Hibernating Ministers

I want you to join me in prayer, and this I speak with the authority of a few friends we have been agonizing over this issue over the years until we feel that the time has come for something to be done. I have also been carrying this burden for a long time.

Let us examine a few scenarios.

You were called to ministry. Even the local church and its leadership were clear on that. They even asked you to join a Bible school and could even have sponsored it. It was clear from the beginning that you were being trained to take a pastoral role.

You worked so hard and even excelled. It was only after graduation that you realized that ‘your’ position was offered to someone who was better connected, someone who was always last in class in almost everything. Sadly, you were never even informed of the new development.

Or you got involved in ministry and God really prospered you even as a volunteer.

Then the church realized the need for paid staff and you were the automatic choice. But they had someone they want to eat that salary as he is closer to the powers that be. They just can’t just shove you aside.

They therefore decide to cook a scandal so that your ‘sin’ automatically disqualifies you though they know it is a lie.

Maybe you learnt instruments early and dedicated that skill to God and His ministry.

You therefore gave the church not only the skill but even your instruments and equipment. The choir or singing group revolved around your offering for many years.

Then the church grows enough through that effort to require more instruments and equipment. They buy them and of course trash yours.

But it goes farther. They employ or hire a band and someone to operate the equipment without even caring to know whether you can offer any input. Yet you have faithfully offered free equipment, skill and instruments. Incidentally even the people they hire are those you trained.

Probably you were called as a pastor or pastoral assistant but your call went beyond the narrow confines of your boss. You therefore go to minister to a hospital and of course pray for miracles. ‘Sadly’, your prayers are answered.

But the owners of the hospitals are wealthy supporters of the church who do not take that lying down. You have to be sacked or they take their offerings to another church.

Maybe you got a little bored waiting for that rare funeral that was your job description and decided to reach out to a police station near the church and were able to lead many of them to Christ.

But in the church are enough ‘tax collectors and sinners’ who are pillars of the same. They can’t afford to raise their hands in worship with policemen because they might be able to notice the stanch of their spiritual armpits. The pastor is therefore ‘persuaded’ in no certain terms to let you go.

You may have reached out to street families and destitute who ‘defile’ the church and lower its status with their coming and you must take that folly elsewhere before the church becomes a dumping site of society.

You could have been a faithful member and ran away when the pastor wanted you to be his sex toy. Then he scandalized you to stop you from exposing him yet that was not anything you considered.

There are as many scenarios as there are hibernating ministers.

One common thing is that they are all nursing deep spiritual wounds. Some of those wounds have stayed for so long that the owners have forgotten that they have them.

The only common trait is the dread of the church, any local church or a fellowship that has more than five people. They have been bitten so badly that the sight of anything faintly resembling what bit them is treated with dread. And that is why they are hibernating.

But do they need to continue hibernating? I am convinced it does not need to be so. Why?

God never stops using anyone He has called and gifted. Romans 11: 29 is clear on that.

How then can we get them out of hibernation?

That is what I want you to support me in praying for. I believe they could be the answer to a question I asked in a post sometimes ago, ‘Are We Ready?’

Let us pray

Then say what we feel God is saying.