The keynote address for this biannual event focused on ministry in difficult times
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05/17/10
Over 100 pastors and others gathered on the Pasadena campus
on Thursday, May 13, for the biannual President’s Pastors’ Lunch, sponsored by
the Office of Alumni/ae and Church Relations. The event, hosted by Hugh De
Pree Professor of Leadership Development Scott Cormode and Associate
Vice President of Alumni/ae Mary Given, coincided with the end of a two-day
conference for recent MDiv graduates.
Featured
speaker Carolyn Gordon, associate professor of communication, gave a talk
entitled "Noah Got Drunk, Jonah Sat Down, and Peter Went
Fishing: When Ministry is Hard." In an engaging style that alternated
between humorous interjections and profound wisdom, Gordon encouraged the
pastors with truths drawn from the successes and failures of Biblical leaders
and prophets.
Gordon cited a study from Focus on the Family that produced
some disturbing results, reporting that 1,500 pastors leave the ministry every
month in the United States, and 80 percent of seminary graduates leave the
ministry within their first five years. Further, 70 percent of the pastors
surveyed suffered from depression, 80 percent reported feeling discouraged in
their roles, and 90 percent said that ministry was completely different than
they thought it would be. In light of such sobering statistics, Gordon said,
“My job here today is to simply be your cheerleader,” reminding her listeners
of the Hebrews 12:22 passage that speaks of thousands of angels cheering on the
saints.
Recounting the story of Noah, Gordon pointed out that he got
drunk after he had radically obeyed God’s will by prophesying the flood to
others and building the ark. The account of Noah’s sin was not as much about
failure as it was about Noah “suffering from his success” or experiencing
“achievement regret.” It is imperative for those in ministry to plan to survive
their success as well as their failure, Gordon pointed out. “You must
understand that there is life after success.”
Next, she focused on the stories of the prophets Jonah and
Elijah, observing the way that their own “stuff” got in the way of their
relationship with God. “They don’t teach in seminary how to survive being angry
with God,” remarked Gordon. “You need to learn to survive your own stuff.”
The apostle Peter is the leader Gordon chose to represent
the way that our fears and failures can hinder our ministry. While we all make
mistakes and bad decisions, we must learn to survive ourselves, remembering how
Paul wrote that we have our treasure in jars of clay. “Clay breaks,” said
Gordon, “But the redemptive promise is that God puts us back together.”
“God is not finished with you,” she said. “So don’t give up
on yourself and don’t give up on God.” The redemptive power of Jesus’s work on
the cross cannot be overemphasized when learning these survival skills, and
Gordon noted that the question is, what will we choose to do with our
redemption? “Get drunk, but get over it; sit down, but get back up; go fishing,
but recast your nets,” she said. “The one who knows you best loves you the
most, and we are cheering you on.”