I’ve got to be honest…pastors deal with a ton of crap! I know that word is offensive…but that is the ONLY way to describe it. I saw some posts in blog world last week railing on pastors & while I know all of us are not perfect (this DOES include me) I would like to think most of us are giving it our best shot!!!
(And pastors—know that you and I will stand before a Holy God one day and give an account—and because we are going to do it there then we don’t have to do it here to whoever seems to have a blog!)
Calm down, I am really not mad; in fact, I’ve been laughing all afternoon. We deal with a lot of negative stuff here at NewSpring Church…we hear people say things about our church that is not true in an attempt to drag our name through the mud—here are some of the following things that have been said about us in the past…
- There was a rumor that there was going to be a statue of me in our new building—which would have made one UGLY statue.
- There is a rumor out there that if you want to join our church then we require you to show your income tax statement from the previous year. (If that were the case I could not be a member—I have no idea where that stuff is!!!)
- One lady in our community last week said, “There is no way that church had over 10,000 for Easter—that building can’t hold that many people!” Uh…we had five services—seating for over 2,500 hundred at each—guess math wasn’t her strength!
- I heard a rumor once that the leadership of the church would get drunk on Monday afternoons and then make decisions for the church. Um…yeah…this one offended me because first of all—I do not drink…and second of all…if I did I would not wait until Monday afternoon…I would just go for it on Sunday night! (Only a pastor would understand!!!)
- There is a rumor that I have a limo pick me up on Sunday’s and drive me to church…and then it brings me back home! Uh, yeah…a limo—IN ANDERSON…what?
- There was a rumor that we didn’t allow Bible’s in our worship services!
- I heard last week someone say that we were getting ready to write our own translation of the Bible.
I could go on and on. I seriously thought I had heard everything…I seriously thought that people could not be any dumber…but the rumor I heard today about caused me to split my gut open because I was laughing so hard!!!
Someone in our church asked someone to visit with them and they were told, “NewSpring…that’s the church where the pastor doesn’t wear a shirt when he preaches, isn’t it?”
WHAT!?!?!?!?!
Where do people come up with this stuff?
SO…for all you pastors that want to know why our church is growing—that’s it! That’s our secret. It’s NOT that we preach the Gospel. It’s not that we lift up the name of Jesus. It’s not that we worship with passion. It’s not that we have a vision! Nope—it’s that I went to Chip and Dales and was inspired to do all of my sermons with no shirt.
Good gosh!!! If I preached a message with no shirt then this place would empty out in a matter of seconds. I am not a sexy man (NO COMMENTS!) Without my shirt on I look like a distant cousin of Chewbacca! If I went hiking in the woods without a shirt…campers would swear they saw Bigfoot!
Pastors—be encouraged! People are going to say stuff about you that isn’t true—especially if your church is growing. Don’t let that crap distract you—stay focused on Jesus…focused on His Word—and when people around you let their stupid meter max out…just let it go!
If you are a member of NewSpring…don’t let this stuff make you mad. LAUGH! And do not argue with people like this…do not even get close…being around people like this for any matter of time can lower your IQ!!! :-)
NewSpring—God is at work here…and when that happens the enemy will use all that he can to try to distract…and as we can see—stupidity is a weapon. Let it go…pray hard and invite as many people as you can every chance you get & let God do the rest.