Ten Reasons Not to Resign
How one pastor kept himself from jumping ship.
Don Bubna
October 1, 1983
"Today I feel as though I'd like to quit, take a leave of absence, resign from the world, or something." So begins a line in my journal, penned about a year ago. I had never felt so much under attack.
We had just received another turndown from a potential youth pastor. The church seemed to be on a plateau, the elders stuck on dead center. In a matter of a few days, a young man from our congregation who had recently gone to Africa was killed in an automobile accident. A missionary pilot from our fellowship had been attacked by South Pacific islanders with machetes and almost died. A retired missionary, our esteemed pastor of visitation, passed into the presence of the Lord after a very brief illness.
During this same period, I received four letters in one day marked "Personal." This kind of envelope seldom bears good news. One was a complaint from a long-time attender who felt I had gotten soft on the gospel. The person was leaving the congregation in order "to be fed" elsewhere. Another was the resignation of a staff member with whom I had served for more than two decades.
Under such an avalanche, I could not help reviewing the many reasons why the North American pastorate is becoming impossible. People now watch tele-Christendom's finest as they munch their sweet roll on Sunday morning, then drive to see how the local reverend compares, sans makeup and retakes. And the generation raised on "Sesame Street" wants something more appealing than thirty minutes of straight talking.
The pastor must also be an extraordinary counselor these days to battle the disintegration of the home and the lack of moral standards in the community.
He must be a strong leader, so that people will follow; yet his authority is frequently suspect, like ...
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