Should I quit my ministry job?

Why don't you just quit?

A few years ago, I was on staff at a large, established church and miserable.

There was no glaring sin, no major toxicity, or unhealthy dysfunction. It was just not a great fit for who I was, how I was wired and how I wanted to give my life to ministry.

I sat down with a well respected pastor in my network for coffee and shared my frustration and after hearing my sob story, he gently asked me, "Why don't you just quit?"

I was appalled.

I had been to Bible College, Seminary, Ordination, and came from a Pentecostal / Evangelical tradition with the Protestant Work Ethic sprinkled in that valued hard work, discipline and above all else, never quit.

I mean, after all, He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6.

Doesn't that mean never give up?

Why was one of the most revered pastors in my network telling me to quit?

Before I answer that, let me put an asterisk on it. I would call this advice more descriptive than prescriptive.

What do I mean?

This was my story and I am not saying this has to be your story but here is where this pastor was coming from.

He looked at a young minister and saw someone burnt out, jaded, and growing in cynicism. He had been around the block enough to know that this doesn't end well. He didn't come out and tell me to quit and join the circus (though maybe he should have).

He told me find a marketplace job, attend a healthy church, find a therapist and spend some time processing what was next.

I listened. Less than 6 months later, I left the large church, got a marketplace job and began attending a small, unglamorous church plant a few blocks from my apartment. That decision propelled me to my next assignment, planting my own congregation 3 years later, which helped plant two more churches and ultimately a successful church merge this past year.

Praise God for quitters.

Because here's the thing (and once again, descriptive, not prescriptive) if I didn't take that advice and stuck it out, I Help Pastors Get Jobs would likely never have existed, because that was a through line in it all. I had to learn all those years back on how to market myself as a minister in the marketplace and now this e-mail is going out to thousands of people helping them do the same.

Why don't you just quit?

What do you need to quit to open up more space for God to work in your life?

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