MY LAST DAY, GOD'S NEXT MOVE

Today is my last day at work as assistant principal of Stanhope Elmore High School.   I’m not going to another school to be principal.  I’ve not accepted a position at the central office.  I’m not returning to the classroom.  I’m taking leave to serve my church full-time.  

Why?

Because God told me to.

Yeah, that’s what I said.

For a long time now, I’ve heard the Lord calling me into His full-time service.  I thought I’d heard Him wrong ---- actually, no.  I didn’t think I was hearing God wrong.  I hoped I was hearing God wrong, but the message has been persistent and consistent.   

It’s been as clear to my spirit as the still, small voice that told Elijah to come out of the wilderness and go raise up a network of men who would accomplish God’s will (1 Kings 19: 11-18).    This calling is as clear to my mind as the voice of Jesus bidding Peter to come out of the boat and to join him in an impossible walk --- on the water, in the middle of a windstorm (Matthew 14: 25-33).   I know that this crazy move is what God wants me to do as clearly as I know what I’m to preach when I stand up in the pulpit. 

A year ago, I discussed all of this with my wife, my boss, and my bishop.  I fasted and I prayed, and God told me to wait.   But now it’s time to come out of my little cave.  It’s time for me to step out of the boat, onto the not-solid-looking-at-all waves and do what God’s told me to do. 

I’ll be developing FaithWorks, our state incorporated non-profit into a federal 501( c)(3) agency.  I’ll be expanding the jail outreach & in-reach ministry, and developing programs and networks that address some of the many problems facing our communities and schools.

There are problems in the Montgomery area that I’m supposed to be part of solving.  There are tools that can save our public school students and parents from the seemingly unstoppable spiral of apathy, ignorance, immorality, and failure.  I’m called to dust those tools off and offer them to the people whose labor is frustrated without them.  There are men and women cycling in and out of city and county jails who will either becoming legal, productive citizens, or will become more-hardened, more destructive, more violent offenders---- depending on if and how well we can meet them where they are and walk with them out of the darkness. 

Somebody asked me yesterday if I was worried.

Duh.   Of course I’m worried. 

For the last 17 years, I’ve worked in public education.  Each month I’ve known exactly (down to the penny) what my next check would be and when that check would arrive.  I’ve done my job very well and built an excellent professional resume and reputation.  But today, I am a husband and father with a mortgage and other bills who is voluntarily stepping away from a tenured position as a school administrator in a very good school district to commit my time and skills to an organization that doesn’t pay ½ what I make now.

Elijah was worried about Ahab, and Jezebel, and going it all alone.  Peter was worried once he got out on the waves and felt the wind hitting him full force.  But, from the prophets to the apostles to the preachers, those of us who’ve been called to proclaim God’s word have told everybody else to trust God. 

I’m smart enough to be worried.  But, I’m wise enough to trust God. 

Preachers like me talk about having faith even when you can’t see the full solution.  We go on-and-on about following God even when God doesn’t make sense.  I happen to be one of those preachers who has to walk what he’s talked. 

God connected Elijah with 2 new kings, a prophetic protégé, and 7,000 brothers he didn’t know where on the same side.  There is a lot of work to be done.  I’m excited about getting it done.  And, I’m excited about all the people and resources that God will bring out to make a difference in this community and to meet the needs of my family. 

Maybe God’s calling you to be in on this new thing.  (Nah, that doesn’t mean you leave your job.  That’s my particular path.) But, you do have gifts and time and resources that we can connect to make a difference.  Email me, and we’ll put it all to work together. 

Luke 9:62 But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” 

----- Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email me at atgravestwo2@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Send all contributions and regular mail to:

541 Seibles Rd.,

Montgomery, AL 36116