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What is a time you can confidently say life did not go according to plan? I’ve shared before about when I got fired from my first church. Another pastor in town decided he didn’t like how I taught about Jesus. He cherry picked some sentences out of a blog post I wrote and misrepresented me to a bunch of pastors in a closed internet forum I didn’t have access to. Those pastors got worked up and, rather than engaging me, they contacted both my church and the campus ministry where I was a youth and college pastor.
In one of the most painful experiences of my professional career, the head pastor and the director of the campus ministry sat me down in a private meeting. They walked me through what was happening and then assured me I had done nothing wrong.
Then they publicly fired me.
That all happened in February and March of 2009. My wedding was scheduled for July of 2009.
I was suddenly faced with the end of my employment and possibly my calling and career. I felt lost, hopeless, betrayed – by my leaders and by God.
Have you been there? Maybe you lost a job. Or a relationship you thought was forever turned out to be for now. A huge number of Americans have left churches over the last decade because the churches weren’t what they thought. I know a lot of you who currently call Catalyst your home church have experienced that, and that’s part of why you’re here.
Let’s explore what faith looks like when Plan A falls apart. I can tell you: it’s been a winding journey in the almost 15 years since those days. But looking back, I can see how God was with me, faithful even in the darkest, most painful parts of my life. And that recognition gives me the courage to choose faith yet again, in this time when we’re on the cusp of another big change.
