The First Time I Almost Left Praying Pelican Missions
This blog entry is part of a series that I put together at the same time, chronicling my 10+ year experience with Praying Pelican Missions. The series highlights my departure from PPM in November of 2016 and my transition to working with Capstone Homes, a residential home builder based in Ramsey, MN. Below are the blog entries associated with this entire story:
I considered leaving PPM about three years ago. I had an excellent opportunity to go into church ministry in the northwest metro. It was a bizarre situation and God has a sense of humor. I interviewed over the phone and then twice in person with the search committee. The people were fantastic, the church was healthy, and the position was about as idealistic as possible. They narrowed the search down to myself and one other candidate. I'll never forget answering this question at least 2-3 times with the search committee: "If we offer you the position, will you take it?" Such a simple question, right? Haha, not so much, and it's not nice to lie when you're a candidate for a pastoral position... I could not answer as confidently and honestly as I wanted, and i'm pretty sure they could tell. In the end, they offered the position to the other candidate and called me out on my hesitancy.
The irony is this... The pastor they did hire was someone I had talked to numerous times in the past. When he was at another church in Illinois I had attempted to recruit him to bring his youth group on a PPM trip. And then, about a year later, the church and one of the members of the search committee registered for a mission trip with PPM... So I guess I could kind of consider that whole fiasco a series of meetings and interviews to recruit a team, right?
It was just after this time period in my time with PPM that Rob Graham took on more leadership within our organization and became my supervisor. His leadership would go on to reshape the way I thought about PPM's ministry and my personal commitment to excellence in my work. I stayed with the organization for another couple years and eventually departed in November of 2016, when Rob also moved on.
- My First Years With Praying Pelican Missions
- The First Time I almost Left Praying Pelican Missions
- Leaving PPM, Losing Avery & Joining Capstone: A Call To Trust God (this one's really long)
- A Tribute To And Reflection On My Time With PPM (Photo Album)
I considered leaving PPM about three years ago. I had an excellent opportunity to go into church ministry in the northwest metro. It was a bizarre situation and God has a sense of humor. I interviewed over the phone and then twice in person with the search committee. The people were fantastic, the church was healthy, and the position was about as idealistic as possible. They narrowed the search down to myself and one other candidate. I'll never forget answering this question at least 2-3 times with the search committee: "If we offer you the position, will you take it?" Such a simple question, right? Haha, not so much, and it's not nice to lie when you're a candidate for a pastoral position... I could not answer as confidently and honestly as I wanted, and i'm pretty sure they could tell. In the end, they offered the position to the other candidate and called me out on my hesitancy.
The irony is this... The pastor they did hire was someone I had talked to numerous times in the past. When he was at another church in Illinois I had attempted to recruit him to bring his youth group on a PPM trip. And then, about a year later, the church and one of the members of the search committee registered for a mission trip with PPM... So I guess I could kind of consider that whole fiasco a series of meetings and interviews to recruit a team, right?
It was just after this time period in my time with PPM that Rob Graham took on more leadership within our organization and became my supervisor. His leadership would go on to reshape the way I thought about PPM's ministry and my personal commitment to excellence in my work. I stayed with the organization for another couple years and eventually departed in November of 2016, when Rob also moved on.
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