I was talking to Caleb, a local minister with a similar background to mine. We talked about ministry, marriage, and our lives. He told me how he was spending most of his free time remodeling the bathroom in their house. We exchanged stories of plumbing nightmares, extended budgets, and unhappy spouses. 

Then he paused and said something like this: “I love it, though. It is good to see a project start and then finish. It is the opposite of ministry.”

I knew exactly what he meant. One of the strains of doing ministry is that you never see a finished product with people. No one shows up a mess, comes to Jesus, develops as a complete disciple, and the person is finished.

Transforming people takes years of teaching, preaching, and discipling. It happens over time through pain, joy, and everything in between. It involves making mistakes, continually struggling with sin, and living in the light of grace. Some people will quit, others will move away, and some will become your biggest advocates.

Ministry for God, both paid and unpaid, is a nonstop job that only ends at the grave. There are many days when I do not know if I am doing any good. The results can be impossible to see. Were my efforts a waste of time, or will something amazing happen? Even when I know the seed gets planted, it will take years for the tree to produce fruit, and I might never see it happen.

Working for Jesus can be frustrating for results-oriented people like me. Faith is not only about believing in God; it is also about trusting that he will take my efforts and use them to bring his work to completion.

I was completely loaded with gear and had over a mile to walk with all the weight. I was pushing myself as I took one small step at a time. When I was about to give up, I stopped to rest and looked back to where I had started this journey. I was more than halfway. I had come a lot farther than I imagined. At that moment, I was encouraged by my progress, and it gave me the strength to keep pushing forward.

Biblically, there are instructions never to look back. Lot’s wife looked back, and she was turned into a pillar of salt. Jesus told his followers that anyone who puts his hand on the plow and looks back is not worthy of his kingdom. Those are examples of looking back with longing. A desire to return to the place we had left. That is not my encouragement today.

I am telling you to look back so that you can gain strength for the journey ahead. Sometimes, it is good to look back, not with a desire to return, but rather to see how far you have come. Take a moment to pause and remember what your life was like when you first came to Jesus. Think through all the changes you have made and how your life looks different today.

Some days, as a Christian, you can be weighed down by the road that lies ahead and forget how far you have come since you started. Occasionally, it is good to recall the path God has led you down and the person you are today.

Keep pressing on; you have come so far. Don’t give up.

Twenty-five years ago, I heard Church consultant Lyle Schaller talk about visiting Churches in an attempt to help them face the future. He said the very first thing I tell everyone is, “All of you are going to move, quit, or die. We cannot count on any of you to be here in the future.”

Although statistics vary based on the location of the Church, the average rate of attrition is around 20% for the local community of believers in the US. That means every year, a Church of 100 people loses around 20 people who are attending today. Reasons for this also vary, but Lyle’s categories are still valid: people move, quit the group, or go to meet Jesus.

Since this is true, for a Church to maintain its current size and ministry, it needs to be adding 20% growth of new people each year. Obviously, some of those people will be moving into your area as others move out. There is also a group who will quit one Church and then join another. So, some of the new people will simply come from a reshuffling of the deck. The rest must come from new converts, or the Church will begin to shrink.

For a Church of 100 people to grow each year, it will need to add at least 25 new people for minimal growth. As the numbers increase, the amount of people coming and going gets staggering.

When I heard Lyle say this, I thought to myself, “Not my Church. Everyone will love what I am going to build, and they will never want to leave.” Sadly, I was wrong. I could not control job changes, retirement, and death. I also had no control over people losing their faith and those choosing to join another Church because they had something more appealing. Slowly, I had to accept the fact that he was correct.

Whenever I hear someone say they are not interested in their Church growing or they wish their Church would stay the same because they love it so much, I know they are dreaming like I used to do. Churches are continually changing, and those who refuse to share their faith with nonbelievers are slowly dying because attrition rates are a real thing.