SECRETS KEPT, SERMONS EDITED, RELATIONSHIPS ALTERED! Once you have been…

SECRETS KEPT, SERMONS EDITED, RELATIONSHIPS ALTERED! Once you have been told or have heard of the secrets within your congregation, things change. When you are preparing your sermon those secrets come to mine and you think; oops I can’t go there. As a pastor there is an implied confidence, even if you have heard it second hand you cannot betray that confidence either. Yet some of those issues need to be addressed and it requires wisdom and discernment to be able to preach in a way that enlightens without exposing. To approach the pulpit as a priest or a shepherd is one thing to come as a prophet is another. A prophet may tear things up by the root, not giving thought to all the tender plants nearby that may be effected.