Leaving a church is hard. Like really hard.
Leaving a church you Pastor, and love is beyond hard; it is an emotional and physical divorce from people with whom you have been in a covenant relationship for years. People you have walked through struggles with together, people you have cried with together, people you have seen God do miracles with together.
Leaving a church you love is really hard.
Yet, as Pastors, God sometimes calls us to a new place to serve Him.
So how do you leave a church you love?
1. Go Slowly & Seek The Lord
As a Pastor, there are ebbs and flows in ministry, and in difficult times, there is always a temptation to leave a church for perceived greener pastures, when in reality the greener grass might be due to a septic tank leaking.
See, you know the difficulties at your present location, but you may not know the difficulties at another location.
So it is wise to go slowly when leaving a church, and not run at the first sign of distress.
But maybe there are other factors, maybe the location is not a good fit for your family, maybe you have an aging family member you need to be closer to, or maybe God has caused a disconnect in your spirit from the place God currently has you to prepare you for the place He has for you next. So go slowly in these moments, and seek the Lord. Pray that God’s Holy Spirit would guard you from error and keep you pure in your motives.
2. Confirm Your Calling With Others
In our lives, other Pastors who know us well can often see things that we can’t see in ourselves.
So when you begin wrestling with leaving a church you love, you need to confirm this calling with other Pastors, over a period of time.
To wrestle with the questions of:
- “Am I fleeing difficult days for perceived better days?”
- “Am I running away from difficulty instead of shepherding God’s people through it?”
- “Am I tired and just need a break?”
- “Is God truly calling me away from here and to another place”
- “Is God truly done with my ministry in this place?”
Often, if we wrestle with these questions alone, we can lie to ourselves, but if we wrestle with these questions with other Pastors, they can give us honest answers and wisdom we need to move forward.
3. Leave Quickly
When I felt called away from my previous church, I made this grand plan of taking it slow to leave to better help the church. But thankfully, God put in my path the wisdom of wiser Pastors who had done this before, and they encouraged me in this way, “the only way the church can get on the other side of pain and on to healing is for you to get out of the way”.
So when you know God is 100% for sure leading you away, leave quickly.
In my instance, I told my church I was leaving before I went in view of a call, which is risky, but I didn’t want to lie to a people I loved. Then I went and preached in view of a call at my new church, and the next Sunday was my last Sunday at my previous church. It was incredibly quick, but when you love a people, and you’re the source of their pain, then leaving quickly allows the people you love to get to the other side of healing quicker.
4. Rest In The Fact That They Have A Great Shepherd
I recently left a church I loved, and while I know that God is the Great Shepherd, and that God sustains His Church, if I’m being honest, it is difficult many days to rest in that. Why?
Because I saw the hurt, I saw the pain, I saw the struggles, I got the texts that broke my heart, and I wanted to be there to comfort, hug, and walk with my friends through the difficult days. But I left. And I covenanted to a new people.
So while I struggled with resting in God sustaining His Church…I had to trust that God does it.
I had to trust in the fact that God loves His Bride, far greater than I do, and so I had to find rest in that.
When you leave a church you love, rest in the fact, that it wasn’t you who held the church together, it wasn’t you who was leading that church, but you were simply pointing them to the One Who sustains, leads, and loves His Church far greater than you ever you did or could.
I recently left a church I love, and I pray I never will again.
How Do You Leave A Church You Love?
Don’t.
But if God calls you away, and you must.
Then Go Slowly and Seek the Lord, Confirm Your Calling With Others, Leave Quickly, and Rest In The Fact That They Have a Great Shepherd.
