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Leadership
I am a Nazarene Pastor and I love my church. I am a product of the love of my family, SS teachers and local pastors. I have been educated by our schools, coached by our professors and mentored by people I admire and respect. I love my church but our lack of fruitfulness in the US and Canada is breaking my heart.
It was Sunday afternoon and the football game was on television. I tried to dismiss the pain in my chest but it kept getting worse. I called the nurse whose mission was to care for her pastor’s health, and she told me to get to the ER immediately. I was ushered right in and given a nitro pill. It is a day that my wife never wants to re-live.
Gone are the days when we would get an anonymous note under the door of our office. If people want to complain about us now, they go straight to social media. We have all felt the sting of untruth and half-truth along with accusation and unfounded rebuke. We know what it is like to end the day feeling like we have been thrown under the bus. What do we do when we have been run over and how do we respond?
We live in a day where pastoral comparisons are rampant. It used to be that you were only compared to the pastors in your town. Now you are compared to everyone on the continent. It is a reality that can quickly lead to discouragement. What can pastors do to stay encouraged when the comparisons inevitably arrive?
We live during an intriguing time in history. There are endless self-proclaimed experts on both sides of every opinion. There are even endless experts on both sides of every fact. Add to this reality that we all have access to make endless declarations for the world to hear and see. I don’t know about you but my life is getting noisy.
