Change, in heart and mind; Spirit and Truth!

I have to be honest. I feel like such a pansy blogging! I feel like I am writing in a diary like a little girl sharing my "feelings". Seriously, this is hard to get use to. Its hard to put things out there and not sure who will read it or who will criticize it. Its easy to keep it in and just deal with the issues you struggle with on your own. Not only that, but if you don't deal with it, it isn't a big deal because know one knows you are struggling.

I mean, I am a pastor, I am not suppose to have struggles and problems, right? I am not allowed to screw up, say the wrong thing or make the wrong decision. I am God's man, leading in "church", teaching, and preaching God's word, I cant make a mistake.

You know what really burns me up, besides alcohol on a open sore? Since you don't know I will tell you. It is how we are so critical on the "church leaders" of today. Yes, I said we, but let me prefess this by saying that I am referring to the denomination that I am associated with, which is Baptist and I am referring to head pastors at or over the age of 50ish.

I am not saying that we shouldn't observe and evaluate the leaders we are under, but that we do it with an open mind(like the one we wish they had). That when we don't think things are being done right in "church" we don't tuck tail and run. That we don't grippe and complain to everyone else we see about the way it should be.

Has the thought ever crossed our minds that maybe we should explore why they are the way they are. It would probably be more effective if we new a little background before we decided to jump head first in to a jury conviction of wrong doing. What if we realized that they are just leading the way they were taught. What if we realized that they were just following their modern day American idols. Great men of God that they looked up too and wanted to be like, because they were greatly used by God. The crazy thing is that, the way those great men of faith led was greatly productive. I mean they led thousands to the Lord by the way they preached and led their churches. God used them, with their styles and methods to reach their Ara. I mean think about it, who would not want to follow someone like Jack Hyles. The man lead thousands to the Lord. He had over 25,000 in Sunday School learning about Christ every Sunday. Like it or not, that is freakin awesome.

What if that 50ish yr old pastor, as a young man, saw someone doing something write and decided to follow in his footsteps. Think about it, isn't that what we are doing today? These pastors have given their lives for the ministry's God has entrusted them with. These Guys have been faithful, with blood, sweat, and tears through tough years of things that we know absolutely nothing about and we expect them to just let us "young pastors" come in and revolutionize the "church". Who do we think we are?

I understand that I am probably writing this for me more than you, but maybe, just maybe if we approached our older pastors from this point of view then we could effectively be used as a tool of change. Having our hearts in the write places and being humbled by their service to the Lord.

Change, in heart and mind; Spirit and Truth!

Chris