Beaver Island Michigan

By now, the knowledge that I have resigned as the pastor of the Beaver Island Christian Church has gotten around. There seems to be a lot of speculation about why I did so. Some thought I did not like the island and some thought I missed my family. I assure you that none of those factors played a part in my decision.

A few other clarification of facts, for I know that the island is quite active in passing on stories, and those stories tend to grow in time. One is that I did not base my book on the church. I started writing my book about 6 months before coming to the island. I recently finished it, and it should be published December 1st. It is called, "The Christian's Guide To Getting Rid Of Your Minister." javascript:emoticon(':D')

I also did not start the open basketball at the school gym.

Any other clarifications of facts, just ask. I will be happy to clear up any story you have.

The following is my last sermon, and in it is my letter of resignation. The text is Jeremiah 18:1-11

Have thine own way, Lord
Have thine own way.
Thou art the potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me, after thy will
while I am waiting, yielded and still.

God shapes all things. In the beginning, God shaped the world and God shaped us. God shaped us in the womb. God shapes people, churches, communities, countries. How easy it is to shape such simplistic elements of our world when God shaped the world itself?
It is not this long term shaping in which rocks and mountains are worn down by drops of water over thousands and thousands of years. Instead, God shapes with Godâ??s hands in real time. God is doing shaping today.

The shaping is one of creating vessels that are useful to God.
The vessel is made from an imaginary, but definite center. When the clay, in its forming will not yield to that center, then the clay is spoiled.
Jeremiah, in his own search for what God is saying in the difficulties of the Israelite people, goes for a walk. He is looking for an object lesson, and God does not disappoint.

Jeremiah sees the potter working at the clay. Jeremiah has probably seen this potter several times, toiling at the clay and wheel, but this time, he sees the object lesson in it. He sees the clay become spoiled in the potterâ??s hand. It does not matter what the imperfection was. The clay simply resisted the potterâ??s touch to become what the potter envisioned.

And so comes the classic analogy of God as potter and the people of Israel as clay. Jeremiah is certain that the people of Israel has insisted on going their own way, moving off the center of whose they are. Unwilling to live from the center, they put themselves in the center and live according to their own desire.

Isaiah 45:9-12 continues this analogy when Isaiah says, â??Will the pot contend with the potter, or the earthenware with the hand that shapes it? Will the clay ask the potter what he is making? or his handiwork say to him, â??You have no skillâ??? Will the babe say to his father, â??What are you begetting?â??, or to his mother, â??What are you bringing to birth?â?? Would you dare question me concerning my children, or instruct me in my handiwork? I alone made the earth and created man upon it.â?￾

Jeremiah saw this unfaithfulness to Yahweh as the peopleâ??s undoing. Jeremiah gives the people a choice. He does not leave them without a choice. They can either be shaped, that is, they can turn back to faithfulness and obedience. Or they can be undone, perhaps thrown away and replaced with a people who are willing to be shaped by God. They can either turn back from evil and regain that center, or they can continue in the kind of relationships they have and the self-destruction will play itself out.

Jeremiah must have preached this sermon many times because he repeats the response from the religious, political, and cultural leaders. Their response is, essentially, we are in charge. â??We will continue to walk according to our own plans and follow our own hearts."

God is forgotten and worship is given to other gods. Out of all of this, Jeremiah speaks the prophecy. â??I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face in the day of their calamity." Eugene Peterson puts it this way: On their day of doom, theyâ??ll stare at my back as I walk away, catching not so much as a glimpse of my face.â?￾

The sermon that Jeremiah preaches is not nice, nor is it easy to hear. He is telling the nation and its religious leaders that they are wrong, that they have lost their center, and that they are following other gods-that what they are doing is evil in the sight of God. Still, the people did not listen. They made the wrong choice, and it was not too long after this preaching event that the Babylonians captured the weak King Zedekiah as he fled the city, and Judah disappeared as an independent nation. Jeremiahâ??s terrible prophecy was fulfilled.

To parallel this prophecy for us is not easy. All we know is what God will do; And we are faced with the choices of what we will do. God shapes us. God is shaping and will shape us regardless of what we do.
God will have Godâ??s own way. God will not have us any other way. Any other way, and we will be useless. God will not give up. God will not give up till we are shaped into something useful for Godâ??s purposes.
But we may not like the shaping experience. We can go our own way, choose what we want, follow our own gods of our own making, enjoy our own power and control, seek the comfortable-and we can do all of this while believing that we are following the Holy Spirit. We are and have been that good at our own self-deception. But what we are really doing is following our own desires, our own path. God is not the center.
Jeremiah was right when he characterized it as evil. What else would it be if one is against God?

But we can choose to go back. Back to faithfulness, back to worship, back to loving, loving the way God expects Godâ??s people to love; back to putting God where God is supposed to be. We are a Christian Church and a Christian people. God is supposed to be at the center of it all and in the center of us, and we are supposed to live from that center. For being shaped around that center, we are useful to God, for Godâ??s purpose, and to the glory of God.

When Jeremiah gave his sermon to the Israelites, you could have guessed that they were not happy. They were adamant and said, â??It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.â?￾ In essence, they were saying that if it is evil, then we will follow evil. They made the wrong choice.
And they turned on Jeremiah. As it is written in the 18th verse, Then they said, â??Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.â?￾ And then they persecuted him.

When a pastor is no longer listened to, the Word of God no longer heeded, and the church refuses to learn from its pastor, then it is time for the pastor to leave.

Please accept this letter as a personal word to each of you from myself and my family. Effective November 5th, I will be resigning as pastor of Beaver Island Christian Church with pastoral duties ending at that time.
This announcement comes with great sorrow in my heart. God calls us to journey to move on to where God would have us to go, and we are to be faithful to that call. As I prepare to leave and you ready yourselves to welcome a new pastor, let us all pray that we will be sensitive to Godâ??s presence and even more responsive to Godâ??s guidance.
Regretfully, please understand that due to pastoral ethics our family will not come to Beaver Island for worship for a period of no less than one year. I will not participate in any pastoral functions, visitations, or perform weddings and funerals.
Beaver Island has truly has been a home for me. You have nurtured me with your friendship and love. You have helped me grow and mature in many ways. There will be time for personal farewells later. Let these words be enough for now. Grace and peace.

As I sit in my chair at home and write this message to all of you, I want to thank you all for a wonderful year. Being with you on Beaver Island will be an experience I will never forget. God's blessings be with you all.

Rev. Ed Campbell

ouch! what did you christians do/say to this man!

meanwhile don't forget the holiday bazaar this sunday Nov 14th at the fellowship hall 11-2.30.

Also it's Lawrence McDonough's 96th birthday that day.Send good thoughts his way or a card or a call .

Also ( I'm apparently talking and I can't stop)...gorgeous weather out there folks !get those bulbs in the ground !wrap up that boat !go for a drive.! Get that vitamin D ( from the sun )! Remind someone important to you that they ARE important to you!
(puppy )pam

This church has done nothing to me. I have not been hurt by them or even wounded. Our parting has actually been uneventful.

It is difficult to know what part of the clay had a hand in the spoiling. I will leave that knowledge to those who are more intimately knowledgable then I.

No pastor worth a grain of sand takes satisfaction in such a message. My hope is that the church will grow through their experience with me. A person once shared with me that I could leave any time and the church would continue on without the slightest evidence of my coming. As your response illustrates, life on Beaver Island goes on. I can only hope that my ministry to them and to those on the island will help them grow in some way. Like Jeremiah, I often wonder.

Here is what I wrote about what did go well and what I had hoped would happen, but didn't:


What went well? The whole work of God is one of preparing ground and planting seed in preparation for God to do the reaping Growing takes time, and often happens without any notice of anything in particular happening. And so evaluating what went well in ministry is a difficult, if not an impossible task. We labor, but God works. Who knows the works of God? Growth happens through manâ??s discomfort much more than through manâ??s comfort. And so if you are asking what went well as a way of asking what the church enjoyed and found comfort in, I would say that I stepped aside and allowed the church to remain comfortable in doing what it wants to and likes to do. I have allowed the leadership to remain comfortable. However, as in a garden, God does not let a church remain comfortable. As I have gotten to know the community and as much of the church membership as I have been allowed, made small changes in worship, faithfully preached the Word of God, and been the unique person I am, God interjected a foreign substance in the life of the church. God must be doing something right if the power structure of the church is so scared, evil is showing its head and being exposed, and people are showing dysfunctional behavior and beliefs. And so in the midst of comfort, which everyone enjoys, there is discomfort. The Word of God is being preached. I donâ??t know what God is doing in this church and in its people, but it is all going well.

What did not go well? As I stated above, â??All is going well.â?￾ What you might mean is, â??What had I hoped would happen, but didnâ??t?â?￾ I was hoping you would come to love my wife and family. Before I came here, my wife received multiple emails of support and encouragement. When I came here, all correspondence ceased. Virginia has not been contacted by anyone in this church since. When my family came for Christmas, only one couple invited us to their home to get to know her and my kids. My children still talk about going to their house and how much fun they had. When my family came for 3 weeks during the late spring and early summer, only one person invited Virginia and I to their home, and no one else made any effort to get to know my wife. She told me that she just has to accept that she took a year off from being a pastorâ??s wife. My wife is the love of my life, and the best part of me. She loves my calling and supports me completely. We came here as a pair. And, despite the distance, she is the pastorâ??s wife.

Another hope I had was that we would become partners in our ministry together. But I have not felt a partnership here. Pastors are given part in the leadership role, consulted, asked for advice, included in decisions, and are given place in the overall ministry of the church. Pastors are not left on their own to discover church or community events. It has taken a year to learn the schedule, and I have a handle on much of it now. But I had hoped the church would take a more active role in helping me become a part of their life and the life of the community.

Pastors are given their role by the congregation A partnership is caring for members together. I encourage church members to visit and care for one another, but on some level, the pastor needs to be allowed to be the pastor and allowed to be involved in caring for people who would like pastoral care. Never has someone told me about someone in need that I have not made some kind of response. The pastor cannot read minds to know who wants or needs him, and the pastor relies on members to communicate the hurts and needs of the membership and community. Partnership requires communication-which has become a resounding theme this year.

Partnership means trust, and this church has huge trust issues left over from previous experiences. I was hoping we could learn to trust each other this year, but that has not happened.

I was hoping we would bond together. I have bonded with a lot of members and non-members on the island, and I have opened up opportunities for people to want to know me. However, much of the leadership and I have not bonded, and I am not quite sure why. As I ask people who I trust and who know the island and church personality, they say that such lack of bonding is normal-that it has to do with power, family cliques, politics, and the way relationships work on the island. Such happens on some level in the church too. It is a significant issue for me because I know that without bonding, the only thing left is performance. I have seen pastors who are terrible preachers. But because they are beloved by their church, such deficiency does not matter. I am sure I have more than one deficiency.

May peace be with you on your continued quest.
Godspeed, Zachary

We like your sermon style, Ed. Very sunny. May God Bless you and your family.

I am sorry that I did not get the opportunity to spend more time with you and your family. Since I am not a member of this church, I have no information other than what you have provided here. It's unfortunate that you were not able to wait out the period of time for people to get to know you and your family. Part of me wonders why you gave up so soon. Another part of me knows the desire for acceptance that you apparently did not feel.

Ed, I hope that we may meet again, sit down and have a cup of coffee or tea, and get to know one another. I know that I would enjoy that.

Joe Moore

Thank you Father.

As a step away from the prophetic, I want to say that Beaver Island Christian Church is a wonderful church. Consider that they have over 7 different Reformed Traditions in its membership, and everyone decided to live together. Consider that it is so ecumenical that it has a close relationship with the Catholic Church and Episcopal Church and works with them in ministry. it is quite amazing.

Rheinhold Niebuhr said that the reason why we have denominations is that people cannot stand to live with each other. BICC is the epitome of what the church should be-unity amidst diversity. They choose to love one another (albeit in imperfect and in sometimes self-destructive ways) regardless of differences. And to me, that is quite amazing. Struggling is expected. Conflict is part of the package. But everyone knows that such struggling will happen. The journey of being shaped and unified together as the Body of Christ is worth it all. For those that leave or have left, they do not understand the whole goal-to manifest Christ in the midst of the world. For, as a famous theologian said, "when the Body of Christ is divided, Christ, Himself is divided." The church can live within such an illusion, but good pastors reveal the illusion and the futility, and challenges the church to shed it all and see itself as united in Spirit despite our best efforts of denial.

That is what makes the BICC magic and very mystical. It is one of the reasons why I have been adamant about it not becoming like other churches, and becoming a business like other churches have become. To me, it is very unique and special-more than what I think they realize. I am afraid I will never serve a church as promising as BICC. It is, in some ways, a role model (at least to me) and a small glimmer of what the church can be. May God bless it in its process of being shaped.

I would just like to say that I will miss you and our talks. You have helped me through difficult times, by listening, and had good advise which has helped me grow. I will also miss the joking and laughter. Peace to you and your family. God Bless you and yours

May it comfort you to know that you never walk alone on your journey. Keep the faith as I know you will do.

Godspeed, Zachary

I always find that reality comforting, yet terrifying. Terrifying, precisely because of the comfort of God's presence. The Spirit of God is with me as I go. And touching the Holy is not a comfortable experience. God will not forsake me. God is relentless. I cannot escape. I am faced with the unknown. I have no control. Sometimes, God convicts me. I think such a reality is the reason why people do not go to confession, and would rather stay home than go to worship.

Yet, regardless of how I might live in denial, the reality of God's presence gnaws at my soul.

Yet, I am comforted. Comforted because I am reminded that I am being shaped. I am traveling down a road to a place I know not where. I am being prepared. There is comfort in the knowing that God is a part of it all. And it gives me a sense of anticipation. I wonder what God is going to do next.

What can the church do to help the pastor?

-Your pastor is not your enemy.
-Donâ??t blame the pastor for all the bad things that go on in the church.
-Let the pastor help you.
-Donâ??t make the pastor the scapegoat.
-Respect the pastorâ??s role-even if you donâ??t like the minister, understandd, or agree. We may not like each other, but we are called to love each other.

Putting the blame on someone else as a way of not dealing with your own problems is called â??deflecting.â?￾ Certainly, pastors carry a tremendous amount of responsibility, as they should, but as various people remind me, the problems were in churches long before the pastor came, and a very good chance the problems will continue long after the pastor leaves. The pastor is not going to be the one to fix them (the problems), As one person shared with me, â??They donâ??t come (to church) because of the pastor. They donâ??t come because of how they are treated by people in the church, and how they see people in the church treat each other.â?￾ By the way, I would like to know how blackmailing works in the eyes of God. Can you blackmail God to get what you want? Is it supposed to be done in the church? Against the Pastor?

-The church can help the pastor by keeping a healthy perspective about the church. Having two to three people working with the pastor to look at the church as a whole, with its history, personalities, complexities, and issues, would be a healthy start. They can create policies and procedures to foster healthy relationships.

The pulpit is sacred space that belongs to the pastor. The pastor is given that through ordination. Donâ??t blame the pastor because what is proclaimed there is not what you want to hear or how you want to hear it. The pastor is not a vending machine where you put in your money and you get a sermon with a prize to take home with you. That's a "Happy Meal." Thatâ??s religious commercialism. Once the congregation believes that they can dictate what is preached from the pulpit, the integrity of the pulpit and the pastor are compromised. Thus, the church can help by supporting and protecting the integrity of the pastoral role and the sacristy of the pulpit.

-Be honest with the pastor. Do not endorse the practice of third party complaints, insinuations, and secrecy. Third party complaints do nothing to help the pastor or the church. Insinuations are nothing more than lying through unsupported destructive gossip. And confidentiality or secrecy between church or community members does nothing more than help people hide and stay in the dark. Such practices are not honest. Such deception is the heart of evil. Nothing good will come out of such practices. Such practices destroy relationships within the church, and often the pastor is the first casualty.

I am reminded of the saying: I am me. You are you. I am not in this world to live up to your expectations, and you are not in this world to live up to mine. If we meet, then it is beautiful. IF not, it cannot be helped.

If I can think of more things that will help a pastor, then I will post it. Right now, I am working on my second book, "The Church and Minister's Guide To Living Together."

Blessings,
Rev. Ed

Hello everyone! Missing the island already. Hope everyone is having a good Thanksgiving. I know, the dinner is tomorrow night. Enjoy!

Blessings,
Ed

And the same to you and yours. May we all find in our hearts the things we are most thankful for this holiday and throughout the year.
Peace be with you and everyone, Zachary

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Ed! I'm heading over to the church to carve the first couple of turkeys that are done. I'll also be turning on the potatoes if their all ready to go on the stove. I hope I know how to light the pilot light of the oven.

We wish you well!

The turkey carver,
Joe