In the last month, Josh and I decided to make a major life change for our family. Josh decided to resign from his position as children's minister at our church. I would have to describe it as a God thing, how it all happened. God just opened doors for conversations to happen and one thing led to another. The decision was entirely ours, but the plans really were God's. Through conversation and prayer, we considered a number of factors:
The biggest factor is that Josh has a full-time job and has done this "on the side," which basically means that he's worked 7 days a week for almost 8 years now. He comes home from a long day at the office and works on church e-mails, planning events, teaching Wednesday nights, or attending meetings most nights. On Saturdays, he always does his lessons. On Sundays, he teaches. It amazes me that he's done this much work for this long (and I can't remember ever hearing him complain about it).
Another factor in our decision was that since I started the early childhood ministry, I have been pulled from helping Josh out a lot in his classroom. We have been very separate on Sunday mornings and spread a little thin some days.
A third major factor is that we hardly get to attend church and despite being of staff, often feel "out of the loop" because we're rarely with the congregation. And we really miss corporate worship.
This is all not to mention that our family and the ministry have both grown since we begun, and we were at the point of feeling like we couldn't do anything additional. We had no more time to give to the ministry, and we know that difficulty would only increase as we (hopefully) add to our family. Sunday mornings are long for our kids; Wednesday nights are late for our kids. It was never an option for one of us to stay home with the kids if they were sick or tired. It can be difficult for us to both be "in charge" at major events and to have our little ones to watch over as well.
In the end, we wanted to do what was best for the church and for our family. This seemed to be the answer right now. And all the pieces aligned at the same time, so we decided that it was God's timing.
I am keeping my position as the early childhood minister. My workload should actually decrease a little as well because I helped Josh a lot with event planning, and we are no longer in charge of the events. The only thing that should increase is my attendance at meetings since Josh usually represented both of us.
Josh told the church kids on Sunday, and several of them were emotional, which made it hard. We really do love the kids, and even though we're not moving away and can still help as much as we want, things will be different. I am thankful that God brought this opportunity into our lives. It has been a huge part of our marriage almost since day one. I keep having feelings of doubt over whether we did the right thing, but when I read back over the above list, I am reminded why, and I actually partially can't believe we lasted as long as we did. Also, the ministry is in good hands now, and that gives us peace!
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