Tuesday, June 09, 2009

Helping No One

Today I was once again reminded why I started this blog in the first place. There are just so many churches out there being led by people who lack leadership skills. Granted, leading is hard. Leaders have to rally the troops. Leaders have to exercise discipline, both personally and corporately. Leaders must confront individual wrongdoing for the sake of the integrity of the larger ministry.

There are far too many people in church leadership (pastors) who lack the requisite skills to deal head-on with uncomfortable situations. Fear of offending folks or causing people to leave the church ends up crippling a pastor's ability to accomplish good ministry. We settle for mediocre, or worse, as long as no feathers are ruffled.

The truth is that when a pastor refuses to confront blatant misbehavior and allows people to continue as if nothing was out of order no one is helped. The person engaged in reckless and destructive behavior is enabled. People affected by the behavior are wounded. People watching the behavior and lack of any action are confused. Eventually the whole mess collapses while people claim there was nothing they could do.

Good leaders take action that is appropriate, timely and well considered. Rarely will you find difficult situations going unaddressed in a healthy church.

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