By Steve Reeves
As I reflect upon my 26 years at the congregation I serve, I am so grateful God and the church have allowed me to stay for 2.5 decades. I understand we each have unique callings to ministry, but I would appeal to local preachers that staying put in one congregation for a long period of time is the best course, if possible. Here are my top 10 reasons why.
10. Personal Family Stability
Our children were 5, 3, and 2 when we began, and as my son, who is now on our staff, told me today, “I appreciate the fact that we have spent all of our lives in one place.”
The full-time ministry can be hazardous for a preacher”s marriage and family. The fact that our kids never had to change schools, churches, or communities in their formative years provided a consistent environment that, I believe, was a positive factor in their emotional and spiritual maturity.
9. The Preacher”s Family Has a Church Family
Unfortunately, many preachers” families are viewed as outsiders in churches where there have been a series of short-term ministries. That can lead to the perception that they are “just passing through” and “they don”t really understand who we are and how we do things.” I”m not sure how long it takes for a preacher”s family to be really welcomed as a part of the church family, but I”m guessing it takes five years or more. Sadly, while we preach that every family needs a church family, the preacher”s wife and children are often a family without a church. So church leader, stay put so your family can really have a church home.
8. Know and Become Known
Real ministry takes place with real people over a really long time. I”ve heard that people are the same everywhere, and while that generally is true, until the congregation really knows you and you really understand the members of the congregation, ministry is likely to be more theory than reality.
I didn”t understand how much the people of Indiana loved basketball until I was stopped for speeding and the police officer let me go with only a warning because he didn”t want me to be late for my son”s basketball game. That”s when I knew I was going to be in Indiana for a really long time. I knew not to plan a major church event during an Indiana University or Purdue basketball game . . . or if I did, I needed to give an update of the score during the program. You might say that”s sick, but I would say it”s knowing your audience.
And it”s just as important for the congregation to get to know you and your family. When my children were in sports or musical programs, and I was just a parent sitting beside other parents, I not only got to know them but they got to know the real me. (Especially when a referee called a foul on my son.) If you”ll take the time to know the people in your church, and let them know you, staying put will allow you to experience and give authentic Christian love.
7. Deeper Hurts, Deeper Love
The late Russ Blowers, of East 91st Street Christian Church in Indianapolis, wrote a wonderful article on the agony and ecstasy of a long ministry. While every ministry consists of these two things, longer ministries experience deeper relationships and deeper hurts. To stay at a congregation long enough to see a couple divorce, go their separate ways, restart their relationship, and then renew their vows and remarry, is a blessing reserved only for a long-term ministry. When you comfort a family through cancer surgery, marital strife, unfaithfulness, a devastating house fire, the death of loved ones, and then finally celebrate their baptism into Christ, the 15 years you invested have been worthwhile.
6. A Front Row Seat to Personal Spiritual Growth
E. Ray “Cotton” Jones said something to a group of student preachers that I have never forgotten: “This will keep you in the ministry. Instead of focusing on those who have disappointed God, left the church, and broken your heart, you must focus on those who are moving from nonbelief to belief, from membership to involvement, and from being a Christian to becoming a disciple.”
Those words have carried me through many difficult days in ministry. A long-term ministry allows you to watch a person struggle to believe in God, and then experience total transformation in her life, relationships, and family. Growth takes place over years, and often decades, rather than days and months.
5. Celebrate the Joys
I never tire of celebrating the joy of new lives as young families welcome little ones for whom we have prayed. I never tire of attending wedding anniversaries of couples I”ve admired for 25 years. I never tire of uniting a man in marriage to “the best woman in the world,” and then, years later, witness him give away his daughter in marriage to a man who is not nearly good enough, so they can have grandchildren that are better than anybody”s.
4. Bear the Burdens
More than 30 years ago, my wife and I were called to the hospital where 50 family members were traumatized over a beautiful, blond, 24-month-old girl who was dying. When we left the hospital three hours later after her death, we were drained but sincerely grateful that, of all the people who could bear the burden with them, we had that opportunity. God was showing us early on that it is a blessing to bear each other”s burdens. And over the next few years, we were able to baptize 35 adults into Christ as a result of trusting in God together.
Long-term ministries provide many opportunities in hospital waiting rooms””places I can revisit with family members, recalling the many trials we have experienced together through the years, and how a faithful and reliable God will see us into the future.
3. Long-term Planning
Healthy ministries require ongoing short-term and long-term strategies. When you are in it for the long haul, you don”t initiate plans that you do not expect to see through till the end. When members of the congregation have seen your stability over many years, they are more willing to trust you for the short-term and the long-term.
2. Credibility Takes Time
I think of example after example of opportunities to minister that came only after I had been in one place for a long time.
A man had a heart attack during a public high school basketball game attended by 4,000 people. And the athletic director saw me in the stands and asked me to come to the microphone and pray while emergency medical technicians tended to the victim.
More than once when a public school student has died or the school has faced some other crisis, our church has been asked to counsel students at the school building.
After a state highway patrolman lost his life while on duty, our church was asked to host the funeral attended by leaders and law enforcement officers from across the state.
We also hosted the funeral for a well-known race car driver killed during a nationally televised event, and we had the opportunity to minister to hundreds of race car families.
All of those opportunities probably came our way because of the credibility gained over time.
1. The Blame Game Is Over
The top reason for staying in the same ministry over a long period of time is because, by doing so, you become greatly responsible for the direction of the local congregation””and that is a good thing. We live in a day when politicians, players, coaches, employees, employers, elders, and preachers tend to throw others under the bus. That works if you”re just passing through. But if you stay in one church over the long haul, you truly stand before God and the congregation for the whole body of work.
Don”t misunderstand. I understand it is the Lord”s church, and he really is Lord over all nations, congregations, and church leaders. However, 1 Corinthians 4:2 says, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” So be faithful with the trust you have been given, and if possible, stick with it over the long haul and you will one day count your blessings.
Steve Reeves has served two ministries over the past 35 years, the last 26 years with Connection Pointe Christian Church, Brownsburg, Indiana, where he is lead pastor.
Thank you for this. Really appreciate the long term ministers out there. As a young first time senior minister I followed a minister of 30 plus years who retired in the same town of the church. The experience and guidance he was able to give to me was only because of the many years he had spent at one place. Stay in one place, be willing to look yourself in the mirror every few years or hire an outside consulting firm to do it for you. But only by building a long term ministry will you be able to experience the things Mr. Reeves is talking about.
In looking back on my 25 years of “located ministry” I do wish I had “stayed put” more. I like Steve and I wish I had known him sooner (or that he had written this sooner!). Still, I have some pause when I recall that Paul’s longest ministry appears to have been just three years in Ephesus and his second-longest was 18 months in Corinth. He was only in Thessalonica for three weeks but (according to B. W. Johnson) that church lasted longer than any other churches of the N.T. era. Just some food for thought as I muse on all this today.