“Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you….” (Jeremiah 1:8).
A friend asked, “Why is it taking our church so long to get a new pastor?”
I said, “In my opinion, your search committee is afraid. They know that certain members of your congregation are quick to pick apart any candidate who isn’t like (a previous pastor, now in Heaven). And they don’t want to take that chance.”
What would you say if I said most leaders of our churches operate from fear?
You would wisely ask how I know and where I got such information or arrived at such a conclusion. I would have to admit that I do not know this for a fact, that it’s from observing churches and their leaders all these decades. As a pastor of six churches for forty-two years and a minister for over six decades, I am well-acquainted with the practice of operating from fear.
What “operating from fear” looks like
–Leaders operate from fear when they poll the congregation to see what they want in the next pastor, the kind of program they want, what the next building should be, or what the congregation should do about some community issue. In almost every case, it is safe to say that the congregation does not know what it wants. We should quit asking them.
Lead or get out of the way.