One of the most startling things to ever happen to me in pastoral ministry took place many years ago when I first entered the district. We were staying in a motel for a few days as we got acquainted with the new church and it's leaders. I really knew very little about the church and its history but it wasn't long before I knew more than I cared to. It started with the line of people outside my motel door. They came, I suppose for what they thought were good reasons, to educate me about the church problems and who were the ones causing the problems. I'm afraid I actually listened to them in order to be polite and interested in what they had to say.

I would have done better to turn them all away with a polite dismissal than to listen to their "concerns". Unfortunately, I was not experienced enough to really understand what was going on. It was an attempt to get me on the right side, to make sure that I heard the right voices, and followed the right counsel. It all too often fell into character assassination and heavy handed politics that demonstrated the churches inability to really talk to one another and learn how to get out of the deep rut they were in.

I'm not sure if they ever have learned to get out of the rut. Some people moved on, some people were hurt, some left, some were angry and stayed, some were frustrated and stayed but really did not serve the church well. To put it mildly, it was a mess. Years later, the conference president finally had to rescue me from the whole thing with the jaws of life. I was amazed, even stunned that they asked me to take a much larger church after that, I felt more of a failure than I care to admit and I hardly thought I was the right pastor for the challenge of the new church. It saddens me to this day that I was so beat up from the one district, that I wasn't nearly as helpful to the next church as I could have been. There were a lot of folks there at the new church that were wonderful and had good ideas and plans for their church and we saw some of them through, but we could have done a lot better.

So I look at those two districts and I chalk them up to the classes I never got in school. I made my share of mistakes and would do some things differently but I also know that God called me there, mistakes and all. I also believe that I did the best I could and probably not too many others could do better, nor would they even try.

All that to say, I've learned a couple of things. One is, don't be at all surprised when someone wants to get your ear. It might be one or two people, it might be a group. They may have the best of intentions. You may be tempted to listen. Do so with a lot of caution. Once they start talking about other people and their shortcomings, end it. End it right there, politely if you wish, but end it. It may make you look insensitive or not willing to listen. End it. Better yet, don't let it ever happen in the first place. Take chapters 66 and 93 out of Testimonies Volume 5  and read them to your leaders at your first opportunity. Set up a set of principles on how you will talk about people and what you will listen to about people. Those principles are clearly outlined in those two chapters both based on Matthew 18.

The next post will be about some of the ways to start new in your district with less anxiety about getting off to a good start and some of the dynamics that take place as you take over your role as pastor. I've got to run to an elder's meeting where I might just be reading some of those chapters and sharing them with the new team.