Grace for Church Leaders

Sometimes being a pastor is not all it is cracked up to be. We get the opportunity to see people at their very best and at their very worst. Likewise, we live in fish bowls where others get to see our very best and very worst (especially when the parsonage - preacher's house) is in the church parking lot!

There are hours, days, weeks and even months sometimes that are trying and frustrating, when it can appear that nothing good is coming from your work. Our church is currently going through such a time. We have reorganized the leadership of the church, rewritten our mission, vision and core values. We have sought to live into our relationship with Jesus and in that process have encountered resistance to some of the changes.

Some days feel like I am running into a brick wall with nothing to show for our efforts but bruises and scratches. And it is in those places that grace shows up in the strangest ways.

The other evening was just such an occasion. We had just finished an evangelism meeting and the chair came up to me and told me that she was going to miss me when I was gone (the Methodist church moves their pastors around and I will most likely be moving in June)...she continued to tell me that I am ornery, passionate, and energetic and that I have been exactly what this congregation has needed (you take those to mean what you think, I take them as very high complements). These words are a great comfort...especially after times for people questioning vision and direction of the church.

I say all this to say that grace isn't just a one time saving event. Often in my life the grace that sustains me...the grace that gives me the perseverance and strength to go on...comes from the people that God places in my life (even if only for a moment).

How has God used people in your life to reveal grace?