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Friday, March 18, 2005
Getting a Grip on Pastoral Rage
Ed Rowell has a great article posted over at LeadershipJournal.net on pastoral rage. Ed writes...
During a recent baptism, I paraphrased a passage of
Scripture to fit the situation: "If anyone is in Christ, he or she (I was
baptizing a young woman) is a new creature in Christ."
The next morning,
I was going through the cards we use for guest registration, prayer requests,
and miscellaneous information. Suddenly one of them nailed me, by name, for
"daring to change the infallible, inerrant, unchangeable Word of God. When the
Bible says 'he,' it means 'he' … to change it to fit your rampant feminist
agenda is the worst kind of heresy."
Most days I would have tossed it in
the trash with the hope that he buy a better laxative. But that particular
Monday, that note really scorched me. I wasted an hour writing a scathing reply,
even though the note was unsigned. (We've since adopted the policy of trashing
unsigned critiques without reading them.)
At lunch I told a buddy about
it, and he asked, "Why did that one make you so angry?"
[You can read the whole article here.]
FOR DISCUSSION: Do you ever get to the point that you feel like Ed? How do you deal with that stress? What did you think of Ed's suggestions?
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March 18, 2005 in Leadership Issues | Permalink
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Comments
Am I the only one who is going to be honest about this one. Being a pastor has made me mad as h***. I lose my temper and my patience with everybody from parishioners to the cashier at Krogers to my son when he wants me to put his train track together. I was never like this until I became a pastor.
If you ever read a "disgruntled pastor" article in the USAToday...it is probably me!
Posted by: Art | Mar 18, 2005 9:00:35 PM
Good article. The illustration of toxic buildup over time was very appropriate.
Art: you were never exposed to such levels of toxicity until you became a pastor:)
Posted by: pjlr | Mar 19, 2005 5:03:12 PM
This particular "event" centered on the issue of "women in the church." Here's a great article to read that explains the background on this issue (Christianity Today magazine article):
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2000/009/1.40.html
I recently did a webcast on this issue; it's playing for free here: http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/247 .
Yes, this is one issue that can get real hot. Is it worth yet? Yes. It's a "learning moment" for many people in the faith...
...Bernie
http://www.oneplace.com/ministries/247
Posted by: bernie dehler | Mar 21, 2005 1:10:45 AM
