moved into a new home, and a swing set stood on the side of our yard. One evening as I was on my way to yet another meeting, I vividly remember pulling out of the driveway and turning onto the street to see Lori and our kids playing on the swing, enjoying the summer evening. Later, Lori said she felt sad seeing me driving away and missing so much time with our children.

Everything I was doing was good stuff, kingdom stuff.

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