Watching My Brook Dry Up
by Jim O'Dillon
The start of the Y2k year was good by any measuring stick for me. I'd just completed my 16th year of service as an associate pastor at my church. I was feeling fulfilled, grateful to God, and humble while I watched our church grow from 220 in worship in 1984 to nearly 600 by 2000. The senior pastor who had helped guide our growth for 15 of those years left in 1998. Following his departure we weathered a 15-month interim period with little difficulty.
I helped lead the welcome for our new senior pastor on 30 January 2000. The church completely furnished a 4 bedroom, 3-bath house with everything from toothpicks to a riding mower. In addition, our church had given the new senior pastor more than $35,000 in cash.
On 16 May 2000, after being at our church for 3 1/2 months, the senior pastor invited me to his office and totally surprised me by saying, "You've been here too long. You're dead spiritually. The people love you too much. There's no way that you can implement the changes that I want to make so I want you to find a new church!" On 5 June 2000 the senior pastor enlisted three of the most powerful deacons in our church and gave me an ultimatum to be out of my office by 9 June 2000 or lose the two months of severance pay that he was prepared to offer.
His four sentences turned my life upside down. Anger, humiliation, fear, more anger, frustration, doubt, and even more anger filled my life! I took a construction job digging ditches at 40% of my former salary. My wife increased her teaching load at the local community college by 100%. When our church members found out that these few people had secured my resignation, literally hundreds of them came to our emotional and financial support. If church members had not tripled the severance pay that I'd been originally offered, I don't know what I would have done. I was watching my brook dry up (I Kings, 17:7)!
God, however, wasn't surprised by any of this. While every story does not have a wonderful ending, mine did. My healing began on 25 October and still continues. Attending the MTM retreat with my wife at Carson-Newman in January of 2001 accelerated the healing process. Ten months after I was given that resignation ultimatum, l was called to a new church with a wonderful staff and loving people. The acceptance and appreciation of my current church has been overwhelming and good for my family and me. I learned that when the brook dries up, God provides a new direction.
I'm still dealing with the aftermath of that ultimatum. It's been 13 months. There's still tension in my family. I don't trust all church members like I used to. The pain of severing relationship with hundreds of people in my former church is awful. Our personal finances are still shaky. My daughters and wife are looking for new close friends.
Our future, however, is as bright as can be. We've learned to trust God in the darkest of times and found that He's faithful. A few of the leaders in my former church took my job but I discovered they couldn't take my ministry.