I know lots of church planters/pastors read this blog…and so this week I want to hit five arguments that I believe are absolutely meaningless to be involved in because…you just can’t win them—ever.
These are arguments that will ALWAYS exist in your church…but you should not waste your time with them (mainly because of WHO is voicing the concern and not the actual concern itself…another post, another time!)
#1 - You Are Full Of Pride & Arrogance
Let me be very clear about this…you have GOT to have people in your life who…
- Love Jesus
- Love the church
- Love you
AND they need to be in that order! We need men and women who have permission and feel the freedom to step into our lives and confront/rebuke us when necessary. Scripture is clear that God HATES pride…and so we should invite the correction of people who love us enough to tell the truth.
HOWEVER, what I have discovered is that the overwhelming majority of the time I have personally heard this accusation it comes at a time where I cast strong vision as to the direction of the church…and some people just aren’t able to deal with it.
Make no mistake…a confident leader will ALWAYS be perceived by those who do not like the direction the leader is taking the church as “prideful.” Telling someone they are full of pride is the “silver bullet” if you will of a critic because…you CANNOT refute them—you just can’t!!!
I personally think one of the problems that dominates our churches today are leaders who are just not confident, spend no time with God and receive their direction from impotent “leaders” in the church who can’t actually lead in the real world…so they FLOCK to the only place that will allow them to have a voice—the church. And…they understand how to play the game…once you are there for a while…they will make you the “leader” by default!
I’ve seen this in action…these people many times (not in all cases) do not actually have a passion and a vision for the church…they simply want to see how fast they can complete the meeting and, by faith, increase the budget by 3% for the upcoming year.
And…when these people are not personally catered to…then you are considered to be full of pride.
What is even GREATER is when people who don’t even attend your church begin to shoot you emails that spell out God’s direction for your church…and when you refuse to listen to them they say you are “full of pride.”
Pastors - our PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY is to be faithful to God, to allow Him to place a white hot passion inside of us, to be CONSUMED with what consumes Him…and then to walk in COMPLETE and TOTAL obedience—PERIOD.
WHEN you do this…people will accuse you of being prideful because, unfortunately, the church for the most part just isn’t used to a confident leader!
BUT…make sure you have the right people around you, the ones who will speak TRUTH and tell you what you NEED to hear rather than what you WANT to hear…get your vision and direction from God…and then be unapologetic in your pursuit of what He reveals!
And…when the crowd begins to use the “pride” card…you will KNOW that you are sticking to your vision rather than becoming a “paid servant” of the “committee on committees!”