Where are Your Patches?
Two pastor's wives were sitting together, mending their husbands' trousers.
One said, "Our church is in a terrible mess, and the devil is fighting us hard. We can't get anything done because of the squabbling, gossip and negativity.
The other said, "The Lord has really been blessing us. Week after week, we sense the loving presence of the Holy Spirit, and people are being helped spiritually. I can't wait to see what God is going to do next!"
One wife was patching the rear end of the trousers, the other one was patching the knees.
Wonder which was which.
(A story my daddy used tell.)
I loved this little story. Enjoy your trip to Ohio.
ReplyDeleteAnother way to see which church is growing is to look at the soles of the pastor/leaders shoes. Are they getting off their butts to do anything? Or just sitting and eating while complaining that someone should do something!
The man on his knees was thanking God. The man with a patch on his rear, had been kicked by his unloving congregation. I'd like to think that both men could have been Paul.
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeletePerhaps the man needed a swift kick in the butt. I know many pastors that do.
I guess I feel that most pastor's are hardworking, prayerful and desire the best for their congregations. My experience has been that congregations can be pretty hard on pastors, complaining about things that really do not matter.
ReplyDeleteMy experience has been that some pastors do an awful lot of complaining and worrying about what they are getting instead of caring for the souls of the people God has given to them to instruct.
ReplyDeleteSteve, I hope that you are correct. I would hate to think the world is full of the kind of pastor we have experienced lately.
But I would also like to think there are many wonderful congregations in our world.
Unfortunately, many people seem only to care about themselves.
My experience has been that pastors are like politicians. They only strive to win the next election neglecting their job as pastor. They constantly try to win approval of the controlling leaders of the congregation.
ReplyDeleteAll the above comments touch my soul. I think where we fail as pastors is that we defend our bad pastors sending them from church to church to destruct more congregations. It reminds me of the headlines involving Catholics where child-molesting priests are sent to other parishes to ruin the lives of more young people.
ReplyDelete