Hope in a Culture of Cynicism
Final Part of the Lenten Series: The Season We'd Rather Skip
I’ve told this story before, but it matters here so I’m going to tell it again. In the summer of 2022, I stepped away from pastoral ministry completely. I had spent a decade leading a non-denominational evangelical church and I was done. Not just tired. Done. Done. The kind of done where you’re not sure you’ll ever go back.
I wasn’t angry exactly, I was something worse. I had become cynical. I had seen too much. Too much politics disguised as theology. Too many power plays wrapped in prayer language. Too many leaders who cared more about the brand than the people. And somewhere in the middle of all that I had lost the thing that had called me into ministry in the first place. I couldn’t feel it anymore. The fire or the pull or whatever you want to call it. It was just gone, and I didn’t know if it was coming back.
We were living in Texas at the time and my wife, and I spent two years trying to find a church that felt like home. We visited dozens…