A Special Message to Dedicated Church Members | Be Smart & Safe
“Maybe someday you’re get a call from my members telling you how glad they are to have me as their pastor.” My response, “I doubt it. I never get those calls.” _From a recent conversation I had with a pastor
The ONE THING for today: If your pastor wins, everyone wins. But for your pastor to win a lot of smart and capable people must be willing to help him/her.
However, many well-meaning people disqualify themselves from helping their pastor and church win, not because they are not smart and have something to add, but because they’re not safe.
Action Item: Be safe.
Most people are not mean-spirited, they just get caught up in the moment and end up venting on social media, firing off a group text before you know it a small thing is blown up into a major crisis that could have been avoided.
It is at that moment that your pastor learns that – smart as you may be – you are not safe and must be kept at a distance.
Apologies are good but they don’t undo the collateral damage, the loss of momentum, and the seeds of doubt about a person’s character and/or ability that was planted.
The answer?
Be smart and safe.
How to Be Safe Influencer to Your Pastor
- Speak privately
- Until proven wrong beyond a shadow of doubt, assume the best motives
- Give allowances for maturity and for differences in method and style
- If it is not immoral, illegal, and it might work, get behind the pastor’s vision
- If your concerns are legitimate, go up the chain of command (not down or laterally)
- Church Council
- District Overseer
- State Bishop
- General Overseer
- (Last resort) Leave graciously
Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
1 Corinthians 1:10
