God’s Got This—When A Pastor Is Leaving
Rev. Toby Gillespie-Mobley
Joshua 1:1-9 1 1 Corinthians 3:1-9
It has been said, that the only person who likes change is a baby with a dirty diaper. Change means that a transition is taking place. We are witnessing the end of one thing and the beginning of another. We have all experienced one chapter in our life ending and another beginning. Sometimes we know what to expect, other times we are unsure of what the future will bring.
One of the promises we have from God, is that God will always be with us. God is always outside of our transitions looking at them take place. Therefore no matter what the transition, we still have access to the same God as we did before the transition took place. In other words, “God’s Got It.” When we have God, we have all that we need. Everything else is just an accessory in our lives.
We serve an incredible God with big plans for all of humanity. It’s God’s will that every person born gets the chance to hear about Jesus Christ and the tremendous love that he has for them. It’s God’s will for everyone to know the joy of being saved from their sins so that they need not fear punishment when they stand in the presence of the Lord after they die.
It’s God’s will that we would love God, so that they can spend eternity with God. It’s God’s will that when we die, everyone would hear the words well done, my good and faithful servant and that no one will ever hear those dreaded words, “Depart from me, for I do know you, into the fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
God has blessed Bay Presbyterian Church with a heart and a mind to share in God’s will. That’s why you are offering people a chance to find hope, to find community and to find purpose at this great church. You know that the need to reach people for Christ is far from over, because many today are not even aware that they need a Savior.
It would be great if God’s will always came to pass, but that’s not how life works. God gave each of us the gift of the freedom of choice. We are free to accept what God has to offer or to reject it. We like to use the term forever when it comes to our love for each other in relationships. But the truth is, the only forever relationship we are going to have is our relationship to God.
Some will reject the opportunity to hear about Jesus Christ. Some will not be interested in the love God has for us because other things look better at the moment.
Some believe that our sins do not matter, and that there is no heaven, and there is no hell. Some believe we are good enough on our own to answer for our sins and we can be our own Savior.
But the amazing thing about God, is that regardless of what we believe, God still pursues us with his love like a flying arrow speeding through the air heading toward the bullseye on a target. God sees value in the soul of each and every human being. That is why Jesus chose to build his church. He wants to fill it with people from all walks of life from every part of the planet.
We the people of God, have been given the honor and privilege of letting others know about the love of God. That’s why we come for worship, that’s why we feed the poor, that’s why we love each other, and that’s why we try to let our light shine.
God’s big picture is the saving of humankind. God desires that everybody who wants to be with God can be with God. For God has promised the creation of a new heavens and a new earth in which we can spend eternity with God.
God’s vision includes those who have come before us and the generations that are still waiting to be born. Each of us is called to serve God in our own generation and in our own setting.
It is so important to recognize that Jesus said, “you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you that you should go forth and bear fruit.” It’s amazing how sometimes God literally calls us on the phone. And yet neither we who are receiving the call, nor the person who is making the call knows that God is on the line.
So often the relationship which begins with a pastor and a congregation begins with a phone call. There is just a simple inquiry as to whether or not a person would consider a church or a church would consider a person.
And yet God is just as much involved in the phone call as when God called Moses on the mountainside with the burning bush. Based on how reluctant Moses was to answer the call, he may have preferred a phone call to the burning bush, because then Moses could have seen who the caller was and sent the call straight to voice mail.
It has been over four years since the phone calls between Pastor Mark and Bay Presbyterian Church Nominating Committee were all made, and introductions were given, and votes were taken, and a call was issued. And thus began a new chapter in both of your lives, as a church with a new pastor united in seeking to do the will of God, by making a difference for Jesus Christ in the lives of others.
No one knows what exactly is going to happen as all the dynamics of becoming a pastor not just of a church, but of the individuals who make up the church. I can tell you from experience, that every church is full of hidden jewels in the body of Christ waiting to be discovered. One of the great joys of Mark and Stephanie’s life will always be the many wonderful jewels they found at Bay Presbyterian Church.
I have heard Pastor Mark speak highly of so many of you and what a blessing you have been to him and to his family. When Jesus commanded us to love one another as He has loved us, you have lived out that commandment well as a church toward your pastor.
I am always amazed at how God knows what we are going to need long before we know that a problem or a challenge is going to come our way. God raised up a Joseph because he knew 7 years of famine would ravage the world . God raised up a Shadrach, Meshak and Abedengo because knew there would be a forced idolatry upon his people. God raised up a Queen Esther because God knew that Haman would come along to try to destroy the Jews.
I believe God raised up a Pastor Mark for Bay Presbyterian Church because God knew our nation was entering a period of racial strife that would impact both society and the body of Christ. Bay was going to need a leader with a heart built on building bridges on several different levels. A leader with a heart for the city and the suburbs.
A leader with a heart for challenging our views of the status quo in terms of race relationships. A leader who wanted us to see the kingdom of God is much bigger and more diverse than what we usually see on Sunday mornings. A leader with a love for people regardless of where God has placed them in their lives and in their environment.
I believe God was raising up Bay Presbyterian Church to be a light in this community and in the body of Christ at large to show what a bridge building church could look like. You as a congregation have been used in an incredible way to help Pastor Mark reveal the heart of Jesus Christ on a different level.
Your outreach to both the Bridge CLE and to Bridge City Church has demonstrated your willingness to follow Jesus to serve the least of these wherever they might be found. Your mission trip to Guatemala shows your compassion for cultures far beyond your own. You didn’t just talk the talk, you have actually walked the walk putting dollars and volunteers alongside of your faith in Jesus Christ.
Only God knew all the drama that was going to hit the Body of Christ with Covid -19. It called for a whole shift in paradign as to the ways in which we not only did ministry, but how we worshipped as well.
In service vs online, vs a combination of them both. All masks, no masks, voluntary masks or mandatory masks. We saw fractures and breaks in churches all over the country as to what path should be taken. Many churches did not survive Covid-19. You no doubt had your doubts as to what was going to happen to you as a church. There were several voices of what you should or should not be doing in the midst of Covid -19.
And yet the leadership provided by the pastor and the session of this church guided you through it, coming out of it with as strong a commitment to serve Jesus Christ as ever. You never stopped forgetting that Jesus is Lord even in the midst of a pandemic, and that we still have a call upon our lives to go forth and make disciples, and a call to grow in Christ as well.
You adapted with new broadcasting equipment and services outdoors. You never stopped being faithful in your giving, and while other churches had to close because of finances, you put your debt to rest.
God had the right leadership team in place between the pastors and elders to bring Bay Presbyterian Church to such a time as this. It’s never been about an individual. It’s always been, what’s the best thing we can do to equip the church for the next challenge the church is going to face to keep the ministry of Jesus Christ alive and well. I can assure you that there are new challenges on the horizon.
God raises up different kinds of leaders for different stages in the life of God’s people. The Bap Presbyterian Church of today is not the By of the 50’s, 70’s 90’ or 2010’. It’ leaders were different with different purposes.
Moses could lead a group to the promise land, but it took a Joshua style leadership to cross over and conquer it. Ezra’s leadership inspired the people to leave Babylon and return to the ruined city of Jerusalem, but it took inspiration from a Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Leadership should never be a about a competition between individuals. It is easy to so align ourselves with a leader, that we miss the purpose of the leader’s call.
The Corinthian church took their eyes off of Jesus for a moment and wanted to boast about the kind of leader they preferred. One group claimed to be followers of Apollos, one group claimed to be followers of Peter, and another group insisted they were followers of Paul. Paul refused to be touched that there was a group who wanted to identify with him.
Instead Paul wrote in 1 Corninthians 3:6-9, 1 Corinthians 3:6-9 (NIV2011)
6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.
Some of you may not know the story of Moses and Joshua. Moses was appointed by God to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt into the promised land. Joshua was Moses’s aid, truly was his right hand man. Moses was able to lead the people to the border of the promised land and he got to see where God was going to take his people.
But it was under Joshua’s leadership that the people received a lot more of what God had for them. He led them into the promised land. Moses was the person for the job coming out of Egypt. With all that Moses had to put up with, it’s a great thing that God gave him the gift of being the meekest man on the earth. Can you imagine what would have happened to the Israelites if King Saul had led them out of Egypt. Probably nobody would have made it to the promised land.
For the past 4 years, this particular leadership team at Bay Presbyterian Church has been in a new season of planting seeds, and of watering them. You’ve lost some people while doing so. But be encouraged. God may be ready to start to bring in a new harvest that will require a different way of going forward.
With the harvest will come a need for more workers to enter the fields. Remember the purpose of pastors is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. For anyone thinking “what are we going to do without Pastor Mark”, you’re asking the wrong question.
You should be asking, “how has Pastor Mark equipped me to do some of the things I’ve seen him do. What do I need to step up to do, so that Bay Presbyterian Church keeps marching forward. What did God want to change in me as I watched him minister through the past few years. Where Am I now better equipped to serve because of the gifts that have been developed in me through his ministry?” These are the questions a parishioner should be asking when God is moving a leader to somewhere else. You see we are all on loan to each other for just a little while.
The challenge of living out the gospel as individuals and as a church is as great as it ever will be. You haven’t just sat back as a church and waited for other groups of people to come to you. You have taken steps of faith to go and meet people where they are and meet them at their point of need. You are a bridge building church with your brand of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
God needs you to see people He loves all around you, who do not know of the love of Christ for themselves. People in your family, your neighborhood, your job and your recreational places.
God may be calling you as a church to begin to look more and more and more like the body of Christ as it will be in heaven with a multitude of people from all nations and tongues. Who knows how many of the illegal immigrants flooding the nation, will end up in the western suburbs of Cleveland? Will they find the love of Jesus Christ if they enter these doors. Bay Presbyterian Church is more in need of your commitment to ministry for the cause of Christ than ever before.
The Book of Joshua begins with a crisis in the leadership structure. Moses, the leader for the past 40 plus years has now died. God reminded Joshua, that Moses was gone, but the removal of Moses, did not nullify the promises of God. I give to Pastor Mark and to the Elders on Session, the same words God gave to Joshua in Joshua 1:7, “Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go
Every great partnership in the Scriptures eventually come to an end, be it Pharoah & Joseph, Ruth & Naomi, David & Jonathan, Paul and Barnabus, and of course Jesus and the disciples. But that never brought an end to the work of God in God’s people.
God has a purpose for Bay that’s far greater than any of its leaders. This church has stood as a faithful witness for God on this corner for many years. That tells me that God had plans to use a number of pastors to bring to completion the work God intended for you to accomplish. Appreciate all the pastors and the sessions God gives to you, because God has never been without a plan for this great church
My prayer for you comes straight from the word of God in Philippians 1:9-10. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
As the apostle Paul told the Philippian Church, “I am confident of this, that He who began a good work in you, shall be faithful to complete it.” Let all who are involved with Bay Presbyterian Church be assured that God’s Got This. Celebrate together what Jesus Christ has done in your midst in the pas,t and humbly walk into the future knowing that God is on the other side of this transition.
This sermon celebrates a transition when a pastor leaves a congregation and both having faith for their future as a leader and as a congregation.
