Permit me a moment to vent my frustration. I've served in the capacity of a Senior Pastor for almost 6 years now (though I'll be officially celebrating my 5 year anniversary in 2 weeks). There has been something that has caused me great frustration as well as confusion. For the most part, it comes from those who profess to be ministers of the gospel, who seem to promote everything that could potentially, one day, affect their own ministy. Now, I can already hear someone saying - Pastor, it is your responsibility to love them inspite of; and it is your responsibility to train and teach them a better way. I honestly believe I do both.
Admittedly, while one character trait stands out to me more than the others, let me highlight the others:
- Ministers who won't tithe or don't believe in giving. (In my view, this is an oxymorom - a minister who wants to be a pastor who refuses to tithe!)
- Ministers who gossip with the laity.
- Ministers who don't come to Bible study or Sunday School but are frustrated with not preaching enough on Sundays.
And, the one I fail to understand the most:
Ministers who glory and celebrate the fall of other Pastors.
A Pastor or Minister who glories in the fall of another Pastor should examine his Pastoral heart. Our stance for righteousness should never come at the expense of love and compassion for our fallen fellow-soldiers.
Though I make no claims to be the authority of any Pastor who would visit this blog. It is just my humble belief that, if we preach and proclaim Christ, we can uplift one another without condoning what another person does. Mind you, I am speaking from the standpoint of a Pastor who, as of this date, has not been involved in any major scandal, outside of the typical things any GOOD pastor deals with, such as those who are disgruntled, drop off in attendance, anger over a specific topic or teaching. But I must say, though I haven't 'fallen', in the typical sense of 'falling', we should never run to our members and engage in tearing down our fellow-ministers as well.
Of course, we should always uphold righteousness and, at times, this will require addressing certain things with our members, and share with them the error in the minister's life; and how the avoid those pitfalls. For instance, there was a certain Bishop who had been accused of beating his wife in a parking lot in the Atlanta, GA area. Our members came to our Bible Study, addressing the issue and desiring to know my stance and perspective. Of course, I did not ignore or condone that minister's actions. If what he did occured, there is NO justification for his actions. But am I in a position to wish his ministry to doom or failure if he truely repents and seeks restoration? Should I go throw a party after I see his ministry declining?
My honest perspective (though this is really a random blog, with no scriptural notations) is a person who glories in a fellow-minister's demise should examine their heart. As we should never glory in the laity's fall or doom, we should never loathe in the failure of fellow ministers. Are there times when you must distance yourself? Yes, there may be times for that, according to scripture. But should you celebrate a Christian Leader's fall? I will continue in my study regarding this matter...but, for now, I say that is entirely wrong! If you have any thoughts, I would love to hear your perspectives!
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