“I Can’t Get No Ministry Satisfaction”: 3 Litmus Tests on Discouragement

I want to be an encouragement to you today.  What you do matters. The ministry you’re involved in, though you may not see it, is making a difference.  But, it’s sometimes difficult to understand that, isn’t it? It’s easy to be discouraged or feel restless – and it’s difficult to interpret what that means.

Every week it seems like I talk with a person in ministry contemplating a move to a new ministry.  He or she has either been contacted about a new opportunity or they’ve become restless and begun “looking around.”  I get that.  I’ve been there more than once through the years of full-time youth ministry.  It’s difficult to know how/when God is leading or if it’s something else.

There are a few books that are annual reads for me, books that have so shaped me that I conclude I need to read them each year to “stay on track.”  I’ve had Eugene Peterson’s book, Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness, for some time now, but hadn’t ever read it thoroughly. Until this month. Now it may be an annual read – and I think you need to check it out too (if you haven’t already).  

Eugene’s work addresses the difference between a “religious career” (he makes the case that this seduction is idolatry) versus a holy vocation:

These conditions in which pastors work – institution, congregation, and ego – are inescaple and powerful.  Braided together, they make a huge hawser that pulls us away from vocational holiness.  If we are to repudiate a promising career in religion, avoid impressment in the production of idols, and escape Aaronic vanity, we are going to have to put together a strong defense that is at the same time a winning offense.  (88)

Peterson writes out of his own experience with ministry as vocation, “I discovered that I have let culture dictate my opinions and practice of prayer, at times treating it as an oppressor to rebel against (in favor of ministerial action) or unnecessary” (11).  I’ll write more on this at a different time.

I think there are three “litmus tests” we in ministry can use to quickly see if we need to step back and reevaluate.  Not only do these question prompt us to look back at how we’ve been doing, but we can watch our reactions to their results.

How common is prayer and Bible study (not just reading) in our lives? Peterson describes this as the slow leak or “spirit loss” that will sink effective pastoral ministry.  (56)
How do we respond to the mundane each week, the people with whom we’re placed?  Is there a persistent impatience combined with a self-focused desire for something more attractive?
What ambitions and dreams do we have, the kind that make us feel undervalued or unrecognized?  Is there a desire to be known, or as Peterson describes to “expand our influence” (89) or “hog the show” (85) from what God is trying to do where we are currently planted?

There is a health in thorough contentedness. I’ve had to learn that. Ok, I’m learning that.  Being contented to serve in what Peterson describes as the pastoral soil where we are placed.  Yet, some of us wrestle at times with discontent.  We can easily become focused on what’s next in our career steps versus making the most of the week before us.  We can let our consumeristic culture, which champions the next big “thing”, to shape how we think about ministry as a holy vocation and make it a religious career instead.

There is a richness present in your work this week. Nothing is too mundane for you.  It is the “human soil” within which we in ministry toil.  And our field is enough for this week.  God is big enough to lead us to another field when it’s time. In His time.  We don’t need to be looking over the fence while weeds are growing behind us.

Be encouraged! 

What you do in ministry with others this week matters.

 

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