{"id":4558,"date":"2019-02-28T09:58:51","date_gmt":"2019-02-28T15:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nafwb.org\/?p=4558"},"modified":"2019-02-28T09:58:51","modified_gmt":"2019-02-28T15:58:51","slug":"i-quit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/i-quit\/","title":{"rendered":"I Quit!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Riggs<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cQuitters never win, winners never quit.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s a motto worthy of our best effort.\u00a0 But guess what?\u00a0 I quit!\u00a0 That\u2019s right, you heard me, I give up.\u00a0 I throw in the towel.\u00a0 The fat lady has sung.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had enough.\u00a0 After 23 years in ministry\u201415 of them as pastor\u2014I quit!<\/p>\n

Quit Trying<\/strong><\/p>\n

I quit trying to do a great work for God.\u00a0 Ministry is too demanding, too draining.\u00a0 The harder I try the more I feel like a failure.\u00a0 I answered the call to preach because I wanted to do something great for the kingdom.\u00a0 But you know what?\u00a0 I quit.<\/p>\n

Kingdom building is not about me doing something great for God; it\u2019s about God doing something great in me.\u00a0 As long as I am trying to do something great for Him, I am standing in the way of Him doing something great in me.\u00a0 So I quit.<\/p>\n

Quit \u2018Cute\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have also decided to quit trying to be \u201ccute\u201d in ministry.\u00a0 One book tells me I need to be \u201cseeker sensitive\u201d and my sermons need to be collections of biblically-based, self-help mumbo-jumbo.\u00a0 Another tells me in order for my worship service to be effective I need to have drama and comedy and famous people and videos and give-a-ways and lights and camera and action.\u00a0 In order to be culturally relevant, I am told, I must also be media savvy.<\/p>\n

But you know what?\u00a0 I quit.\u00a0 The gospel message is simple enough for a child to understand.\u00a0 Jesus loves me, He died for my sins, He rose from the dead, and one day soon He is returning.\u00a0 Straight-forward stuff.\u00a0 No bells and whistles.\u00a0 Not very pretty.\u00a0 Pretty foolish, if you ask me.\u00a0 But this simple message is the power of God.\u00a0 So I quit.<\/p>\n

Quit Pretending<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have figured out that I will never figure everything out, so I have decided to quit trying to figure it all out.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know everything and I don\u2019t want to know everything.\u00a0 Besides, ministry is not about \u201cfiguring,\u201d it\u2019s about faith.\u00a0 It\u2019s walking boldly into the unknown in spite of my fear.\u00a0 It\u2019s about acting in spite of my doubts.\u00a0 It\u2019s about obedience in spite of my confusion.\u00a0 So I quit.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, I have decided to quit trying to change people\u2019s hearts and quit worrying about my inability to do so.\u00a0 It\u2019s not my job to change people.\u00a0 My job is to let the Heart Surgeon transplant His heart into mine, and then tell others He can do the same for them.\u00a0 Ministry is not about me.\u00a0 Ministry is about God.\u00a0 So I quit.<\/p>\n

I have decided to quit trying to do ministry on my own, in my own strength, under my own power.\u00a0 To use an old clich\u00e9, I have decided to let go and let God.\u00a0 I quit so God\u2019s work can continue.<\/p>\n

Someone else, a fellow quitter, said, \u201cHe must increase, but I must decrease\u201d (John 3:30).\u00a0 Jesus said, \u201cSo the last shall be first, and the first last\u201d (Matthew 20:16).\u00a0 In Jesus Christ, quitters always win and winners always quit.\u00a0 So I quit!<\/p>\n

ABOUT THE WRITER:<\/strong>Dr. Kevin Riggs is a pastor in Franklin, TN. Article adapted from Contact <\/em>Magazine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Kevin Riggs \u201cQuitters never win, winners never quit.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s a motto worthy of our best effort.\u00a0 But guess what?\u00a0 I quit!\u00a0 That\u2019s right, you heard me, I give up.\u00a0 I throw in the towel.\u00a0 The fat lady has sung.\u00a0 I\u2019ve had enough.\u00a0 After 23 years in ministry\u201415 of them as pastor\u2014I quit! Quit Trying I quit trying to do a great work for God.\u00a0 Ministry is too demanding, too draining.\u00a0 The harder I try the more I feel like a failure.\u00a0 I answered the call to preach because I wanted to do something great for the kingdom.\u00a0 But you know what?\u00a0 I quit. Kingdom building is not about me doing something great for God; it\u2019s about God doing something great in me.\u00a0 As long as I am trying to do something great for Him, I am standing in the way of Him doing something great in me.\u00a0 So I quit. Quit \u2018Cute\u2019 I have also decided to quit trying to be \u201ccute\u201d in ministry.\u00a0 One book tells me I need to be \u201cseeker sensitive\u201d and my sermons need to be collections of biblically-based, self-help mumbo-jumbo.\u00a0 Another tells me in order for my worship service to be effective I need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4559,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4558\/revisions\/4559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nafwb.org\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}