Earlier this week I shared some of my feelings and thoughts about the trauma of having to tell several friends that we no longer had a job for them. Others on our staff have also blogged about it, including Mark Waltz and Kem Meyer. Then last night, Mark Beeson spoke up. Here is a portion of what he wrote...

...Yesterday I did one of the most difficult things I’ve ever done. I eliminated the jobs of several friends. I cried. I hated every minute of it. None of the people losing their jobs was failing. Some have been on staff with me for years. None lost the privilege of serving on staff because of poor performance. They were all doing good work. They are family.

Even so, I signed off on the most thoroughly processed decision my leadership team has ever made. My lead pastors are positive this was the right decision. We’ve done everything possible to avoid it. We know it was necessary. It was difficult but it was right.

I’ve heard it suggested (from others and from the voice of temptation in my head) that we should reduce outreach efforts, stop launching new ministries, reign in multi-site evangelism work and stifle innovation. Some of those tempters have proposed we stop helping other churches and focus on ourselves.  These voices call for an inversion of orthodoxy; they recommend we turn our concerns top-side-down, making it our highest priority to keep every paid person on staff, even if it means we have to abandon our mission. Not a single person of GCC’s staff would ever want that!

I encourage you to read his entire post here.