I don’t know why I wanted to write this today. But I did.
Other than a brief time in law, pastoring a church is what I’ve been involved in for my adult life.
I’ve probably had thousands of conversations with people (and so have you), but if you’re like me, there are some things you just never get around to saying out loud.
It’s not that you don’t want to…it’s just that you don’t.
Yet saying them could help you and maybe even help scores of great people who are working so hard at your church.
They might even make things…better.
Here are five things I think most pastors wish they could tell their congregations:
1. I’m trying to step off the pedestal people keep putting me on.
I’m not better than anyone else. Really. I have never believed I’m better than anyone else. And I promise you, if we got to hang out more, it wouldn’t take long for you to see I don’t belong on a pedestal either.
I’m not in ministry because I’ve got this all figured out, or because it was an ambition of mine. I honestly feel I was called into it. Believe it or not, I tried to resist the call. But people kept affirming what I couldn’t stop sensing—that God was calling me to serve in the local church. So I obeyed.
It gives me a lot of comfort that the heroes in the scripture were flawed people. Peter barely got it right. Paul had his critics. Noah was a flawed leader. So was Moses. But reading their story gives me hope for my story. And—you know what—it gives me hope for your story and for the church.
God doesn’t use perfect people. His grace flows best through broken people.
God belongs on the pedestal. So why don’t we keep him there and keep ourselves below it?
