To me at least, pomposity seems off the mark for Christian leaders
I wonder — do they make a diet pill designed to trim down “fatheads”? Oh, of course I know they don’t. But the last post I made has me thinking about various pompous people I’ve had the misfortune of trying to deal with within an evangelical Christian setting over the years.I grew up in a mainline Christian environment — until I reached my teen years and got very caught up in the zeal of what might be called “fundamentalist” evangelical Christianity. Most of that won’t matter to most of you reading this, but I’m sure some of you will understand.
At this point, I consider myself leaning much more toward my mainline roots. I spent almost 20 years as an ordained minister with a very large evangelical denomination. In 1994, feeling a need for a greater “connection” to the church universal/historic, I began looking around and ended up joining a different church. I was immediately asked to resign a position I held (mentioned in my last post) as news editor of their weekly denominational magazine. I intentionally resigned my ministerial credentials, not wanting to create any perceived conflict between my new church and anyone within the old one who might wonder why I had left.
I remained — in fact, I REMAIN — on good terms with the evangelical organization, though I’m still a member in a mainline church group. I’ve always felt the important thing about being a Christian wasn’t the “label” or church name you wore, but your relationship with God in Christ.
Sorry. Not trying to preach at you, but I felt it important to clarify my ramblings somewhat: I acknowledge Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior in the personal, biblical sense same as my evangelical brothers and sisters. Indeed, one of the delightful things I discovered after returning to my “mainline roots” was that there really ARE good, legitimate Christians outside that narrow evangelical circle.
And one of the most distressing things I found, both in my more evangelical past and in my mainline present, is that Christian leaders are often guilty of the same failings as their “secular” or “non-Christian” counterparts — they get too carried away with their own importance and become pompous. They even sometimes become downright hypocritical.
Yes, I know, that’s a shock, isn’t it?
I once did a short (5-10 minutes?) workplace devotional presentation titled, “If I Were God for a Day …” I had fun with it. The gist of the speech was this: Even at my best, I cannot say I would make the right decisions about who to punish and who to reward — so it’s a really good thing I am NOT God, for a day, a minute, or even a fraction of a second.
Now if we can just remind Christian leaders at all levels of the truth of that …
And that, good readers, will be my last “sermonizing” for the holiday season! (Maybe. Maybe not. Who can say?)
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