I love the traditional non-denomination church God has called me to serve. I could go on and on about how good our church has been for our family and how much I love being here where God has us. I know my situation is not all that common for a guy in his early 30’s. Most men my age in ministry have gone the church planting route. But, I know for certain that there are others like me whom God has called into older and more traditional congregations. I want to call those men to attention here in this post. For all the good that is going on in churches like ours, there is one “Value” of traditional churches that I am asking you to fight against. So, what is that “Value”?
I have found that most traditional churches expect the pastor to know everyone in the church. These churches value a pastor who can do this well, it’s expected. So what is wrong with this value? Well, the unintentional consequence of this value is that the pastor goes through his entire ministry with no true friends. He may know a lot of names and some basic information about the people in the church, but he doesn’t actually know anyone. Not, only does he not truly know anyone he is not being invested in either. This is not healthy. For you to last you are going to have to intentionally pursue depth. You may face ridicule and criticism. Your people may not understand. They may think you don’t care. So you will have to love them by helping them understand you need of deep relationships. Don’t neglect width, but never sacrifice depth.
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