Gossip
Gossip is a cancer in any type of church, but it’s much more dangerous in small towns. There is a greater than 90 percent chance that the lady who plays the organ is related to the guy who cuts the grass, so keep your comments to yourself about how off key the music was last week or how terrible the grass looks. Even if you’re guaranteed not to get caught, you should still hate gossip. But in a small town, you will get caught.
I once had someone approach me who was in desperate need of help. When I asked her if she had spoken to her pastor, a look of horror came over her face. “Are you kidding? He’d tell everyone in town!”
Don’t be that pastor.
Kingdom Building
Wait. What? Aren’t pastors supposed to be Kingdom builders? Yes, we are. But in a rural setting it’s awful tempting for us to care more about building our own kingdoms. After you’ve counseled hurting people, preached a few funerals and stuck around longer than all of the previous pastors, people will begin to appreciate you. And that’s a good thing, until you manipulate that appreciation into more and more power and money for yourself. As a result, the church will be too scared of you to hold you accountable and too broke to actually take part in building God’s kingdom.
Be encouraged, pastor. A lot of your best work goes unnoticed. Sometimes it even feels like you’re just treading water. Don’t stop swimming. God is honored by your faithfulness. And your community is blessed. Don’t get discouraged by the fact that you never get invited to preach at some big city conference with a bunch of big city preachers. If you hang in there long enough, you just might get invited to go skeet shooting with Big Deek.
Now that’s missional.
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