We've been to our Church of God State Camp Meeting in Marion, Illinois all this week and just returned home last evening. We had a very good week, with some of the best services I recall having in camp meeting in several years. The trip was very hard on Libby's back. She was in so much pain this week that I wish I would have insisted that she stayed home this year. I know she enjoyed the services she was able to be in however, and I think the fellowship with other pastor's wives did her a lot of good too, so maybe it was best that she went. At any rate, as much as we enjoyed it, it sure is good to be home.
We were talking with some good friends who pastor in the state on Tuesday, and Libby said something about how good the camp meeting had been, but that she was ready to get back home to our church. That started a conversation about how over the years of pastoring, many times it was an absolute dread to go back home to "our church." That may sound really bad to some of you, and some of you attend or attended some of those churches, and I hope you are not offended by what I am about to share. But the truth is, the church were we pastor now is different. When we are away, we feel like we are away from a part of us. As great as it is to worship with our friends and co-laborers for the Lord in Prayer Conference or Camp Meeting, it is not the same as being at home.
Now believe me, Harvest Church is not perfect, and to be truthful, we are facing the most severe challenge in the church at this very moment that we have faced thus far in our tenure here. In the natural, it would appear to be time to pack up and move on, but God says we have only just begun here and I just sense in my spirit man that we are about to cross over into a place and dimension that we have never experienced before in our ministry. The natural says run, the spirit says stand fast. A friend in the ministry in a devotion this at camp meeting talked about how when we don't know what to do, "carry on." That just resontated in my spirit when he spoke it, as I had just been praying and telling the Lord that in this struggle within the church at this time I just did not know what to do. I was wearing myself out trying to figure out how to "fix" this situation. God says, "Carry on. Do what you know to do. Be faithful." If we will do our part, God will do His.
Even in the midst of great uncertainty at this moment... I am glad to be back home, and I am going to carry on!
4 comments:
Glad you're back, Pastor and Libby,and
Daniel and Ashley! You've been missed!...........see you all soon!!
happy you all are back!! GBU!!!
Keep flowing with God's river, Pastor Darrell! He has you there for a purpose, and you aren't laboring in vain. I know that you know that already. Our pastor has been through many similar battles in his 10 years at our church, and he faced resistance that has to be unbearable. But God is working the change he wants.
I am glad you feel that way about your people. Though I am not an SP yet, when I am away from home, I can't wait to get back to worship with my church family!
~Jeff
I'm glad you were refreshed at camp meeting (ours begins this weekend in WNC).
I'm also glad to hear the steadfast determination in your words. It seems that Satan is always trying to pry us out of our place...I feel like singing "I shall not be...I shall not be moved..."
May God bless you and the wonderful people of Harvest Church.
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