Overcoming Spiritual Hurt (Part 1)

To say that “letting go and moving on” has been a slow and difficult process would be a tremendous understatement. This past year and a half has been one of the most difficult periods of my life, and after over 20 years in vocational ministry, and coming on the back of Covid, that is saying a lot. It began in the summer of 2021 when I was informed that a group in the church I was pastoring was no longer happy with what was going on in the church. This was hard to discern at first, because the church was growing and things appeared to be going in a good direction even after all the difficulties of Covid, and all the concerns the pandemic had caused. And despite a good portion of the pre-Covid church members not attending indoor services (many had chosen to listen to services via the low-frequency FM radio transmission we had put in place so that those who desired to could meet in-person and those who were still apprehensive could listen from their cars or homes if they lived close enough to the church) things were feeling back to almost normal for those of us who had been meeting in-person enjoying corporate worship. So, to suddenly be presented with complaints of disgruntled members, was surprising to say the least.

From there things only continued to get worse, so in September I informed the leaders of the group who were upset that I would not be resigning but would welcome a church vote to decide the outcome of the situation. I was accused of asking for this because I had “set the deck” in my favor by bringing in all these new members, but in reality I wanted the church to vote, because I believe in local church authority and congregational rule, not elder, deacon, committee, or vigilante rule. Knowing, by this point, the level of anger that was being shown by those in opposition, I was not surprised on that Sunday evening when several people who had not attended church since the beginning of Covid, and many who had not even attended church the entire time I had been the pastor, showed up to participate in this vote. [Anecdotally, I was informed by someone who had been approached about coming to the meeting that they had not been a member of the church since the 1980s, ...