In the last 7 years since leaving the pastorate, my preaching-teaching assignment has changed. I now carry a word from the Lord for a season and preach its core message wherever I speak. The same is true for my writing. The messages are now more a mixture of prophetic and apostolic content than a pastoral message. 

My primary gifting is not pastoral. Spending all those years as a pastor caused me to ask the Lord why He had me serving in a ministry that was not my primary gifting. He said it was to train me how to create environments where truth could be accepted and grow in the context of healthy spiritual and emotional soil.

A pastor is a spiritual environmentalist. They are called to create healthy spiritual environments where the content they offer can take root and flourish. Unless that environment is in place and being tilled regularly by the Spirit, what we bring to the field of our endeavor will not take root and generate a harvest that will be sustained for coming generations.

Some of you do not feel gifted for your current assignment. You might be asking, Why am I here?” Instead of allowing restlessness and uncertainty to prematurely move you on and short circuit the lesson the Lord is teaching you, remain long enough for Him to reveal the reason why He wants you to remain in your current assignment. At the point of that realization, He may have you stay or move on, but that decision is His, not yours to make.

You are currently being trained for purposes you do not yet realize and may not have considered. When the Lord finally brings clarification and explains His reasoning for what seems like a mismatched assignment, it will all begin to make sense and give your future messages a deeper and more compassionate content.  Nothing is ever wasted in God’s Kingdom, even the years when your assignment seemed mismatched to your calling.