Endurance and Obedience Through Trials
- Rachel Hoppe
- Sep 22, 2024
- 3 min read
I have to get something off of my chest. The past several months have been a challenge, heck the past FIVE YEARS have been a challenge for our entire family. While I will (and can) take the good with the bad there comes a time when I began to realize just how much we sacrificed for others and just the blatant lack of gratitude and Christian compassion. We lost time and energy for our marriage, our children, and our family. I can count on one hand, in the past five years of Vance's ministry, how many times we've been asked about the state of our own marriage and family. Instead of being viewed as family members of the church, we were viewed and treated as employees. Instead of others taking responsibility for their own involvement, we were accused of lack of communication and our own hard work was even taken from us. It became pretty obvious where we stood when standards were placed on us but not other leaders within the church. This experience has left us picking up the pieces in our home, in our marriage, and in our life. Nothing that we have been through has displayed Christ's love, compassion, humility , or unity within the former gathering. To put it in perspective, this week the world has watched as Steve Lawson, one of the most influential speakers in the reformed Christian world, confessed to infidelity. Now, while our marriage didn't reach this point, it goes to show how vulnerable a pastor and his family is to stress, lack of time, and simply the negligence of the congregation. Congregations are to view the pastor as a member of Christ's church in need of fellowship, encouragement, and the type of love bestowed from one Christian to another. Churches, as a Pastors wife, love your pastors and their families well. Don't take advantage of them, their time, or their gifting because the biblical ones spend a LOT of time fighting off the wolves, warning you to do the same, teaching, ministering, navigating difficult situations, and filling in all the gaps left by those that say, "We're too busy" or " Well, if you would have told us we would have been here". Neglect, is the word that comes to mind. God will not bless that.
I said all that to say that Vance is continuing to preach. We are continuing to gather amongst fellow believers who have encouraged us as we begin to heal from this experience (and we will be forever grateful for those who have loved us, given us encouragement, and sought to build us up as fellow brothers and sisters). We do realize that God has to shake things up to get us to move where He wants to use us and we're completely obedient to that. In just a short time we have seen His hand work in miraculous ways and He has sent complete strangers to encourage us to continue to move forward. If you're interested in tuning in, Vance does upload his sermons to spotify.
You can find it here:
You can also use a Bible study document that I created as a starting point for taking notes!
I hope these resources are helpful to you, encouraging you to dig deeper in Scripture, to learn and to grow in faithfulness, maturity, and in the knowledge of God. We will continue to be the light that God has called us to be, in His obedience. Pray for us.
"What then can we say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect?"
Romans 8:31
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