Pastors Leaving Ministry

Pastors Leaving Ministry




Some stats say up to 1,500 Pastors a month walk away from ministry for good.  Wow.  Some challenge that number.  There are more gloomy stats out there (above infographic) but the reason I am posting this is because I love Pastors.  We have a team that loves Pastors.  We are raising money and spending time and resources to help Pastors.

When we help a Pastor, we help thousands and probably hundreds of thousands of people.  Pastors are leaders and influencers.  They need our prayers, help, resources and assistance to keep doing the work God has called them to.  We need healthy Pastors in ministry and long term.

That is why we created Replenish.

Check us out at www.re-plenish.org

If you are a Pastor or know one who is need of rest and replenish or know one who is, please let me know.  If you have resources that would help (retreat center, vacation home, or would like to sponsor a trip or a pastor) I would love to chat with you about that as well.



Some additional reading

* https://thomrainer.com/2013/09/seven-reasons-pastors-burn-out/
* https://www.barna.com/burnout-breakdown-barnas-risk-metric-pastors/
* http://www.pastorburnout.com/pastor-burnout-statistics.html
* https://www.lifeway.com/pastors/2016/09/28/pastors-are-not-quitting-in-droves/
* https://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/nyregion/02burnout.html

16 Million Dollars for What??

     

     What would you do if you had $16 million dollars?  Buy a new car, a house, take the trip of a lifetime, pay off all your debt and all the debt of all your family and friends?  How about purchase a violin?  Believe it or not, the highest price paid for an original Stradivarius violin was $16 million by an unknown buyer in a sealed Sotheby’s auction. 

That is a lot of cash for a violin; what in the world makes it so valuable?  There are two big reasons; one because they are very rare and secondly because they are the undisputed best sounding violins in the world.  They can create almost perfect sounds that no other violins can create.  The reason why is fascinating.

Antonio Stradivari began making violins (and other stringed instruments) in the last 17^th century in Cremona Italy.  He made approximately 960 of them and his sons continued his tradition.  It is estimated that 450 – 512 are still in existence today.  They are one of the most expensive and sought-after instruments in the world.  Hundreds of thousands of copies have been created throughout the centuries and musicians and scientists alike have sought to mimic its acoustic tones and perfection, but none have succeeded.  Most experts agree that the wood makes these instruments special.  How or why the wood was special is another story.

The wood was most likely grown in a unique environment; some claim a mini ice age, others say a special microclimate that subjected the trees to stresses: wind, altitude and cold could have caused slow growth and intense density.  Still, others say Stradivari buried the wood in Venetian canals to give it the special extra compact composure.  Yet others claim he treated the wood with special chemicals like borax, sodium and potassium. In actuality, no one knows why the wood is so incredibly dense, but we do know that it is unique, stands the test of time, is extremely valuable and cannot be fast-tracked or recreated. 

This wood is like us.

Our lives, our character, our authority is something that needs to but cultivated over time through unique and usually adverse conditions.  It’s the tough times that produce the amazing product.  The Apostle Peters calls these less than comfortable conditions trials; he further goes on to convince us how powerful and beneficial they are.  They make our faith like another valuable item - gold.

Our faith is valuable, worth eminently more than $16 million dollars, it is priceless, it cannot be purchased at all. 

God wants you to be the best, be made of the best, play the best sound the best, have infinite value…… but are you ready for the adverse conditions?