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Da Sheik

Pastors Looking for Greener Grass

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1865 **4/24/18 3:01 pm**

For all pastors who are discontented and frustrated, I want to give you this exhortation. Some of you may be considering a change and viewing another situation as "greener" pastures. If God is leading you to move, then by all means follow His leadership.

But let me offer this advice: the greener grass at that new church is another pastor's brown grass. Wherever you go, you will encounter difficulties, challenges, and obstacles.

Resident Skeptic

Re: Pastors Looking for Greener Grass

Acts-dicted Posts: 8065 **4/24/18 3:03 pm**

Quiet Wyatt

[Insert Acts Pun Here] Posts: 12817 **4/24/18 10:06 pm**

Then again, there is a time and a season for everything.

Da Sheik

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1865 **4/24/18 11:58 pm**

skinnybishop

Acts Enthusiast Posts: 1055 **4/25/18 2:10 pm**

Many times opportunities arise that seem perfect. There have been a couple of occasions, when I was certain I was going to move, and the opportunity was a sure thing. On two specific occasions however, I could not get a sense of peace, that "putting in" for the church was the right choice. So i stayed put. So far that has proven to be the right choice. It didn't make sense to me initially. It didn't make sense to some of my friends. I argued with God. I got upset, because He wouldn't let me go, when I knew I was the perfect choice. :roll:

But after all was said and done, I stayed. I'm so glad.
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Eddie Wiggins

Tom Sterbens

Golf Cart Mafia Capo Famiglia Posts: 4508 **4/25/18 4:50 pm**

You know the old saying....

If the grass is greener on the other side of the fence...
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...then water your yard!

Cojak

01000001 01100011 01110100 01110011 Posts: 24285 **4/25/18 9:10 pm**

Resident Skeptic

Acts-dicted Posts: 8065 **4/26/18 9:04 am**

I have an AG Sectional Presbyter friend in this situation. He literally has been at the same church since 1987, as youth pastor, assistant pastor and pastor. He wants to be closer to his elderly parents in another state. But in spite of recommendations from the most influential people in Springfield, he cannot find a church that will take him. Everyone seems to be looking for the yuppie couple in their 30's with kids. He's very frustrated.
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"It is doubtful if any Trinitarian Pentecostals have ever professed to believe in three gods, and Oneness Pentecostals should not claim that they do." - Daniel Segraves UPCI

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Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **4/26/18 11:17 pm**

I haven't posted this in a while, but when I read this, I think how foreign this whole concept must have been to those in the early church.

The Jerusalem church eventually had elders that pastored it. The apostles also 'pastored' in their ministry. And some of them travelled quite a bit. But Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in every church. Paul had Titus appoint elders in every city.

They were appointing people from within the congregation, from within the city, to pastor the congregation of which they were a part. Eventually, they developed a system (not taught in scripture, certainly not explicitly) where one man was the leader of the elders and was considered the 'bishop'. Scripture calls all the elders bishops, and so did one of the letters from Clement. But in the early centuries, at least in the 4th century, there was a tradition against a bishop leaving one ecclesiastical see for another.

Backing up to Biblical times, the elders who pastored the church lived there. Apostles who planted churches or visited them might 'pastor' temporarily, and eventually appoint local pastors from within the very congregations. But I don't see where there were professional pastors who came in and took over a church they weren't a part of because the people were easier to deal with or it offered better career opportunities.

Btw, I hear in Eastern Orthodox churches, to get a new priest, the congregation puts forth the man they think is the most like Christ. I suspect church leaders have a say in it, but during the ordination, the congregation has to say 'he is worthy.' If someone says he is not worthy, then the bishops investigate. They can have married priests, so this is much more feasible than in the RCC system.
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Acts-perienced Poster Posts: 11849 **4/26/18 11:18 pm**