Hello everyone,
Several months ago, our featured author was injured severely, but has survived to write again. It was in 1999 that Jane Rubietta first taught at the Haven. She’d written a book, How to Keep the Pastor You Love, so she was very interested in the respite care program Lamb’s Tale began in 2000. In fact, the words we use on the inviting postcard we send to Christian leaders, “Catch your breath.” were from her. Today she offers us this article covering current statistics and about respite care at the Haven.
FROM RESIGNATION TO RESILIENCE: A Pastoral Journey
By Jane Rubietta
His voice frayed with exhaustion, Pastor Gary said, “I turned in my resignation to my District Superintendent.”
This pastor, after God’s call many years ago, teetered on burnout’s sharp edge. Heavy stress loads in ministry and in family fractured his health, and factions in church both locally and nationally weighed on his soul.
Finally, I asked, “Do you think this is your despair speaking, or have you heard from God that it is time to shift gears to another career?”
He highlighted the stress, isolation, and loneliness, and together we prayed for healing steps. The generous vision of Lamb’s Tale the donors gifted him mid-ministry with a Haven getaway. Rocking on the porch and walking the hills restored his soul. He continued soul care through spiritual direction, and better self-care. A tee-shirt reads, “If you don’t take care of your body, where will you live?”
Paul presses churches to “honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love!” (I. Thess. 5:12-13, the Message).
Gradually Pastor Gary’s overwhelming exhaustion became transformed, through deliberate attention to silence and prayer, to listening both to God and to his own soul. He withdrew his resignation letter, and held tightly to God’s calling.
Last year, Gary joined the 10% of pastor who actually retire from ministry rather than switching careers mid-stream.Rev. Dr. Glenn Packiam writes, “We need sages to advise us, leaders to direct us or hold us accountable, peers to remind us that we aren’t alone, healers to dress our wounds and companions who carry us when we can’t carry on.”
Pastor Gary agrees. And respite at The Haven helped him shift from resignation to resilience.
Hard stuff
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4500 Protestant churches closed in 2019; 3000 started 2
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1 in 5 churches will close permanently in next 18 months 3
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42% of pastors have considered quitting full-time ministry in the past year 4
- 56% cite the “immense stress of the job”
- 43% feel lonely and isolated
- 38% name “current political divisions”
- Burnout—anxiety levels— doubled in the pandemic.
Good Stuff:
- 73% of churches are treating their pastors better. Thanks to the advent of clergy appreciation, better education on the role of the pastor, and denominational awareness to better supporting their pastors.
- 77% of pastors, especially millennials (pastors ages usually born around 1978-1990), are spending 20 or more hours with their families each week.
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90% of pastors feel they are called and in the place where God has called them. 1
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Jane Rubietta, Author and Leader |
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Happenings at the Haven River Inn
& The Haven Spruce UP
2021
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In Spruce-Up projects at the Haven this year, 15 volunteers worked 118 hours in January.
· The small bathroom in the main hallway was given a facelift with new paint, new flooring, and adding several mirrors. Much better!
· In eight bedrooms, heater/fan/light fixtures were replaced.
· We had a great crew from First United Methodist Church-Waco who tackled this challenge. And two more bathrooms were painted.
· Our younger team members replaced all the light bulbs throughout the main house and did various cleanup jobs in the yard.
· Donations of $1,107.38 covered the total cost of this work.
· Everyone enjoyed the delicious breakfasts the Haven provided and all other meals for the team were donated.
· In March three volunteers focused on landscaping. The beds around the gazebo were weeded and re-planted with succulents. Drought-tolerant and deer-resistant plants were added to the beds around the wrap-around porch. The front bed was weeded, rearranged, and received new rocks. All materials were donated.
· Also in March, the old wooden fencing around the swimming pool was replaced with black metal fencing and new gates.
· As we look ahead, we are discussing future projects with a men’s group from Georgetown.
This July at an anniversary party, many first-time guests remarked on the beauty and peace they experienced at the Haven.
Lastly, we were blessed to host a river baptism with Hill Country Church in Fredericksburg, TX.
If your church would like to enjoy our place for baptism picnics, please email us!
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It’s been a long road, but because of serious volunteerism, we are close to being “at budget.” However, we estimate that furnishings, landscape and sidewalks - will put us about $20,000 short.
This spring as we waited for the structural engineer to finalize plans for the foundation remediation on the chapel, we contacted three foundation repair companies. After providing plans to all three, we selected Hercules Foundation Repair to do the work. They began that work the first week of August.
Once the foundation is complete, the new building contractor, who has made this chapel completion his last mission as a contractor, will begin the building revisions the structural engineer and he have planned. He will be setting doors and windows, building the front entryway element with the steeple and the bell.
We have significant volunteer help available for several of the finishing details (siding, wiring, sheetrock work, sound system set up, paint, floor-laying and more), so contact us if you are so inclined. We will put you to work:)
I am praising God for the work that Claudia and husband Pastor Tim Fahrenthold are doing to move this project forward. The board of directors cannot thank them enough. And thanks again to Rev. Len Johnson for his heartfelt efforts and countless hours given for this project.
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Sorrow, Sin and Church
By Suzanne Ramsay
My church is like many vital, growing churches. Lots of young families, lots of gray hair, and occasionally a young man or woman whom I got to know as ten year olds in Children's Church, will be leading worship now. Lately, except for the gray hair, the church’s growth is no thanks to me. I haven’t been able to be in church much since Covid. Not because of Covid, but because the day that Covid hit and lockdowns started, I lost a granddaughter at birth, minutes old, from something that rarely claims a strong newborn’s life.
Sorrow, like none I’ve known before, came my way. And with lockdowns there was no church service to go to. So, I walked and walked, up and down outside our house, just asking God how I was going to survive this loss. And how would my son and daughter-in-law do so? I listened constantly to recordings of either one great sermonizer or my favorite Bible teacher. And this helped but nothing comforted me more than the Galatians passage, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20
Once lockdowns lifted and able to go back to church, people in church had lost touch with the fact that we’d had such tragedy in our family. After all, Covid brought losses galore. So, there was no easy place there for sharing my sorrow. Then came the chance to go to Grief Share. Everyone in there was similarly struggling with a loss. Here I could just be broken. Still, healing is very slow.
Then I realized that my sorrow haunted me whenever I’d think of God, so it became easier to not think of God. Going to church offered a regular threat to surface the sorrow again. So, we took a break, traveled more, healed more. But now we are making the effort to go again. And it occurs to me – what if church were not there? What if “sorrow” won?
So, today on the way to church, in telling God all this, …all this that He already knows… that when I get near Him, sorrow floods in, I “heard” Him say, “That’s as it should be.”
Today’s hymn lyrics rang out, “When I think that God, His son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in, that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin!”
Now I do see that sorrow is in very good company in church, as is sin.
The Christian life, if we let it, is the discovery that grace becomes life’s largest reality, the main motivator, and the complete companion to whatever piercing sorrow does come our way.
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Below, hear the impact of just a few recent participants of the
Leadership Care program:
“Thanks so much for providing this safe Haven to be still in and relearn that only God is God.”
“I cannot tell you how much Haven River has been to me and my wife. This is our third visit (our second as guests of Lamb’s Tale). It is a great honor to serve humanity that Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, might be lifted up and glorified. But along with the fulfillments of ministry, we have also had to face opposition, heart breaking tragedy and even personal failures. Knowing that you care for us helps me to continue to fight the “good fight.”
“Thanks as always, for helping me to find a Respite of Peace and Quiet in the midst of the chaos of ministry. These times help to breathe life into my soul and my ministry. I am forever grateful.”
When you tell a pastor about the offering, have them call 830-995-3834, or go online to apply for a no-cost stay: www.lambstale.org
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Experiences like this could not be had without your generosity and calling to give. We appreciate your prayers for and contributions to Lamb's Tale Ministries! Click the donate button below to support today.
We are a 501c3 nonprofit ministry whose donations are fully deductible as a charitable contribution.
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At the heart of Lamb's Tale Ministries is the commitment to providing an avenue for pastors to reconnect with God and live out of the heart He gave them, which is what the Leadership Care program offers.
It provides two-nights a year free during the quiet weekdays for pastoral leaders and their spouses.
This year has been one where the respite of the Leadership Care program is desperately needed. We have heard from many pastors and church leaders that the impact of Covid-19 has pushed them beyond what they previously believed was possible. They are not only bearing this experience themselves, but also alongside their congregation. However, as most of us know, it is in times of crying out and desperation, God comes alongside us in glorious ways.
We give thanks for God’s provision, and we also ask that you pray for our church leaders across the country. Caring for a flock that is hurting in new and uncharted ways, with often limited provision to care for them as before, it is indeed a unique and challenging time.
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Haven River Inn Wishlist
The Haven River Inn is blessed to have its grounds and items on the property used so often- this means it’s teeming with people! It also means lots of wear and tear. Below are a few items the Haven is in need of right now.
If you would donate any of the items listed below, please contact the Haven River Inn front desk (830-995-3834).
- Industrial washer/dryer for large capacity laundry - $5,000+ ($3,200 already donated)
- Carpet for upstairs and hallways - main house, needing approximately $8,000
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