How do you know when it’s time to go?
How do you know when your time in a particular ministry context has come to an end?
How do you discern the difference between God preparing you to transition to something new — and your own desire to move on — for whatever reason?
One of the things I’ve come to learn about myself over the course of my 15 years in ministry is that I seem to be hard-wired with an alarm that is set to sound every 3 years or so.
When this internal alarm goes off I usually feel like it’s time to move on.
I am coming up on my 7 year anniversary here at Belmont. So although this summer has been fairly quiet in this regard, I have experienced two different seasons of attempting to discern “the alarms,” and what was going on inside of me.
At two of the schools I’ve previously worked at, when the alarms sounded the first time around, I believed that it was time to move on — which is what I did.
At the third school I worked at I didn’t even make it to my 3-year alarm. Things were buzzing and going off as I was completing my first year — and so, I moved on.
And as I looked into taking my current position I received some wise counsel from a godly friend and mentor of mine.
He said:
1. You don’t typically begin to really see the fruit from your investment until AFTER the 3rd year in a particular context — so you should consider sticking around longer than your used to, and
2. If you keep moving around people are going to quit hiring you — because you’ll be seen as a “flight risk”!
So with these two bits of wisdom in mind, it’s been easier to work through the alarms as they’ve sounded.
After struggling to see much “fruit” from my investments during years 4-6, year 7 was a different story. It made working through the frustration of the first six years worth it.
The last time the alarms sounded, I found my wondering:
Has God been preparing me to move in the mounting frustration of relative “fruitlessness”? I think I wanted the answer to be yes.
But the longer I sat amidst the sounding alarms, the more I was reminded of individuals throughout the Bible that were called to tough places — and probably wanted to leave — but chose to gut it out, believing that God was not done using them in that place.
Do I want to be a part of a flourishing ministry? Of course. Who wouldn’t?
Do I believe God has called me here? Yes.
Do I believe that God wants to move in a mighty way on this campus? Again, yes.
Am I willing to be patient, and available, while God works on God’s own timeline?
This is the question that I have most recently had to come to a conclusion on… and I feel confident in hushing the alarms, refocusing my efforts and really digging in here at BU!
Can you relate? Is this where you find yourself today?
I believe that a big part of this past year’s “success” was in how I re-calibrated my definition, and understanding, of success in ministry — especially given my current context and how it differs from the campuses I’ve previously served on.
Who knows where I’ll find myself mentally and emotionally when the alarms begin to sound again… but my hope and prayer is that I’ll be willing to sit amidst the noise long enough to discern what God desires — before I make any life-changing decisions.
How about you?
- Do you have any built-in alarms?
- Do you struggle to want to stick things out when they’re not going well?
- How do you discern whether it’s time move on or push through?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this!
6 thoughts on “When the Alarm Bells Sound”
I don’t your situation 100%, but persevere.
For me, the “alarm bells” come out of personal discontent with what I’m currently doing. I tell myself that I’d be more happy and successful at another type of job – but then I think that even if I switch companies or job types, the same sources of discontent will be there regardless.
But that’s not to say that the “itch or inkling” we feel is wrong. I try and think of my motivation – am I discontented because I’m lazy or because I honestly feel moved to go somewhere else? Overall, it’s the former rather than the latter that motivates my desires to skip town.
Joel
Good thoughts Joel!
I’ve been in this season a bit myself. When I’ve heard that three years fruit thing, there’s part of me that is frustrated by that because I feel like I had some fruit and momentum at the beginning but gearing up again is hard sometimes. I find that there are times in the semester when I question more than at other times. I also feel like I hugely value time with colleagues and there are times when that time inspires me and helps me pay attention more to the vision and power of God, but there are other times when we go down the dark road of comparing apples and oranges and something I leave questioning even more.
I think I’m a pretty good rationalizer and I wonder at times if what I think God’s saying is what God really is saying or it’s just what I wish God would say so I could escape to greener pastures. But I like you agree that there’s not many biblical examples of folks making easy transitions to a new place and living the good life. Actually I’m finding it hard right now to think of many at all, that didn’t just keep on persevering whether things were awesome in the midst of the challenging or just challenging all the way around.
It’s easy to wonder in campus ministry and I guess in the church in general about how God’s using you, the impact that’s being had, or if your gifts and graces would be better suited somewhere else. But then again, I think I asked those questions throughout seminary as well. I guess at a certain point, just like the Biblical stories we have to trust that the Spirit of God will help us to discern. There’s a prayer above my desk and a couple of the lines say,
“May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith…”
There are days when that makes me question but there are many more days where whether that’s a comfort or a challenge, it helps me rest firmly in faith that God is here and at work and hopefully will give me a clear green light when it’s time to leave.
Narcie! I would love to get that prayer in its entirety!
I don’t want to forgo the notion that God will call us to/from one ministry context to another… because I believe that He does. A friend pointed out to me just yesterday that, “God’s call (on our lives) is to His Kingdom, and NOT a particular ministry or group of people.” I’m still trying to work through the nuances of that statement, but I guess I can say that I want to faithfully serve God’s people no matter where I am, and should the who and where of it ever change, I want it to be at God’s leading — and not my own.
Thanks for sharing some of your story Narcie!
Thanks Guy for your honest vulnerability in this. Earlier this summer as we talked, I remember feeling as though I had little to offer because my internal alarm is wired differently and my experience has been quite different. In my 10 years of ministry, I have had only two transitions. The first as a recent college grad, newly-wed and looking for his first opportunity to minister to youth in a church setting. I had the blessing of being somewhat pursued and even the “luxury” of feeling like I had multiple options. My second transition came out of the blue at a time when I wasn’t at first sure if it was even wise to move.
For me, my alarm has been tempered by my status quo personality that, though it likes change, isn’t opposed with letting something roll that isn’t majorly damaged. It has also been tempered by similar sage advisers like your friend who laud the importance of presence and endurance in a context. Leaving a church that was tremendously nurturing for the amazing opportunities that the university had to offer was a relatively easy decision with almost unanimous support from my advisers and family. But it required a similar kind of attention to discerning the Call. While sometimes the challenge is to quite the alarms enough to listen intently to God and discern whether the alarms require a staying-action/response or a moving-action/response, so too we at times need to be willing to hear “alarms” when we are comfortable and content. Sometimes alarms can be so deafening that we can’t hear well and sometimes the comfort can be so “loud” that we don’t hear the alarms.Now as I begin a seventh year in my current context, your questions over the course of this summer are also good for me. I have no desire to leave, no real sense of what else God might be calling me to, other opportunities, etc. Is this simply because God has called me to continue here or because in this comfortable place I don’t want to listen with a discerning ear for fear of what I might hear? Whether the alarm bells are sounding or not, the process of discerning and listening diligently for the voice of God should be a high priority.May the Spirit fill you with discernment of God’s call whether to faithfully stay or faithfully move on in your journey and ministry.
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