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James MacDonald: How to Identify (and Handle) a Fool in Your Ministry

This has been one of my greatest errors in ministry.  Becoming a fool to try to get a message to a fool about their foolishness.  Have you ever heard yourself doing the same?  Have you seen yourself stooping to the level of foolish arguments?  Have you felt yourself allowing the intrusion of pride?  Have you heard your own tone rising to meet the challenge of a fool?  Beware your noblest attempts to get a fool what he wants least of all, truth! 

Sometimes, we care too much and end up playing the fool while trying to help a fool.  I know that I have tended to overestimate my ability to change the behavior of others.  One thing we have learned through much pain and many failed attempts to fix a fool: “When you want it for someone more than they want it for themselves, it’s not going anywhere good.”

Putting these two verses together, I have returned often to this principle: “Tell them once with clarity and brevity.  Anything more than that draws us into the web of folly.”  

I have known this for a long time, but an emergency meeting Saturday night, a surprise conversation in the hall between services, an e-mail that should not have been sent, no matter how well intentioned—all dealing with different issues in the church, all together reminding me of a lesson I return to again and again.

Say it once, clearly and lovingly.  Anyone seeking wisdom will get the message and benefit.  Fools will argue, debate, and blame-shift—and if you don’t get off that train in a hurry, you will become a fool trying to help a fool, and that doesn’t help anyone.

Proverbs 26:4-5.  Put them together in a season of ministry conflict, and you can look forward to another season of joy just ahead.