Why Move?
We are a fast moving generation. Bridgers or millenials (those born between 1977-1994) are really the first generation to grow up with the ability to fly anywhere in the world in about 24 hours. But now we don't even need to do this - we can text, skype, facebook or DM our friends on all corners of the world in a millisecond. Literally as fast as our fingers can type (for some of us pick and point).
It's interesting, this speed transitions into our jobs as well. The US Department of Labor recorded that millenials will have 10-13 jobs before we even turn 40.
What vexes me more is Pastors and Ministers who are constantly on the move. Too rapidly to really set their roots down deep into a community, to build that needed "trust" that Stephen Covey writes about. I can quote statistics about the average stay of US Pastors being just a few years, but I also see it over and over again - Pastors moving every few years to a new city and church or ministry assignment, just to leave again before they ever really got started.
Maybe it's just me, but I feel a holy call from the Lord to slowly, faithfully build our ministry over a lifetime. I want to do the same outreach ministry, eventually with some of our best friends, for decades and decades. Also, I want to volunteer, tithe to and serve my local church here in the Twin Cities for the rest of our lives. Why move to the next BIG thing when we have spent so much time building here. I want to look at the same skyline of Minneapolis, as cold as it is here, as home for life. Because my ancestors moved here and this is where my family and friends reside, I will base from here.
I saw this in the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Billy worked alongside a half dozen close friends in ministry for over 60 years. Many of my co-workers this past year had worked for the Association for decades. What an incredible way to do ministry! It shows the great leadership of that core team - their encouraging, trusting, faithful leadership style. I also saw this in my grandfather in law, who served as the lead Pastor at our home church for over forty years, watching God grow it from a few families in the basement of a home to one of the largest Assembly of God churches in the country.
God hasn't called us to be lone rangers, always on the move, without a real spiritual community. In fact, right after telling his disciples the harvest was plentiful, but the workers were few ... he sent them out 2-by-2! Wouldn't it have been smarter to send them out to 72 cities, instead of 36? Jesus emphasized the importance of spiritual community.
Do we think it's more godly to lack, to be away from family and friends, to be constantly on the move? Consider Jesus, he spent his entire life and ministry within a few mile radius of the world. Hard to comprehend, the Son of God, with so much to give the world, focused on the most important ministry to come to earth, with friends and even some family members, to his hometown and his own people.
Of course, our heart should be to follow the Lord's leading wherever He leads, but may we learn to go to those places and put our roots down deep.
