Recently, my colleagues and I was having a conversation concerning perception vs. reality and how the decisions we make in our personal lives has a tremendous impact on membership, church growth, our reputation and our future. There were a few scenarios that were discussed. One was if a preacher whose wife dies and he wants to remarry. What impact will that have on the church. Who will be upset? Who will leave the congregation? Who thinks they should have had a say so in the choosing?
Another scenario we discussed is if a Pastor gets a divorce. How soon does he have to wait to begin his life again. What impact will it have on the church if he remarried? Can he remarry someone who belongs to his congregation or does he have to go outside the congregation. How old does she have to be? Can she be younger?
The third scenario was if a preacher speaks transparently to the membership speaking about struggles with sin or issues that the membership many times will automatically assume he is having sex issues or drug issues. These issues may be the furthest thing from his mind, but yet he can't run the risk of opening that "Pandora box." Sometimes the preacher is so guarded because if he is transparent he would be seen as unholy or defiled, when he really is just being human.
The point that I'm making is that in no other field does the CEO or President have to be held to the same accountability than the preacher. We run the risk of loosing membership, stability of the church, personal income, our reputations and more. The calling of being a preacher/pastor is one of so much responsibility, unlike no other.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment