Saturday
Dec132003
Nothing to lose
Saturday, December 13, 2003 at 9:50AM This post is from the defunct blog "Dying Church"
I was criticized pretty severely by someone recently, rather unfairly, I might add. He subscribes to the CEO model of church leadership, and his criticisms (spoken to someone else rather than me) were about a failure on my part to live up to that model. Criticism hurts at the best of times, but quite often it's right. We need our critics just as much as we need our cheerleaders. Ideally, they're the same people. This time it hurt. He should have come to me. Instead, he's postive to my face and critical behind my back. That's called duplicity, and it bugs me. I was upset about this for a few days. This is a testament to my own humanness, frailty, and pride. (Hebrews 12:4 says, "After all, you have not yet given your lives in your struggle against sin." No, I've just had someone say something mean about me. Big deal.) Yesterday, I finally came to the place again where I realized I have nothing at all to lose. The reason that a lot of pastors pull back is because we think there is a lot to lose. The minute I try to start preserving my pastorate or reputation, I've stopped following Jesus. Yet this is where I find myself slipping so often. Understand: I'm not saying that pastors should be insensitive or dismissive. But I know that many times we're afraid to do or say the right thing because it may have career-limiting consequences. Sometimes the best route to take isn't the safest one. I love being freed up to love and to live without thinking about my safety. Part of being a dying pastor is to stop trying to preserve onself, and to step into the dangerous and exhilarating territory of followership, in which they can kill your body but they can't touch your soul, or (in today's terms) they can fire you from a church, but they can't take away your ministry. Nothing to lose, nothing to hide. Hello. freedom.
Reader Comments (5)
Great post Daryl. It does hurt though doesn't it.
Sometimes it's hard to read this without going, who? who? who? You must feel the same way sometimes too, but I guess that's a whole other area of dying....the need to know and pointing fingers.
Well that's pretty rude...criticizing behind your back...I'd like to confront such a person so they know how it can steal joy, distract from ministry and be hurtful.
The CEO church is ran too much like CEO America or the CEO organization. The CEO church leaders love to deem people who have disagreed and left their CEO church as 'bitter' in order to suppress their flaws. However, it turns out that the real 'bitter' one is the CEO church leader because his flaws are now exposed and he fears losing the numbers, money, and control that CEO church brings. However there is one thing worse than CEO church, the FBC (family business church). FBC is where the family is paid staff usually with wife as co-pastor, son as youth pastor, and daughter as youth and drama pastor and the church is ran like a family business than God's plan of church detailed in the New Testament. Usually, when Dad retires, then the children take over instead of who God calls as pastor.
I'm feelin' you on this one. So much more freedom for me now though not the end of the struggle. Good to ask yourself, 'Why did this guy's comments hurt?'