Fired Pastor #3

The articles were written by my wife and posted here in hopes that someone else who may be going through a similar issue will be encouraged....

For about a month we were threatened with job loss. “Stop preaching what you are preaching” and the more he preached the word clearly the madder they became. These threats basically boiled down to stop truly believing that the word was true. We saw firsthand that there are two reactions to the preaching of the word: Anger (often times hate) and repentance. Unfortunately, anger was most prevalent at this church. I began to appreciate more the reformers and also the covenanter preachers and other martyrs who had continued in the face of such adversity. I began to remember what Dr. Patterson told us when I was sitting in Southeastern's Chapel one day "If you have never been fired from a Church, you must not be preaching the Gospel." I had formerly thought this statement was dramatic, but it’s true. And the national average for pastors being 18 months with 1600 ministers losing their positions every month began to seem more realistic and less lame. One of the deacons at M*** even admitted that their church was a pastor abuser.

The church had recently changed their constitution (before we came) which meant that they only needed 22 signatures to have Will terminated, imagine how easy that would be on any given Sunday at any church in the world to find twenty irritated people. The names on the petition weren’t obscure people, they were ones we had ministered to, sat with in the hospital, encouraged, loved on, and spent time with. These weren’t strangers these were the people who had welcomed us so joyfully that day not so many months before. One member actually told Will that this situation was like when Jesus was crucified; all the people who had cheered him on Palm Sunday were the ones yelling for his Crucifixion four days later. Turns out Persecution is the norm, not the exception. "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted..." 2 Tim 3:12

We have realized that it is true that “once Christ calls a man He bids him come and die”(Bonhoeffer). We share in Christ's sufferings. We have our own cross to bear, not something obscure or ideological or a hurt foot or even a difficult illness, but real suffering and persecution. There is a high cost in following Christ and if it costs you nothing, it isn't the Gospel. Why would it cost you nothing when it cost the Lord His Son?! If you do not suffer, you are not following the Gospel. Paul seems to have found trouble at every turn, and while I am a firm believer in not trying to seek trouble, we cannot shrink from it when it finds us. Persecution is as normal to a Christian as breathing is, even in America. Even though we may fool ourselves into thinking we have the freedom to worship and also we are free from persecution, we are not. One of Will's professors told him a missionary from India said that "persecution grows good Christians." I know this to be true. But we did not go looking for this trouble, this trouble found us.

It was while the Church was in the process of terminating my husband as their pastor that I developed Bronchitis. It didn't get better. I eventually ended up in the hospital for a CT scan of my right lung. The doctors found a mass and thought it was Hodgkin's Lymphoma. They told me it was an egg size tumor and I needed a biopsy quickly, as it was constricting the flow of air to my right lung making it hard for me to breathe. The day the church had set for the special called business meeting was the day I was to have surgery for a biopsy on the tumor.

I wish I could say that the possibility of cancer put everything into perspective, but really it showed me even more clearly what a beggarly person I still am. I was more than ever aware of the ungodliness of their actions, while simultaneously battling my desire to cling to my husband and children. I realized that even at my age (28 at the time) I was susceptible to the curse of mortality, this was not a persecution, it was me being human and acutely aware of that frailty. I was not called to love anything more than the Lord. Not even my own life or my time on this earth. Was Christ really sufficient? Could I really be content no matter the circumstance? Was I willing to give up everything for the sake of having Christ eternally? My life really boiled down to Christ alone and in the end I am thankful to say (Once again because of the Cross--the constraining Love of Christ by the empowering presence of the Spirit) that I was more than joyfully awaiting Christ above all. But it was a very humbling time, seeing how much I still desire earthly things and temporal rewards.

Will Preached his last sermon on 2 Timothy 3:16- 4:5. It was not well received. I was too sick to go, but I was given a recording of the sermon and remember it still as one of the bravest things I have ever heard. While I wanted to tell all these people off, my husband gently but honestly called them to repent and submit to the authority and inerrancy of scripture.

I went into surgery on Wednesday and my husband was fired from His first pastorate for being biblical. They told him a few days before the meeting that they “never said he was unbiblical he just wasn't a good pastor” and that was the only explanation we ever got. We believed then and we still believe that “biblical” and “good pastor” go together; you cannot be a bad pastor if you are faithful to scripture, just like you cannot be a good pastor when you are unfaithful to scripture.