Marriage is hard work.
It can be. It sometimes is for most everyone. But it isn’t always or even most of the time. In fact for MANY people it’s not actually “hard work.” In fact, you might be surprised that for many people, it’s reasonably easy. When a husband is consistently yielding his life to the lordship of Christ and loves the Lord first, and a wife is doing the same, marriage can be more consistently a joy than it is “hard work.” Of course, we mess up on being that kind of husband and wife, and when we do, we can make marriage harder, and more work, than it has to be. However, MINISTERS, to persistently insist that marriage is hard, hard, hard, you contribute greatly to a negative image of marriage. Again, I’m not saying that marriage is easy for everyone, or that it doesn’t take some work by everyone, but is it MOSTLY hard work? It isn’t supposed to be, and it doesn’t have to be. So don’t be the reason why so many people think it is. A better statement: Every marriage requires consistent nurturing.
It’s all about leadership.
Church is not all about leadership. Ministry is not all about leadership. Living the Christian life certainly isn’t all about leadership. And being a minister isn’t all about leadership. It’s all about Jesus, and our followership of Him. The quality of your leadership will never surpass the quality of your followership. A better statement: The quality of your leadership will impact the church you lead.
Everybody hates change.
So many ministers state this so often it almost makes people think of “change” as being a dirty word. The fact is M A N Y people pray for change. They yearn for change. Change is one of their greatest desires. Yes, there’s some truth that some people do hate change and will resist it at almost any cost, but so many long for it. Don’t approach change with a broad brush, resulting in painting a false picture of what so many really think about change. A better statement: Some people don’t like and resist change, others flourish in it.
Change is always hard.
Change is sometimes hard for some people. But for others, it’s easy. In fact, for some it’s an adventure, a delight, freeing, a joy, a growing experience, even a blessing. Again, don’t broad brush the experience of change. A better statement: Depending on the person and the kind of change undertaken, the experience of change can be hard, easy, or something in-between.
One good thing about the above examples is that they are extra-biblical facts. In other words, teaching these things isn’t the same as incorrectly teaching the Word. The problem, though, is if you try to pair rightly handling the Word with other information that is false, you’re still misleading the people you’re teaching.
Last year in America, we saw the rise of the “fact checker” as part of a very divisive election year. People even argued over the accuracy of fact checkers! But checking the facts of even your extra-biblical claims before including them in what you teach is a wise (even necessary) way of making sure all that you’re teaching is true.
This article originally appeared here.
