church conflict

My son sent an email yesterday informing us that he has submitted his resignation at the church where he is youth pastor. For about a year now, a certain family has spread rumors and lies about him. It has been a concerted effort to force him out of his position there. Finally, he couldn't take it any more and gave his resignation letter to his senior pastor. That letter will be read to the church board next Tuesday, the 10th.

Given my history of being voted out or forced out of churches, I hardly got past the first sentence before my stomach knotted up. I spent the afternoon toggling between reviews of my experiences and praying for my son's situation--mostly the latter.

So this is what dominated my praying: I tried to listen to the Spirit's prompting. I tried to look at the situation from God's perspective. I tried to sense what God wanted to do. This thought kept coming back to me: My son specifically said that he does not feel that God has released him from the ministry at that church. That means that God wants him to stay there. Or it might mean that my son is not listening to God's release. But I'm inclined to the first version. If God wants him to stay there, then something needs to be done to keep him there. And I kept sensing that the church board has the option of not accepting the resignation. Thereby they would communicate to the troublemaking family that their rumormongering is out-of-line and unchristian.

To bow to their unchristian treatment would not bring church unity (the stated desire). Instead, it would reward church division. But to rebuke the troublemakers would cause them either to repent of their sins or to leave the church. Either of those outcomes would enhance church unity.

So last night bw and I prayed for quite a while that God would work in the hearts and minds and spirits of the church board to have the boldness to refuse the resignation and rebuke the troublemakers.

At the same time, I/we know that people sometimes (often) fail to heed God's prompting. I expect that God will prompt some on the board to refuse the resignation. But I would not be surprised if those He prompts fail to hear/heed that prompting. Perhaps they would be afraid to obey God's direction. So it may still be that--in spite of God's faithfulness to try to direct the board toward doing the right thing--they still may allow him to resign.

In that scenario, I hear a verse of Scripture coming to me: "The stone that the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone." Granted, this initially and primarily applies to Jesus Christ. But in a lesser degree, the principle involved operates in the lives of believers who remain faithful to God's leading. That suggests that if this troublemaking family succeeds in pressuring him out, succeeds in rejecting the stone, God will see to it that this stone is used significantly in another way. He may even orchestrate events so that my son comes back to this same church as their senior pastor in the future!

Well, I do not claim to know for certain what God intends to do. But I think that in yesterday's afternoon of solitude and prayer I may have gained some insight into what God wants to do as well as what might be His "plan B."

What do you think?