I am not a fan of selfish people.
I recently had a day where I had to either give input to or write messages to people that were just being selfish. Something at church had changed, and they didn’t like it. Forget about whether the change was for the better, or that God had led leadership to make it, something different made them unhappy. Maybe we stopped doing something they liked. Or we added something they didn’t.
I wanted to simply tell them to grow up, or go re-read the first sentence in Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life.” But I didn’t. I patiently explained why we did what we did. I explained how we came to the decision, and what it accomplished in the overall vision of ministry. I hope that the message got through.
Sadly, it’s these selfish complainers, who cannot get past their own comfort and familiarity, that can drain the life out of ministry. Instead of focusing on the call God has placed on your life, you must placate people that should know better. They should know that their comfort matters little when faced with work of eternal significance.
We spent too many hours trying to craft the best way to communicate with people that have too much trouble seeing around their blinders. I don’t want to say it was time wasted, because some might come around. But it felt like time wasted.
I have to trust that the effort we put in were not in vain.
Scott Link Media 