Don’t Fight the Pastor’s Battles – Past

I have never been in a church without a past. Unless you are the one beginning a church, there is something and someone that came before you. Inevitably there will also be a great deal of turmoil in the wake of any previous events. For the most part, there is a great deal of inflated emotion concerning previous pastors. Pastors were either loved or hated and that nearly always creates divisions in the church; tiny fissures that grow into major chasms that can tear churches apart.

It is tempting to want to help your church overcome some of these unpleasant standards in their policy, polity, and lack of productivity. However, there is a fundamental problem with any such activity. The root of the problem is based on another individual at another time altogether. Teaching that led to such problems cannot be untaught, emotions cannot be unfelt, and words cannot be unspoken. To attempt to refight these battles, one-by-one would be to revisit the painful past without any possible hope of a brighter future. The only product of such activity will be to increase the distance between sides of the argument and to set the very existence of your church on a razor’s edge, where any push or pull could sever all remaining ties. The unified body would split into at least two factions whose existence would culminate into passionate opposites with every intention on superseding each other in all public opinion and the utter destruction each other through all possible means.

If you are one who might be reading this and believe that I am nothing more than an over-zealous cynic, I invite you to drive a short distance from your own city and find a Sunday paper in another county. The Church page will be filled with titles like:

First Baptist Church

South Side Baptist

North Point Community

Trinity

Trinity Baptist

Calvary Temple

First Assembly

Spanish Assembly

St. Joseph’s United Methodist

First United Methodist

Straight and Narrow Baptist

Agape Fellowship

Bridgepoint

Cornerstone

First Foursquare

Independent Believer’s Fellowship

Etc.

And though you might attempt to justify each of these by saying, “To each his own,” you must admit that this is a lot of churches for a town of only 465.

Churches have split over the most insignificant things imaginable. For instance, I was a minister at a church that had a group of people leave our fellowship and begin a house church because we had sandwiches for a Sunday night fellowship. Having voiced their concern that sandwiches were too Low-Class for “The Lord’s Day,” the felt it necessary to exit our congregation and begin a more deliberate worship setting. As far as I know, they are still deciding what to call themselves, I think it is between ‘First Casserole” and “Pot-Luck Fellowship.’

Ministers who find themselves in such a situation must attempt to help heal wounds and clear the air for future ministry, but they must not attempt to do things that only the Holy Spirit can do. This harkens back to another post, “Do Your Job Well!” No wiser words can be spoken when deliberation of past hurts and wrongs begin to arise. This activity will help to protect you, as well as keep the church focused on current issues.

Make today matter in the life of your church and the past just might be allowed to rest in peace.