My journal records one of those pressurized times in my last pastorate, some years ago.
Consider that the church was still in recovery from a split five years earlier, leaving us with a diminished congregation handling an all-consuming debt. Consider that some of our people still carried guilt over their actions during that fight, while others nursed hurts and anger from the same tragic event. I’d not been around during that catastrophe, I’m happy to report, but the Father had sent me in to help the congregation pick up the pieces and return the congregation to health and usefulness.
It was hard.
I was weak personally, having just emerged from a brutal three-plus years trying to shepherd a divided congregation with toxic lay leadership. So, I came in gun-shy, hoping to avoid conflict and for everyone, myself included, to have time to heal.
Naïve, huh? Probably so.
Daily I was being undermined by the angry, criticized by the hurting, ostracized by the pious, and scrutinized to the nth degree by leaders, self-appointed and otherwise. When I tried to lead the church to take steps I considered normal and healthy, these also were thrown back in my face.
The journal records my efforts to bring in community leaders for a Sunday night forum during which the guest would speak and take questions. Our people could not understand why in the world I would want to bring a congressman, for example, to our church.
I was stunned. They don’t see the need? Aren’t they citizens who vote and who are affected by the actions of political leaders? Do they not care? Where have these people been?
If it didn’t involve evangelism or preparation for the rapture, the leadership wanted no part of it. Not that they were doing all that much about either. These were merely points to check off in rating anyone invited to speak in their church.
Walt Handelsman was the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. I admired him greatly and was delighted when he gave me an autographed collection of his editorial cartoons. When I asked if he would be available to visit our church some Sunday evening in the hour preceding worship, he quickly agreed.