Prayer Request: For Pastors Leaving a Church

If you’re a United Methodist pastor, this time of year can sometimes mean you’re leaving a church.

For some of us that’s difficult. For all of us who follow a colleague who won’t leave, it’s beyond difficult.

When that happens, we do damage to the ministry of the pastor who follows us; we hamstring and undermine them.

When that happens, we do damage to the ministry of the church we no longer serve; we keep the people who are that church longing for bygone days that were often not as delightful as memories lead us to believe.

Enough said, right?

As more than one Bishop has told us, “When you leave an appointment, leave it.”

Prayer Request: that pastors leaving a church do all they can to help prepare the way for a smooth transition building up both the church and the new pastor, and that the soon-to-be-former pastor actually leaves.

And thanks be unto God for the amazing thing called Christ’s Holy Church, of which we get to be a part!