Watching Our Witness?

            In my day job, I am the IT Director for a local company that owns a couple of quarries and a couple of construction companies. I was talking to the quarry precast manager, Fred (not his real name) some time back about life in general and he told me a story that perfectly exemplified one of our biggest challenges in the Church - the challenge of dealing with arrogant, ignorant people in the Church. A local non-denominational church was building a building (a very expensive building, built on the backs of a fairly small and lower-middle class congregation - but that is a whole different blog ":-)) and a driver was making a delivery of some precast products they needed for the work. He was then approached by the pastor of this church, waving his arms and yelling at the guy about being in the wrong spot. He gave this driver such a hard time that by the time he was done, my friend Fred decided that he needed to go have a chat with this pastor, in order to assure that his drivers would not be harassed (by the pastor) when delivering to this site. When Fred arrived, he got out of his truck and went to the nearest person to ask where the pastor was. It happened to be a congregant doing some landscaping. The man’s response was wonderfully indicative of what can happen to a church when the pastor is arrogant and prideful.

            Fred asks, “Hi. Can you tell me where Joe (not his real name either) is.”

            The guy responds, “That’s PASTOR Joe.”

            Well Fred is normally pretty mild-mannered but when provoked (and already being aggravated at the way his driver was treated this provoked him) he can get a little more direct.

            “He’s not my fu*())in' pastor.”, said Fred. “Go get him and tell him Fred Jones need to speak with him.”

            The poor man, unknowingly caught in the wake of his pastors pride, stammered a little then went and got pastor Joe. Here would have been a wonderful time for the pastor of this church to reach out, show a little grace and humility and just apologize for the arrogant way he treated the truck driver and ask for forgiveness. Instead this man did nothing but argue with my friend Fred and make demands, unknowingly continuing to confirm what too many in the world already believe about those of us in the Christian Church.

There are many people out there who, from their past experiences, have valid reasons to their belief that “religious people” are arrogant, self-righteous, and hypocritical - and unfortunately, all too often - they are right. Religion is strong stuff and it can really mess us up. When we have religion without the ongoing relationship with Jesus we need, we ALWAYS become arrogant and prideful. This happens because we forget that compared to the Savior – ALL have sinned and fallen short and we actually begin to think we are doing a pretty good job of reflecting Him. HAHA!

As pastors, we are revered and admired by people WAY more than we deserve or is healthy for us. Congregations should stop pastor worshipping. That is idolatry, plain and simple and is not healthy for you, or your pastor.  Love involves disagreeing sometimes too.

A true understanding of the Gospel and our ongoing need for it, along with the grace and mercy of God, reveals to us our own sin and inability to be like Him in so many ways. This understanding of our continual, daily, moment-by-moment need for the grace and forgiveness only Jesus can offer fosters gratitude in us - This gratitude is the fuel that drives us to either lead or follow without ego and to love without expectation of return. We love because we have been loved (even when we didn't deserve it).
           Who knows – getting that might even help us sometime to show grace and love toward our own personal "truck driver", whatever that may be for you. Have you had any "truck driver" experiences in your life. Examine your witness – in Church and out. Does it look like Jesus – or more like one of the Pharisees?