People First

I have been talking to a few people recently about what really matters in ministry and churches. It is interesting to talk to them about their experiences and what it feels like to move on from a church you have invested into. Looking at who contacts them and who really cares that they are gone. Do leaders care? Do "Friends" care?

My view is that too many leaders are more concerned with their organisation than they are with the people who make it up. As long as the programs are going well then they are happy. As long as numbers are good and they can then claim "growth" then they are happy. However the programs don't take in to account the people and the depth of their relationships and to be honest I think that many pastors have not even taken these into account.

What is amazing is that the very basis of our faith Jesus was such a people person!  He invested almost completely in the lives of people and gave organisation's only minimal time and energy.  He wanted to eat with Lazarus, not rush him into the temple for a meeting.  He sat and talked with Mary and wanted Martha to join them.  He desired to know his disciples deeply and spend hours with them in traveling around the area.  His desire for the woman caught in adultery was forgiveness, Grace, and Love.  Not discipline and punishment.  His heart was for the person not the program or religious rules.  So how did we get so far away from this heart in the churches we are part of.  How did we get so far away from people and relationship and so completely focused on programs?

I pray that we learn to love people most of all and let the programs be merely tools to help achieve this end and not the end itself!