Letter of Resignation

Hello Friends,
Well I can finally share some big news because it was made public today at church. I was asked to resign from my position a couple weeks ago because I wasn't meeting some basic expectations of the youth leaders. And yeah I have made a lot of mistakes and have learned a lot. This request still came as a surprise to me because there were a lot of things going well. But the decision was made and so I spent a lot of time with God that week of Thanksgiving trying to understand and debating whether I should leave and why. And God gave me some understanding these past couple of weeks. So I want to share also with you all my journey of what god has been teaching me. I got to read this to the church this morning, which I was very thankful for. So this is my letter to the church and condensed version of what I have learned and what God was teaching me. I am really excited about what God is teaching me and will continue to teach me and what might be next. I titled this letter "STOP... Wait on Me..." Lessons from a Busy guy:

Dear Hamilton Reformed Church Family,

I can truly call many of you family in many ways and I thank you for that. This has been a really hard letter to write and is even harder to share. This fall I have learned some pretty hard lessons. God has been teaching me that I have been spreading myself too thin … This was true in college and still today, and God is saying
“STOP… wait on me…”

I haven’t really made an effort in my life to make this a habit yet. I always fill my life with more places to serve and more people to get to know and more and more.

I reflect on my college days where I was involved in so many different clubs and jobs and people that I didn’t make time to really have consistent time to Stop… and wait on God … and let God give me His vision or revelation. With these different areas I served there was some things that went extremely well, and some things that went good, and some things that went ok, and some things that just went, and some things that failed. And I felt really great because I just concentrated my thoughts on what was going great and I was ok with some things failing because there were a lot of things going extremely well. We can’t do everything well, and we can’t make everyone happy. And for the most part most people were pleased with what I had done, or what God was doing through me

Even though I got a flesh start coming to Hamilton, where God truly led me, things really didn’t change from the way I lived in college. They didn’t need to I thought. It was great the first year for some things and I still had great hopes and dreams for many of the other areas. I was getting involved with more and more as the year went on and going into the second year had my hands in leadership in so many areas. There were some things that went extremely well, and some things that went good, and some things that went ok, and some things that just went, and some things that failed. And I felt really great because I just concentrated my thoughts on what was going great and was ok with some things failing because there were a lot of things going extremely well. We can’t do everything well, and we can’t make everyone happy. This time, however, the things that were failing were the main things on my job description, they were central to what I was getting paid for, and the people I was failing and not making happy were the ones central to who decided if I stayed working here. So while I was feeling great about how most things were going and didn’t worry about the things that I was continuing to fail in because again there was so much going extremely well, those exact areas that I didn’t worry about came to bring about the end to it all. To my surprise it was all going to be done.
“But so much is going well, I don’t understand” I was shocked, confused, lost, just not understanding. …
“STOP…. Wait on me…”

“OK God I will do that, I will give you four days to help me understand, these days I will stop… wait on you… I will listen, read, journal, pray, fast, be quiet, I will wait…”

“OK God I am still confused.”
“Wait… You need to learn something here.”
“Yeah I am learning a lot really, I am. I have even made a list of what I have learned from this. I have learned so much and I know what to work on. So let me get back to my tasks with these things that I have learned helping me. We can still hold all of this together. You can do this God, but He didn’t. …
God said “Stop… Wait on me… Abide in me… (John 15)”

OK what else God… “This lifestyle of you trying to follow me and serve yourself into a relationship with me is not working and right now this job is too much for you to include plenty of time resting in me. So Stop…. Wait on me… Abide in me… You have learned a lot through all of this and now I will make it easier for you to rest in me first, and then I will give you My vision and revelation and direction. Do you love me more than you your ministry?”
“This job has been my whole life LORD. It has been Everything! This has been Your vision, Your calling You gave me. This is everything LORD.”
“Do you love Me more than your ministry even though I led you here? Then stop… wait on me… Abide in Me… Rest in me… (Matthew 11)“

You see Abraham was also giving a vision and promise from God in Genesis that through his son Isaac “You will be the father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful… I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you”
But then God told Abraham to Sacrifice Isaac his firstborn, and only son. I can image Abraham thinking “but this is my son, this is my dreams, and my visions, He is everything! you promised...”
“Do you love ME more than you love your son, more than you love your dreams?”

So what is next for me? maybe the next thing for me needs to be something that doesn’t spread me too thin. Or maybe I need to learn to only do the few tasks and do them well leaving the rest of my time open for God; for Space, for Silence, so that I can just BE and walk with God.

Someone recently shared with me that everyone wants to be Noah in the sense we want God to use us to save the world. We all want to be able to build our ark to save the world. We want God to give us this great vision, with blueprints and all, about how God is going to use us in Big ways. But we forget that God didn’t give Noah this revelation until he was 500 yrs old and then it didn’t make any different until he was 600. We don’t like to wait, we like to get busy and try to make a difference. We love the story of how God gave Noah this Big dreams. But we forget what Noah had to do to get to this point. Noah walked with God. It doesn’t share anything specific it just says that Noah obeyed God and walked with Him.
So God says “STOP… Wait on me…”

AGAIN, it’s Not time for me to find more God honoring things to do where I can serve him and feel good about myself because I am busy for the LORD. Being busy is not a God honoring thing. I need to be still, be quiet, just BE with God not trying to find my worth and my purpose in what I am doing.
What have I learned? A lot and continue to learn more as I continue to examine and listen to God. With all I have learned still God doesn’t seem to have me stay here. This church and this family is not where I will be living out what I have learned.

So what is next for me? Stopping… Waiting on God… Abiding in God… Resting in God… Being Still… (Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10) God is in control and will be glorified even when we are still.

So this is what I hope to do, I am planning on continuing to work here until the end of December. And then I will probably be going somewhere on a silent retreat to really process more of my experiences here and listening for God’s direction from there. I plan. To Stop… and Wait on God…
Where will I be? In the center of God’s will. God is in control.

So Again I thank you all for the opportunity to serve you here and for letting me be part of this family here. I thank you for letting me be a part of your lives and trusting me with your kids. And Thanks be to God for this time we have had together where He has taught us so many things.

May God continue to teach us all as we stop… and wait on Him. May God continue to bless us so we can bless others
With Peace and Love in Christ,

Mike Elders


Servant of Jesus Christ.