Ministry in New England is as hard as this region’s frozen ground, but I had no idea how hard it would be when my wife and I moved here in 2010. I think I believed my seminary-stuffed brain made me somewhat invincible.
There’s a reason they call New England “The Pastors Graveyard” just as there’s good reason The Graveyard of the Atlantic got its name among sailors—it’s rocky and it’ll sink you if you’re not prepared.
By God’s grace, though, our years in northern Maine have become the best and hardest years of our life and ministry.
If you’re thinking about ministry in this part of the world or in some other difficult soil, here’s three things God has taught me along the way.
Obedience to Jesus, not results, is your mission.
Growing up in the church, we held many outreach events. It was often said “if only one person gets saved then it was worth it all.” If that were my standard over the past seven years of ministering at Calvary Baptist Church in Caribou, Maine, then I would have considered most of our outreach events as failures.
Obedience to Jesus, not results, must be the goal. This has become our consistent focus at Calvary. We can say with sincerity (we often do), “If no one gets saved, it will be worth it all because we were obedient to Jesus.” Ministry up here is the long game, and what it’s done for my heart, my family, and our church is draw us into deeper worship. It’s maintained our obedience to the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ. So we worship, we obey, and we trust Jesus to accomplish His work through us.
Bi-vocational ministry is your secret weapon.
Bi-vocational ministry is a powerful and, often, essential approach to sustainable gospel work in difficult places like New England. Though serving as a bi-vocational pastor can create a challenging juggling act, it also can create gospel opportunities otherwise unavailable while ministering in hard contexts. Having a job in your community provides you with daily connections with lost people, it builds credibility and trust with community leaders, and it gives you an opportunity to invest your professional skills in the community.
So it’s missional, but it’s also practical. By reducing the financial strain of a salary from a struggling church, you open up more resources for ministry. Plus, let’s face it: a regular paycheck, insurance, paid time-off, and a daily sense of accomplishment can help strengthen your and your family’s resolve for the long haul.
Yes. I know you are a disciple of Jesus and your primary goal should be obedience to the mission, but pastoring day-after-day without spiritual results can be extremely difficult no matter how many times you remind yourself of the mission. Having an outlet outside of ministry to be successful can bring an overall sense of accomplishment that will flow into your ministry and allow for the true goal of your church to be the mission, not results.
Ministry is not a lone venture.
If Jesus never worked alone then I’m not sure why we pastors would ever feel it’s okay to be a one-man team. Your ministry does not rise and fall on you and it was never meant to be done alone. On the one hand, if you position yourself as a one-man team you will receive the praise if results come. But, in a hard context, if results don’t come, you have positioned yourself to receive the blame. Working with a team of qualified leaders will allow you to share the load of ministry and the blame if it comes.
You will flare out. And in a context like New England, if you are not sharing the load and investing in leaders then you are stunting the spiritual growth and gifts of your members and sabotaging the future growth of your ministry. Make ministry a team sport and be ready to weather the storm no matter how deep the snow gets.
There are some very encouraging things about the Northeast as well. The death of cultural Christianity means that there are very few nominal Christians. Those that are in, are really in. They may be a very, very small minority, but most genuine believers are passionate about the mission of God in their context.
You are to be commended for your commitment to God’s work.
I have pastored a small rural church in Florida for the past 45 years. When God placed us here the church was on the verge of being closed. Our county is the 2nd poorest poverty-stricken county in the state and has a population of about 20k.
While results and numbers are important their eternal value will be determined by the area, the time, & etc. in which God has called us to ministry. Like the sower who went out to sow we are to sow the seed and leave the results to God. Who knows, you may be sowing seed into the life of another Billy Graham within your church or community right now. God’s mission for us is to sow the seed and being obedient to Jesus is more important than results as measured by man’s yardstick.
As you said, “Being Bi-vocational is Your Secret Weapon.” I retired from teaching in our public school system and my wife was a nurse. Through our bi-vocational work we have earned the respect of not only the people but the heads of local law enforcement agencies, our judicial system, organizations and county officials whom we know on a first name basis. Because we were bi-vocational our church has been able to minister to the needs of our own members as well as those in the community and to assist other charitable organizations in our community in their ministry.
No, ministry is not a lone venture. Although, if you are laboring among those who have limited educational skills it takes more training to accomplish your goal. However, we need to remember that Jesus taught twice as much as he preached.
In FL, we can say, make ministry your church’s mission and be ready to weather the storm no matter how hard the wind blows or how hot the sun shines.
My reason for commenting on your article is to encourage you and others like you to labor and bloom where the Holy Spirit has planted you in your season and for reasons known only to Him. The most important words we will ever hear are not the praises of men for our many accomplishments but the words of Jesus when he says, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
R.C. in Florida
Amen Brother. Thank you for your encouragement.
My first words are, “Oh My!” I have pastored 3 churches, done music and education in other churches, and street ministry, also. The key to the work (work?) is all of the above bathed in serious continual prayer. The last church I was pastor of was in a community that was anti-spiritual. It had over the years had 2 different communes of questionable purpose. They were definitely anti-establishment. All the churches of all denominations considered a pastor a hired servant to hire and fire at their whim. I know because i asked a lot of pastors and people about that. This area in the so-called Bible Belt was as heathen as New England. And, I lived in Maine with relatives all over the east coast – regular common folks and also some high placed people.
The last church I pastored I was asked to come, even part-time, traveling 50 miles from another city. I did for several months and then moved to the area. We started with a Saturday night prayer meeting. After moving to the area it became harder and harder to get people to come to the prayer meeting. Thus, we eventually stopped meeting for prayer. While we were meeting for prayer God blessed: harmony, souls saved, Christians edified, and God glorified. After the prayer meetings stopped the blessings stopped. Troubles started and I eventually resigned. A couple of years later word got to me that the people who were left had determined the church’s problems were not my fault. No kidding! I found out the church lay dormant for a couple more years. Then, they wrote a new constitution, hired a new pastor and changed the name of the church. Oh, yes – the new constitution specified that certain people could not darken the doors nor the property with their presence. Prayer had kept them behaving and silent. But, when the prayer meetings stopped they began to have a wonderful time of destroying any good and Godly things that had been done. The new church and new pastor seem to be doing better. They have my prayers. Bottom line is prayer and the Holy Spirit being allowed to work because the devil is busy in every state, county, and town in all of America, not just New England.