Our work is to minister to ministers, clergy spouses, widows and orphans, to empower, equip, encourage and
educate.
Lydia Ministries International is a 501 (3)(c)
non-profit organization. 100% of your gift goes to the work of the ministry. We do not take a salary from the ministry.
Ministering to the Maasai Tribe in Kenya 2008
The Mission of Lydia Ministries International
The
mission of Lydia Ministries International is to encourage, empower and equip pastors and their families as they serve God.
Susan Ferrell has a heart for churches, pastors and their
families. Susan has served in the ministry for over 20 years. Her late husband, Rev. Gary Ferrell, served as an ordained minister
in the United Methodist Church for over thirty-five years. Out of Susan's love for the church and it's ministry, and
out of the seeds of experiences that she and Gary were privleged to have known, Susan now consults with churches establishing
an intentional ministry within the church to nurture, care for and minister to their pastoral leadership, to take care of
our pastors and their families. To restore pastors who have become broken and to offer means of healing the pastor and church
relationship. It is our mission to minister to ministers and their families.
Pastors Leaving the Ministry!
Studies Report:
Over 1600 ministers leave the ministry each MONTH.
90% of the participants surveyed knew of a pastor who had been forced out. These are pastors who are leaving the ministry,
some never return to any form of ministry.
35% of the pastors had followed a pastor who had been forced out. These are pastors are broken and hurting, many will
never return to the ministry.
23% of the particpants had been forced out themselves. These ministers now are working from wounded healers experience.
10% of participants in one survey followed pastors who had abandoned their ministries altogether! This is our loss! The
church can not afford to lose ministers. We need every minister that God sends to us.
According to one survey, the average stay was 18 months or less for pastors. From experience, and research backs this
up, it takes the third year of ministry that a pastor is in a church before he/she can really began to impact your church.
Look at the great loss the church is suffering because we aren't taking care of our pastors. We must support our pastors!
Pastors often suffer from isolation due to a lack of close friends. They also suffer from low self-esteem, strained and
broken family relationships, financial failings, and
spiritual fatigue and burnout. This in an "organization" whose commandments include the following:
"The man who is being taught the Christian message should share all the good things he has with his teacher."Gal.
6:6
"It was he (Jesus) who "gave gifts to mankind" he appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets,
others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers." Eph. 4:11-12
1 Timothy 5:17-18, "Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in
the word and doctrine. Scripture says, 'You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,' and 'The laborer is worthy
of his wages."
Let's stop the "Exodus" of ministers from leaving the ministry! Let's minister to the pastors, caring for them
and their families.
Susan speaks with the authenticity that comes from experiencing the life of ministry. Her story will have you laughing
and weeping, rejoicing and reflecting. Susan proclaims the Biblical mandates for caring for your pastor(s) and she gives you
practical ways in which to follow those mandates.
How Did Lydia Ministries Get It's Name?
So Who is Lydia?
The first person recorded
in the Bible to become a Christian in Europe!
Paul and Timothy were travelling in Greece, in Macedonia and sought
out a place of prayer and worship. They went down to the riverside and Lydia accepted Christ. She then led her entire household
to Christ.
She was a Woman of Influence!
Lydia was a professional woman. She was a merchant of fabric,
but not just any fabric, instead she sold "purple" fabric that was usually reserved for royalty.
Lydia
was a woman of Travel and Experience!
Lydia was from Thyatira, which was in what is modern day Turkey. However,
when she encountered Paul and Timothy, she was in Greece.
Lydia was a woman of service!
When Lydia
accepted Christ and led her family to Christ, she then opened her home to Paul and Timothy, fed and cared for them.
This is why we chose Lydia as our ministry's namesake. She was a woman of influence who loved Christ, loved her family
and those within her household, and she loved her "ministers", enough to open her heart and her home to them. Lydia
knew that it was a great honor to minister to the ministers, to support the leadership, the workers of God.
Lydia
Ministry International is looking for women (and men) of influence within churches who love Christ, love their families, and
love their pastors (and pastors' families).
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