How did Rod and Karen Morris survive in ministry when things didn’t work out as they thought God wanted?

by Geoff Robson

For Rod and Karen Morris, the last five years have been a little like abseiling.
It’s Rod’s own analogy, aimed at helping others comprehend what has been a traumatic time for them both. Abseilers, of course, may know in their mind that the ropes are secure and they can safely take the plunge. But taking that first step can be another matter. Rod and Karen have faced a similar test in their Christian lives since 1998, during which time they served as missionaries in Spain and Belgium.
Despite thorough training and meticulous preparation – not to mention a fruitful ministry in both countries – the Morrises now find themselves back in Australia, having faced a lifetime of trials in just a few short years.
“It’s been learning in my experience what I knew to be true in my theology,” says Rod. And thankfully, through the ups and downs, the ropes have held firm.
After working at St Barnabas’, Broadway and Sydney University from 1985 to 1989, Rod worked in the corporate training division at Telstra. Karen, meanwhile, was part of the ministry team at Macquarie University before joining Telstra. With similar backgrounds, the Morrises – who married in 1988 – began to look for ministry options that combined student work and training.
Investigating the options while studying at Moore College, they spoke to the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), and with the support of CMS, were offered what seemed like the ideal opportunity. They would head to Spain and work with students at the University of Granada, while maintaining a focus on equipping people in Bible study and evangelism.

When Rod and Karen touched down in Spain in 1998, they were given contact details for three people interested in studying the Bible – from a campus of some 62,000 people. After three years of toil, focusing on evangelism and Bible teaching, there were seven regular Bible study groups meeting on campus at Granada.
But as well as things had come together, Rod says it soon became apparent that they had ‘trodden on all sorts of toes’ as they worked cross-culturally.
“There are a number of areas in which Australian culture is diametrically opposed to Spanish culture, and we didn’t realise until it was too late,” he says. “One of those [areas] is innovation. In Spanish culture, innovation is not acceptable. Uniformity and conformity are expected.
“When we started doing things in Granada differently from student workers in the rest of the country, we thought it was because it was a different university and a different context. We didn’t think we were communicating anything about the [other] work.
“Unfortunately, it was perceived as us having an attitude of superiority and not accepting the way things were done. That meant that at the end of the day, even though the work was going extremely well, the Spanish national committee thought that we were actually doing more harm than good.”
While the Morrises sought to set the example in Bible teaching and evangelism, the Spanish approach saw staff workers responsible for administration, with evangelism left to the students. “It became worse when some of the students realised that the staff they worked with weren’t able to do what we were doing, because they had been employed to do a different job,” Rod says. “They didn’t have the training or the experience in Bible ministry.”
Despite overwhelming support from local students and pastors, Rod and Karen were told not to return by the national committee that oversaw their work. Invited back to Spain by local pastors, Rod and Karen agreed that returning under a different label would be too divisive.
“After three years of gut-busting effort, that was pretty hard,” Rod says. “But IFES still wanted us in Europe. They had been seeing the growth of the group in Granada and thinking, ‘this is the sort of thing we want to encourage elsewhere’.”
Recognising an inadequate focus on training in Europe, IFES developed the Bible Ministries Portfolio and invited Rod and Karen to be part of it. This meant moving to Belgium – their fourth major relocation in five years – and learning French. “We thought it was worth it, because of the importance of doing the training,” Rod said.
But as they were settling into their new role, things began to unravel again. Financial problems for IFES – caused partly by the economic crisis following September 11 – meant the Bible Ministries Portfolio was closed down.
“What had been the driving vision for the whole time just evaporated,” Rod says. “We thought about returning to Spain, but at that point, with a new baby on the way, to relocate again was more than we could deal with. We were emotionally and physically exhausted.”

Despite the obvious hurt and disappointment after the roller coaster of the last five years, Rod and Karen don’t have time to cool their heals. Baby daughter, Anneke, arrived on November 5 and joined two-year-old Isaac. And in early 2003, they will move – again – to Melbourne, where Rod will take up a position with the Institute for Contemporary Christian Leadership (ICCL) at St Hilary’s, Kew. Rod will coordinate, facilitate and provide training, and the position will also give him the option to provide training programs overseas as the need arises.
They’ve landed on their feet back in Australia. But it’s clear that Rod and Karen are struggling to come to terms with the upheaval of the last few years. The plans which consumed the last decade of their lives have now fallen through, and there are no easy answers to the many questions they confront every day. And after talking to colleagues who’ve dealt with similar traumas, they expect the grieving process to continue for months.
“To have to rethink the whole dream is really very difficult,” Karen says. “We genuinely thought that was what God wanted us to do. When everything just fell in a heap, we had to question what we think about that and how we confront that.”
Since being back in Sydney, Karen admits that she has noticed a ‘success mentality’ among many evangelicals, where difficulties in ministry are rarely discussed, and many Christians don’t know how to help friends deal with disappointment.
“In a way we are quite an anomaly, yet when we go to churches and talk about feeling like the whole thing has been a total mess-up, that relates to people very significantly.”
Karen also says that ‘pat answers’ like ‘God is in control’ are generally unhelpful. “You get to the stage of just tuning out,” she says. “It’s true God is in control and he will be working in our circumstances, but to acknowledge our hurt is so much more helpful than ‘you’ll get over it’.
“There is also the question, ‘If God is in control, what does that control look like?’ It doesn’t look like a neat plan of step-by-step progression, which is how we’d like it to be.”
For Karen, comfort has come from friends who have acknowledged the pain she and Rod have endured, as well as from sermons that deal with the difficulties of life. She has also found great encouragement in people who have shared responsibility for their decisions after partnering them in prayer. “It’s important to know that you’re not isolated,” she says. “Isolation, when things are difficult, is a killer.”
Rod says he has learnt to focus on the ‘essentials’ of ministry – teaching the Bible and talking to people about Jesus – rather than the peripherals. “If you’re going to have your name slandered, it’s only worth it if you’re doing what really counts.”
Refreshingly, the Morrises don’t even pretend to have all the answers. But despite all that they have faced, abandoning their Christian faith has never been an option. Indeed, in some ways they have deepened in their understanding of God.
To return to Rod’s analogy, they have held tight to those ropes, and the ropes have never given way under the pressure.
“I’ve learnt that God continues to love us, even when I’m angry at him,” Karen says. “With small children, they can be as angry at you as they like, and you still love them. God is big enough to cope with us being angry at the situation.”
Rod agrees the past five years have been a rich learning experience. “When things have gone wrong – I still can’t understand why Spain decided to pull the plug on a ministry that was growing and developing – I’ve actually learned to say God is sovereign in that and God is faithful.
“God’s grace means that he is much more interested in us, and us becoming more like Christ, than in us doing certain things in ministry.”