I read a snippet of a story today that gave a chuckle as it reminded me of a great lesson.

At the start of the McCarthy era, Floridian Claude Pepper, one of the Senate’s most outspoken liberals, was on the conservatives’ “hit list” along with many other senators. George Smathers lashed out with some typical right-wing invective—he called his opponent “the Red Pepper”—and he launched a campaign to expose Pepper’s secret “vices.” Smathers disclosed that Pepper was “a known extrovert,” his sister was a “thespian,” and his brother a “practicing homo sapiens.” Also, when Pepper went to college, he actually “matriculated.” Worst of all, he “practiced celibacy” before marriage. Naturally, rural voters were horrified, and Pepper lost. (Book of Lists No. 2, pp. 36-37)

1 Peter 2:11 Peter 2:1
English: World English Bible - WEB
2 ¹ Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking,

WP-Bible plugin says that we ought to strip off anything that will breakdown loving relationships within the family of God.  “So get rid of all evil and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2:2 And yearn like newborn infants for pure, spiritual milk” (NETBible)

What’s important is that we contribute to a community experience of safety, care and love where everyone can grow in our Christian faith and become a fantastic testimony to the community outside of ours.

It’s a heart of deceit, hypocrisy and envy that will stoop to use the truth bring a brother down.  What’s more we draw a massive blemish on our Christian testimony.

Let’s watch every word we say.  Love your Christian brother and sister.

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Even Pastor hurt and grow weary

Every church and ministry has to deal with personality conflicts and intermittent discord. The writer of this book considers that normal. However, what he deals with in The Wounded Minister is the “growing phenomenon”, “major problem approaching crisis proportions” of “pathological antagonists” and their allies and sympathizes who launch systematic and sustained attacks on the leader of a church or ministry.

Dr. Kenneth Haugk, a clinic psychologist, defines pathological antagonists as “individuals who, on the basis of non-substantive evidence, go out of their way to make insatiable demands, usually attacking the person or performance of others. These attacks are selfish in nature, tearing down rather than building up, and are frequently directed against those in a leadership capacity.” G. Llloyd-Rediger describes these antagonists as “clergy killers”, who have as their one major objective, to abuse or hurt the minister to the degree that they will leave the ministry. Rediger notes that this abuse is “increasing in epidemic proportions … it is a phenomenon that is verified by both research and experience.” He identifies clergy killers as “people who intentionally target pastors for serious injury or destruction.” (more…)

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sometimes, ignorance is bliss

An interesting thing happens when a minister is wounded in action. He stays quiet. Why? Because he knows about the unwritten rule of silence. Those outside career ministry will not easily understand this but filing a grievance is not something a pastor does.Here’s a quick look at the drama.In ministry there is a statement that needs much examination (for further discussions). A minister will be taught that things will need to be done “for the sake of the church”. What that ultimately means is that at the end of the day, the organization that resides at xxx maple street needs to come out a winner.

In many situations, “for the sake of the church” law will take precedence over what was known to be right, spiritually and legally. To violate the rule will surely come under some serious spiritual abuse. Scripture verses will be thrown your way and pseudo-spiritual guilt will be placed upon you. (more…)

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I wonder how many testimonies you will hear from Pastors like myself who also got tired of the church game, didn’t know what to do about it, and when I prayed, there was great silence in Heaven (as well as on my part of the earth) so I quit!!

I pastored Foursquare churches fifteen years and an Assembly of God for eight. I finally got tired of pouring my heart out to people who just didn’t seem to “get It.” Oh, there were some with a good degree of zeal, but they went right off to Bible school and became ministers in their own right. This is not bad, but it left me with no one to help me. We had “glorious song services”, exiting prophecies, messages in tongues, testimonies, special singers and all the rest—but it didn’t seem to have any lasting effect on anybody. If we should have a rather dull service following one of the “glorious” ones, people were ready to leave. (more…)

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