Pastor-Target

We've heard of Pastor-Teachers, Pastor-Preachers, Pastor-Evangelists, but I'd like to submit a new classification: Pastor-Target.

OK, perhaps it's not new, but most of us haven't heard it put quite like that.

I have been in "the ministry" for quite some time now, but only a vocational pastor for a little over two and a half years.

The honeymoon's over.

While it's not a pleasant mind-picture, if I removed my shirt, you could see the big target painted right on my chest. If I turned around, you could see on on my back. I don't even want to talk about bending over....

As our church is taken off the bench and gets back in the game, so to speak, several different dynamic forces are in play.

1. The group of people who were comfortable sitting on the bench prefer to remain on the bench and gripe at the quarterback for wanting to play the game.
2. The group of people who weren't content to sit on the bench find that they either don't remember exactly how to play the game or find that their bodies ache from the stress of activity. They also gripe at the quarterback.
3. The group of people who are new and don't know the rules gripe at the quarterback because the game doesn't feel anything like the different game they played on their other team and think we ought to be playing it differently.
4. The group of people who played for a long time gripe at the quarterback because he's calling audibles instead of them. They think that since they've played the game for so long, that, even though they are linesmen, they should be making the calls.
5. The group of people who want to play, but don't want to come to practice gripe at the quarterback because he won't throw the ball to them, despite the fact they haven't caught a ball in years and won't put their helmets on.

Folks, pray for your pastor. If he isn't doing a "good enough job" then pray for him; don't gripe about him to others. If you want to talk about him, talk about him to God. Most likely, your pastor has the best in mind for the church; just because you don't agree doesn't give you the right to lam blast him. You and your pastor are on the same team, and that team isn't the pastor's team, or your team, or even your church's team; it is Jesus' team.

An old wise retired pastor told me yesterday that every church has the Devil's Emissary; someone seemingly appointed by the Devil, himself, to cause strife and division within the church. An unregenerate church member who is there to carry out the cause of Satan; to kill, steal, and destroy. Unfortunately, more often than not, it is the pastor who has the target on his back.