Most of us don’t begin a new ministry position believing we’ll only stay for a few years. We have noble intentions to plant our lives for the long haul. But then Covid hits and we get beaten up from one side or the other and sometimes both sides at the same time. Or, we get bored, our leadership gets stale, our congregation gets restless, and we get busy looking for another place of ministry.

Forced termination reminds us that the choice to stay is not always ours to make. In fact, several year...