Musings on Spiritual Matters

I believe ministers struggling with this problem.  A preacher can look out into the congregation and over the eldership and point out all the needed changes “If  he was king.”  This is wrong, that is wrong, they are not doing this, or that, and it needs to happen this way.  It is the attitude of “if I was king” I would run this church a lot better.  And sometimes it would be terrible if the preacher was king, and sometimes it would be a lot better if he was.  How is that for balance?  The only problem is that the preacher is not king.  His word is not law, nor does the church automatically answer to him.  He is someone that has influence, but also one under authority.  Rarely, does the preacher have the authority to make “king” choices.  Also, it takes a certain among of humility in this king narrative.  Really, do you want to be king, and have all the problems on your plate.  And really, do you have the solution to all of the problems in a congregation.  When the preacher places himself on top of the system or congregation, and looks down on his kingdom with criticism he loses his most important function which is equipping.  He becomes a “Lord” which lords over his people.  This is not the leadership style that the Lord provided.  Now this is hard not to practice sometimes.  You know about church, and can see the problems sometimes better than everyone else because they are so struck in the system that they are blind guides.  But once again, it is not your place to be King.  You place is to be servant, and allow the congregation to slowly transform the kingdom on their own.  Here are some ways that you can tell you have become king.

1. You use they, them, and not we.  Your language betrays your heart.  Using this language shows that you do not see yourself as part of the congregational whole, but rather apart from it.

2. You are a problem finder.  There is a time and place for calling the elephant out of hiding, but if all you do is call on the horn, you are killing the congregation with your inability to manage yourself.  If all you do is use your horn, you are just creating a herd of problems.

3. Is your wife happy.  If she is not, maybe you are unloading on her too much.  You are pointing out the problems, and not looking for solutions.  She is a good indicator of your health.

Related posts:

1. Read “Bobby Fischer: The Wandering King”

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This entry was posted by Matthew on Tuesday, May 24th, 2011 at 9:26 am and is filed under Church News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.