“…and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.” (2 Tim 2:2)

Paul’s wise counsel to Timothy is applicable on many levels, and has a multitude of benefits. A few that I will mention today:

It about the message, not the messenger. Paul was a good example of this, not being jealous of others who gained renown preaching the gospel, but rather simply rejoicing that the gospel was proclaimed. Pride will tempt us to want to be “the guy” - the teacher and leader that people remember and look to. But what is of primary importance isn’t us, but is the gospel that gets preached. When we practice entrusting to faithful men, we are shedding a few of the (multitudinous) opportunities for pride.

The message must carry on after us. Paul himself knew that his days on the earth were short. To have his most effective ministry, he needed not only to preach to unbelievers, but also to teach the teachers who would reach the following generation. I have heard it said that your effectiveness as a parent isn’t shown as much in how your children turn out as in how your grandchildren turn out. For Paul’s spiritual grandchildren to be vibrant and mature Christians, he needed to make sure his spiritual children were well-trained.

You can’t do it all on your own. This is the big temptation for me, and was the initial thought that prompted this post. Just because you (or I) have the skills to do the task yourself doesn’t mean you should be the one to always do it. There is far more work to do than any one of us can handle. Finding and training others who can both assist and replace you is essential in maintaining health, sanity, and the healthy operation of any ministry.

This Sunday will be my last Sunday to lead worship at Noelridge for a while. It has been a while since I made the official announcement, and I think in the interim some good strides have been made to get things organized and prepared for my departure. I’m sure there will still be some kinks to work out, some things I’ve forgotten and the like, but they’ll get the figured out, and I’ll be available to answer questions.

I’m looking forward to the break. Suddenly my Monday afternoons are free from staff meetings (though I may still attend from time to time), my Tuesday nights are free from planning services, my Wednesday nights are free from worship team practice, and my Sunday mornings are now flexible so I can attend one service of my choice. There will definitely be some schedule adjustment, I think for the better.

So, this Sunday is the last one. We’re celebrating the church’s 50th anniversary this week. We’ll have a few of the former pastors in attendance, and a bunch of old-timers. Should be a neat time.

I made this announcement after both services at Noelridge today. I didn’t read from a script, so this isn’t verbatim, but is the gist of the message I had for the folks.

After much prayer, thought, and discussion, I have come to the decision that the best thing for me and my family right now is that I step back from my role as the worship leader here at Noelridge. Now, that’s not a fun announcement to make, but let me explain a little bit.

The key factor playing into this decision is time. This hit home the most to me when I recently realized that my current life schedule of work and ministry is the same or busier than it was seven years ago when we moved to Cedar Rapids. However, in those seven years God has blessed us with two little girls. And while Becky’s schedule has changed drastically since the girls were born, my schedule hasn’t changed at all. And it needs to.

I also want the time to be able to get involved in community things. My entire social life and structure has been within the church, and that’s not good. I need to have the time and freedom to be able to be involved in the “real world”, to reach out to my community. You have also entrusted me with a role as an elder here at Noelridge, and I want to make sure I have the time to do that well.

Let me emphasize that we are not going anywhere. Noelridge has been a great blessing as our home church for seven years now, and our desire is very much to stay here, I will just be in a different role. Sunday mornings will look at bit different; we have many other talented musicians in the church here who are capable of helping with music, and we will be calling on them. Worship team may also look different for a while, we’re still having discussions on that.

So thank you for letting me lead these past years, and for understanding as I move to fulfill responsibilities in a new season of my life.

It is a big relief to get this off my chest and officially announced. I’m looking forward to see how God will use the folks in the church to fill in and minister in different ways.

So after just posting on my tiredness and potential burnout with the worship team, I come back from lunch with Becky to find this amazing blog post sitting in my Feedlounge reader. The author is a pastor from Texas named Matt Chandler, and he’s part of The Resurgence blog (which also includes Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill in Portland, OR Seattle).

Titled Alpha Males and the Messiah Complex, it speaks very directly into my heart today. An excerpt:

The story in John 4 about the Samaritan woman always stirs my soul. The piece that always shocked me was Jesus’ confession to his disciples that he was tired. I never think of Christ in these terms. The scriptures say he was tired, so he sat down and told the disciples to go on into town and get lunch. I try to imagine their conversation as they walked on into town “This guy can calm the seas and feed five thousand people, but he needs us to go get him a freaking sandwich?” It seems like the only alpha male I’ve ever read about that doesn’t have a messiah complex is the actual Messiah. I think about how often we get tired but pretend like we’re not, pushing on through like we’re some kind of superman, cape waving in the wind, feeling no pain or fatigue. Not Jesus. When he hits the wall he confesses it to his crew and sits down for a bit.

Wow, that challenges me. Now that I think about it, I believe I posted a link to a message he gave where he talked on this same subject. Sure enough, there it is. Well, I needed to hear it again.