Thoughts on Quitting

Yesterday I read a letter of resignation for my position of pastor at Confederate Avenue Baptist Church. It was one of those surreal moments in life where you almost ask yourself is this really happening? My wife Melissa and I made the decision to leave CABC about two weeks ago. We really believe that God has shut the proverbial doors on our efforts in the Grant Park Community and we have decided to go and become a part of the church called the River located in Milton, Florida. We really believe in this decision and think that this is what God wants for our lives, and we are very excited about our becoming a part of this church planting team led by our best friends Sam and Samantha Crum. I want to say all of that to make sure that my other forthcoming thoughts are not misunderstood.

The decision was a difficult one, because we have labored for three years at this one place, and we have become very attached to the people of the church, as well as the community. We are disappointed, too, because our vision for CABC in the Grant Park Community was never fully realized. We have struggled for some time, also, with the idea of quitting. There seems to be a fine line between just quitting for frustation or exhaustion's sake and stopping because it seems as if God is either done with your role or the church's role. This is obviously not very clear-cut, because there are always things going on within even a declining church that may be interpreted to be the workings of God, and those can be "signals" for us to stay, because God could be potentially about to do something great. The problem, of course, in our situation is that good things have happened all along, but the fundamental make up of our church has not really been altered in a tremendous way. Certainly our worship gathering has been modified ostensibly, but what I mean is that the basic limitations of the church that existed when we came are still largely present. I admit that much of this is probably due to the constraints of my own leadership (Author John Maxwell calls this "the law of the lid").

Nevertheless, Melissa and I both do not feel as if we have failed, or if we are quitting on God or the people of CABC. We believe that we have gone as far as we can, albeit not fully where we wanted to go, and we consider God to have used our efforts here to bring people to the kingdom and teach them the way of Jesus. He has, furthermore, extensively and deeply taught us a great deal about people, culture, ministry, and ourselves. Through each of these lessons we have undoubtedly learned more about God, and we have grown in our belief that a life of faith is a journey not a destination. Although these facts are true, the feelings that go with them are real, and leaving is never fun under any circumstances, and these are mild. For those of you who have helped us thus far on our journey we thank you and welcome your prayers and counsel for the next leg.