Directing a ministry is similar to running a company in some ways.  Liken dealing with customers and vendors to working with volunteers and other ministry leaders.  Do you know what I have found?  Everybody makes mistakes, including me.

Just recently I’ve made changes to the phone system.  The company I changed to made a couple mistakes in how it was set up and missed the promised date.  I could have let them have it verbally but I didn’t.  They were very apologetic and proactive in rectifying the errors.

By nature I am a person of principle but I have learned through the years that it isn’t so much that people make mistakes but how they deal with those mistakes that makes the difference.

In the church, your pastor will make mistakes.  Ministry leaders will make mistakes. You will make mistakes if you are involved in the ministry in strategic ways.

• How will you react to mistakes you see others make?
• How will you handle mistakes you make?

Many church conflicts and splits could have been avoided if a little grace had been applied.  And, it would have been easier for people to exercise that grace had those at fault handled their mistakes with humility, grace, wisdom, and understanding.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.  (Ps. 103:11-14)

October is National Clergy Appreciation Month in the U.S. with the second Sunday of the month being Clergy Appreciation Day (perhaps also known as Pastor Appreciation Day or Ministry Appreciation Day).

If I were to take a poll asking people what they think about their pastors, I’d probably get a mixed review . . .

from quite happy to very disgruntled with the pastor.

The reasons behind those responses would vary, even if people marked the same level of satisfaction.  Some would be reporting objectively while others subjectively.  Hence, some could be based on reality and some on false perceptions.  Personal preferences and biases can enter in.

So, perhaps the question we need to ask is what God thinks.  A verse I have often heard used for Pastor Appreciation Day is 1 Thessalonians 5:12 –

Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you. Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work.

But, where does that leave those of you on the more disgruntled side … especially those who are basing your perception on reality because the pastor truly isn’t doing a good job or has made a series of poor choices?  Let’s keep going in 1 Thessalonians 5 to verses 13 – 18.

1. Live in peace with each other.
2. … warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
3. Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
4. Be joyful always.
5. Pray continually.
6. Give thanks in all circumstances.

… for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

On the first Sunday of October some will celebrate World Communion Day.  Yet, the ordinance of communion depicts one of the many differences among Christendom.

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Not all churches celebrate communion the same way.  Some use a single cup and some provide a small plastic cup for everyone.  Some use a loaf of bread and others small wafers.  Some pass the elements while some have people come forward.  And that is just methodology.   Theological differences exist among churches in the ordinance of communion as well as how often communion should be served.

At minimum, communion provides a remembrance of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross.  Let’s get to the bottom line of communion, the work of Jesus on the cross, and find our commonality in Him.  When we do, communion equals communion, not just with God but also with one another.

With all the liberal and immoral influences in the world around us, we Christians need to lay aside our differences and come together with one voice in Christ to be that salt and light so desperately needed.  We can do that when we remember that it is who we are “in Him,” because of what He did on the cross, that really matters.