What do you all think?

You paraphrased it quite well. That exactly the understanding that I got.

 

I remember our pastor telling us of something similar happening to him in his 3rd year of ministry at our church. He laughs and says that his ministry was just like Jesus' - first year was obscurity, second year was popularity and third year was crucifixion! There were a number of people pushing for him to be ousted and called for a special congregational meeting (of course, after telling all sorts of things to everyone to make the pastor look bad) - and Pastor had to announce it from the pulpit the week before! At first, he was just going to quit but finally he decided that he wasn't going to make it easy for them. He showed up at the meeting, got up first and told people that God had called him to this church, that he didn't give up unless God told him to and that they would have to vote to fire him because he wasn't quitting. After HOURS and HOURS (around 2AM, I think), he finally got up and said "Enough already. If you don't like me, vote me out but I'm NOT going to sit and listen to this any longer." Someone made a motion to vote, someone seconded it and so the vote went. The 15 people who were against the pastor and drilling for him to go voted him out - but the other 100+ people voted to keep him. The 15 left the church and never came back. Pastor has been at our church for 35 years since that vote and has had an amazing ministry. Just because a vocal few want them out, doesn't mean that the pastor has to sheepishly leave or that the rest of the congregation feels the same way. I'm glad pastor stood up to those few and has stayed the course. We have a history of keeping pastors for way longer than the norm unless we send them out in ministry, like we have a few. Otherwise, of the 9 pastors here, the senior pastor has been here 38 years, senior associate pastor 23 years, senior youth pastor 17 years, ministry pastor 12 years, business pastor 14 years, children's pastor 13 years, youth pastor 8 years (but was volunteering many years before that), then my DH who's an associate has been on staff for 5 years and the pastor of recovery ministries has been on for 4 years. I feel so blessed in our church!!

I feel badly for that church - there's something majorly wrong because the way they handled it isn't Biblical at all and if that's how they do business......
Ann