I’m a life long preachers kid, and it’s starting to take its toll.
Just Sunday night, Easter Sunday night, I told my wife that I’m not even sure I want my neighbor to come to church. I hate that the thought even crossed my mind, but that’s where I’m at these days. The church that I’ve devoted my life to has become the place of my greatest heart ache.
The weirdest thing is that I’ve never enjoyed going to church as much as I do now. I’ve never been more excited about the direction of the church and the fellowships I’m a part of as a result. The problem I have is that I know, and see, and hear too much. As a preachers kid you get the privilege of seeing how truly nasty people can be. You get to see your father chewed up and spit out time and time again. You hear people make hateful remarks about your father, knowing nothing of what he’s sacrificed to make their life better. Or worse yet, knowing full well what he’s sacrificed and doing it anyway.
As a lead pastor you become the lightening rod for all of the problems in the church. Then it becomes a catch-22 because you can’t tell them to stick their head up their butt, but when you roll over and take it time and again it just empowers them to do it again. There are just so many people that are out for their own agenda, and couldn’t care less about who they step on to get there. I can’t even get into jaw-dropping specifics because everybody at my church reads this blog.
Bottom line, people are beginning to piss me off and I’m not sure what to do about it. That’s why I’m so excited about a book that is due out early next year called Mad Church Disease. Anne Jackson (flowerdust.net) knows all too well what I’m going through, and this book is a result of her pain.
Filed under: Anne Jackson, Books, Burnout, Church, Mad Church Disease, Ministry, Preachers Kids
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