"Quit Your [Church] Job" Week!

Crazy talk: you don't have to work at church forever. And you're not in a gang, you can leave. But don't be a pansy quitter either and leave when stuff gets hard. Let's talk about all of it.

“If you have something else to build, call me back.”

This is what I told my bosses when I graduated my last church job. I was hired as a builder of the church. And I did that well for a decade - built leaders, built teams, build programs, build pastors, built campuses, built systems, built ministries. All very successful and sustainable.

But the church reached the point where they were no longer innovating or building. They were incrementally improving, tweaking, and even tinkering. They were modifying what was already in place, moving staff around through an arbitrary staff shuffle every June, changing definitions of success, refocusing attention, and even casting off convictions. All fine things perhaps but none of that fit my calling or why I was even hired to begin with.

And instead of “staying planted” and growing bitter or worse, growing apathetic and irrelevant, I knew I could graduate, level up, and be available if they needed me.

We stayed at the church another year, faithfully tithing and giving, serving the staff we had built and hired, and advocating for the church. But we knew there was something else ahead even though we didn’t have specifics.

I’ve quit jobs in life. Been fired. Resigned. And graduated. All different things. Not all bad things actually. But for this week I want to talk about leveling up by graduating or resigning. And doing this before you lose your edge and eventually get fired anyway.

Let me clarify a few basic things most overlook when transitioning out of a church staff role: