Transparency
Nov/062
I don't have it all together. I don't have it all figured out. I don't always do the right thing. Sometimes I actually make a conscious choice to do the wrong thing. I struggle with temptation. I lack self-control in certain areas of my life.
This was a big part of my message on Sunday. We talked about self-control and I decided to come clean before our church family. The plain, simple, ugly truth is that I don't always excercise self-control. And I wanted our people to understand that.
It wasn't that many years ago that Bible Colleges would teach preaching students not to be too transparent in their preaching. The thinking was that you don't want to undermine your credibility by showing yourself to be too flawed or imperfect. But there's a problem in that thinking. I am flawed and imperfect. And I am also honest. So if I combine all of those things, then I have to be honest about my flaws and imperfections.
Interestingly, what I have discovered in my ministry career is that people appreciate authenticity. Instead of undermining my credibility, it actually enhances it. That was on full display from my message on Sunday. I received a lot of comments and emails thanking me for being so open and honest about my struggles. Let me share a short snippet from one email I received.
"I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate the fact that you use yourself as an example in your messages! You are the ONLY preacher I've ever known that admits to being human. You're not just telling us that humans can make mistakes, you share how your mistakes affect your life."
I just got a new book that I'm dying to rip into. Craig Groeschel's new book, Confessions of a Pastor, is all about this issue of pastoral authenticity. The back cover poses this question: "Is the REAL you getting lost because the FAKE you is just so annoyingly impressive?"
That's not just a good question for pastors. That's a pretty darn good question for every single one of us.
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9:23 am on November 16th, 2006
How right you are Michael Carl. I think you have just identified the one true struggle for every single minister alive today (if they are honest about it).
1:31 pm on November 17th, 2006
Joel, one of the things I've always appreciated about you is your authenticity. I know that shines through your ministry as well as through your personal life.
I got into the book, Confessions of a Pastor, that I mentioned in the post. In the very first chapter, Craig Groeschel talked about how one of his college profs encouraged them to keep the "pastor mystique." He said that people don't want to know that their ministers struggle with things. Instead they want them to be squeaky clean. From my experience (and from Groeschel's as well), that's just flat wrong.