Pastors planting trees…

I love trees.  I always enjoy watching the joy that finds its way onto the face of people as they look at a huge tree on their property and reflect upon the day that they planting it as a seedling.  I would love to have such a memory.

But at least historically, pastors don’t plant trees.  We don’t plant trees because we know the likelihood of us being in the same place long enough to tell the story of the tree’s growth is not good.  God will call and we will have to go.  And so pastors don’t plant trees.

Everything was arranged so that the Pastor could go as quickly as God called. Pastors lived in parsonages so there was no selling of the house to consider and no buying of one either.  Congregations provided for a Pastor and his family needs in very similar ways regardless of their location.  Not many lived long enough into retirement (if they even knew of such a thing) to have to plan ahead for their golden years.

But it seems to me that Pastor are starting to plant trees.  When the call from God comes, a whole host of considerations flow into their ears.  They own houses which must be sold.  They must find an appropriate house in the new location.  One congregation well provides for their families needs while another would cause the pastor to have to look elsewhere for sources of income.  Many pastor’s wives has jobs where they earn more than their husbands.  So when a call comes, their job is the primary consideration and not the call of God upon them.  Children are so involved in school with various activities and pursuits that leaving is much harder than when school was mostly about basic learning which occurred during the day.  Pastors each have their own retirement plans and they must remain in a church on that plan to not suffer a setback.  Only pastors who asked to be moved elsewhere even receive regular calls, and then only those who have followed all of the rules for doing so.

There are so many reasons to just stay now.  And there seems to be only one reason that would cause one to endure all the trouble of leaving, displeasure with the current call.  And yet I was always told, never leave because of something, rather go because of something.  There are so many reasons to stay.  And only one to go.
Maybe I am being a bit naive, but it sure seems like there used to be one reason to stay.  And in that light, there was one reason to go.  And that was in both cases the conviction that such an action was God’s call.

But now we plant trees and make our decisions based on so many things that often result in staying in tolerable situations and leaving bad ones.

I wish pastors would stop planting trees.  I hope I don’t ever plant any.  God knows it is hard to remain in a place without putting in too many roots.  But it may be essential to hearing the call of God and responding.