Thirteen years ago Amy and I made the decision to resign from paid ministry in the local church.  During the previous decade, I had worked at three congregations (one for only a year, another for eight, and the last for a little over a year).  One was a small family congregation, the second was a growing suburban congregation, and the last was a large “mega-church”.

The decision to leave professional ministry wasn’t easy.  Since giving my life to Christ, I had always felt a “call to ministry”.  I  loved the relational work of  sharing lives, learning together, and working out what it means to follow Jesus with other people.  I, like most who feel strongly about such a call, assumed that following it meant paid ministry in a church, as a missionary, or in a para-church organization.   However, I now felt for the first time that God was calling me out of professional ministry.  I wasn’t sure what it meant, or what I would do, but I was certain that resigning was what I was supposed to do.  So, in a huge leap of faith, without another job,  and in major change in my previously assumed direction in life, I resigned.

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