When Things Change

Shane Hipps is leaving his position as Teaching Pastor at Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids.

When he came to Mars Hill he was to be a co-teaching pastor with Rob Bell. Bell has since left and the arrangement that Hipps originally had was no longer an option. Things changed.

His teaching responsibilities were to be expanded and would thus cut into his time to serve the church at large. He determined this was outside of his call. I’ve found some of Hipps’ books to be very helpful, but this has me thinking about the nature of calling.

Hipps is free to respond to God as he discerns, and let me acknowledge that I am an outsider who doesn’t know the fullness of the situation. So removing the man and the place let’s discuss calling.

You are never going to live out exactly what your job description describes. Ministry does not lend itself to predictability. Particularly as Rookie Pastors you will find yourself frustrated in this situation.

The larger questions here are how we define our calling, and how we react when we find ourselves working outside of these callings.

Help me process this a bit:

How specific is your calling?

What aspect of your calling, if taken away, would prompt you to leave?

 

May 29, 2012 in Challenging with 3 Comments

About Josh: Josh is a Rookie Pastor who works for a local church that he loves. He coordinates local lunch meet-ups with other Rookie Pastors in the Indianapolis area and loves to connect with other Rookie Pastors on and off line. It is his hope that Rookie Pastor will contribute to the health, longevity, and effectiveness of church leaders.

All Posts by  |  Twitter  |  Facebook  |  Share By Email

3 Responses to “When Things Change”

  1. Greg Smith May 30, 2012 at 11:02 am #

    My calling to my first church I felt was very specific. God called me to the church to grow it numerically. He sent me to an area that need a church who wanted to reach people. That was my calling. After year of beating my head against the wall and finally coming to an understanding that the church simple refused to grow outside it’s current size and demographic I felt it was time to leave and did. As I look back should I have stayed and fought harder? Possibly but I believe I accomplished what God sent time there to do.

    Reply
    • Josh May 30, 2012 at 11:25 am #

      Important distinction you made: calling is what we are supposed to do and we aren’t responsible for the results.

      Thanks for sharing Greg.

      Reply

Trackbacks/Pingbacks:

  1. I Just Want to Teach | Rookie Pastor - May 30, 2012

    [...] I mentioned last night Shane Hipps is leaving Mars Hill and in his letter there is an interesting note about their leadership structure.  Hipps (or Bell [...]

Leave a Reply:

Gravatar Image