There's a church in my area that I attended for a couple of years early in my faith. I left not over sin issues or arguments, but needing to make things right and needing accountability. I know several people who attend there still, and just recently, the founding pastor at the church, the lead pastor, came up and said that God was calling him to leave and go plant a church on the other side of the US. The church has always been intentional about church planting by bringing in prospective pastors and sending them out to plant. And it seems like common sense that you wouldn't have the lead founding pastor of the church be the one who is sent out. But that's exactly what happened. He made the announcement at their annual meeting. That God had given him a command to leave and plant elsewhere, and this would be happening very soon it seems.
Now I know there are several views on how God speaks to us. I'm more in the camp that it's solely through his word, but this church generally thinks he speaks to us through circumstances and other people as well. They made a video explaining why they were doing it, and he said "I have to choose between staying and obeying God."
For context, this church is just under 7 years old, and there's about 150 in attendance. I personally think that him leaving is unwise for a multiple reasons. First, the church is still young. Yes it's got great growth, but 7 years is not much time in the context of a church. Secondly, I would argue attendance to be unstable. And what I mean by that is, I was having a chat with one of their pastors recently. Just catching up, and he told me that the average length of time that people are there is about 3 to 6 months. If you ask me, that doesn't sound good. He thought it was a great thing because there's so many new believers to meet and all that. And thirdly, they're in a situation where they are trying to get a new building/space to meet. I'll spare you the details on that one.
It seems to me like this is a very unwise thing to do and could spell disaster for a church in the state that it's in. I'm told they'll be hiring a new guy from outside the church. In the video, he likened himself to Paul, and how he went from place to place planting churches, but I would argue that Paul was a missionary, not a pastor, and he would set up churches with the mindset of him leaving from the get go, not starting a church and then announcing his departure when he's all settled in.
I think this is unwise but I'm curious on people's thoughts on this.
Now I know there are several views on how God speaks to us. I'm more in the camp that it's solely through his word, but this church generally thinks he speaks to us through circumstances and other people as well. They made a video explaining why they were doing it, and he said "I have to choose between staying and obeying God."
For context, this church is just under 7 years old, and there's about 150 in attendance. I personally think that him leaving is unwise for a multiple reasons. First, the church is still young. Yes it's got great growth, but 7 years is not much time in the context of a church. Secondly, I would argue attendance to be unstable. And what I mean by that is, I was having a chat with one of their pastors recently. Just catching up, and he told me that the average length of time that people are there is about 3 to 6 months. If you ask me, that doesn't sound good. He thought it was a great thing because there's so many new believers to meet and all that. And thirdly, they're in a situation where they are trying to get a new building/space to meet. I'll spare you the details on that one.
It seems to me like this is a very unwise thing to do and could spell disaster for a church in the state that it's in. I'm told they'll be hiring a new guy from outside the church. In the video, he likened himself to Paul, and how he went from place to place planting churches, but I would argue that Paul was a missionary, not a pastor, and he would set up churches with the mindset of him leaving from the get go, not starting a church and then announcing his departure when he's all settled in.
I think this is unwise but I'm curious on people's thoughts on this.