Ministry work is one of the most difficult fields to choose.

Statistics by Barna Research and others will support this many times over. One study shows that 15 % of pastors consider leaving their ministry every Monday morning; another says that 60 to 80% of those who enter ministry will not still be in ministry ten years later.

I could go on and on. . .

I remember, some years back, my mother asked me one day, why we had given our life to ministry? She commented on the hardships she had seen us endure, the minimal earnings we made at times, the spiritual warfare we faced on a day-to-day basis, and she wondered if it had all been worth it.

As I look back on mine and Jim’s forty plus years of marriage, much of which has been spent in direct ministry involvement, I sometimes find myself asking these same questions; having these same thoughts.

And then, I begin to remember the lives that have touched ours in deep and special ways. And I know that in spite of the hardships, the disappointments, the trials; there is a reward that will be ours one day in glory if we continue to run this race with perseverance.

I remember the little 78 year old lady, Agnes Coe, who prayed for many years for a pastor to come to her small, empty, church in Union, Missouri. I remember how God directed Jim and I to that pastoral opportunity, where we had three people on our first Sunday morning. I remember the miracles we saw as God grew a church from literally nothing, to a vibrant, living, organism in that community.

There is the doctor I worked for who was saved under our ministry, his entire family brought to Christ. I remember the young family who came into our lives through the daycare ministry, started to provide a safe place for the children of our working parents. How the husband was saved one morning in a service that must have been just for him. I remember the friend God gave me, and later took to be with Him, and how her children are now my friends.

Some days, I think about the campus church that God called Jim and I to serve in the cold, long, months in Minot, North Dakota. I see, in my mind, the faces of the young couples who came to our home to share and seek counsel, the homesick young people who found a place to laugh and enjoy time with our family; and I am blessed. I remember in particular one young man, St. John Williams, who touched our lives in a simple yet transforming way as he shared with our children of his culture in a far away land.

There are weeks at a time that I don’t think about or dwell on these days gone by, but then something will trigger a memory of the years spent in one of these places, such as Joplin, Missouri, and the friends we made there. Jim and I recently saw the obituary of a man we had served with, Tom Gilmore, and we grieved for a friendship lost over the years, while knowing without a doubt that we will see him again one day.

And, I think often of the years we spent in Georgia. We went there in the late 80’s to serve on the staff of a church that was growing by leaps and bounds under the direction of Dr. Paul Walker. God saw fit to allow us to lead several ministries in our ten years there. The people who touched our lives in tangible and intangible ways will always have a piece of our heart.

These were not always easy years, we had struggles that we likely would not have had if we had stayed in a small church in a rural setting. We sacrificed much time with our children, and each other, to fulfill the needs of our positions. Some of that I would do differently if I could have a “do over.” Which of course I can’t! But we learn from our mistakes and hopefully become better because of them.

We also spent three years working with a church plant in the North Georgia region. It was there that we saw many come to a saving knowledge of Christ. It was also there that we realized once again that there is a time to lead, and a time to let go.

Someone once asked Jim, after we had resigned our positions at Mount Paran, why we had “left the ministry.” I remember smiling as he replied that we had not left the ministry, we were simply furthering the gospel in our work with pastors through the Institute for Organizational Leadership, the not-for-profit organization we’d founded some years before.

It has been through this ministry work that we have served and mentored pastors, and business leaders, have worked with teams of people, and have seen entire organizations turned around to fulfill ministry in their own communities.

One thing that I will never regret are the wonderful people we have known through all of these years of ministry opportunity.

As I think today about Bud and June Runion, who have gone on to be with the Lord this week, I am reminded of the impact they made not only on our lives as we served them so many years ago, but on the lives of hundreds of others they have touched. I am humbled and in awe of the respect and love they have been shown in the last few days. Truly, theirs was a life lived for the full glory of God.

Yes, I would do it all again. . . and I know that God is not done with Jim and me yet. We plan to continue serving Him in whatever way He leads until our time here on earth is finished.  To God be the Glory.