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Can I have a window in my tent?

 
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ShepherdLeader.com Forum Index -> While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks -> Day 16: While Shepherds Watch Their Flocks
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dcook@GCTS



Joined: 01 Jun 2013
Posts: 5

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 8:07 pm    Post subject: Can I have a window in my tent? Reply with quote

As a pastor I enjoy the inner tension of being both at home among the congregation and being at peace when I am alone. Its a strange calling to live with a supposed healthy ego that other professions would consider neurotic at best, schizophrenic at worst and probably more in line with a multiple personality disorder! And yet, to be with and to not be with and to love being in both is indeed a gift from God.
With that said, most of us pastors find we lean one way or the other. We would prefer to be with people or we would prefer to be alone. And of course we settle in our ministries in churches that hopefully will deem our preferred area as what they have been seeking for in a minister. But what happens when unexpected growth or decline, move from a pastor-led to a program-led church model, when new staff is added and one's area of preference is now shifted for more pragmatic reasons? What price are we really willing to pay for the good of the organization? For the good of the Kingdom? For our good?
I enjoyed the quote in this chapter: "One senior elder handed in is resignation after many years because, in his words, 'All this business keeps me from shepherding the flock.' His frustration was that time spent 'in the tent' was at the expense of time looking after the people in his care. Watching the flock was the reason he was an elder in the first place."
I certainly know this elder feels.
I wonder if there is a way to cut a hole and put a window in the tent where people want us? In the meantime perhaps we should WATCH for the Lord to lead. Here's a suggestion:
What is there I can learn for myself and of myself in this situation. Is the Lord teaching me a new thing?
Am I ready for a change? Is this the Lord's way of moving me on?
Timing is everything. Have I unfulfilled dreams that have not yet come along? Is the Lord really opening a door?
Change is hard. Am I ready? Is my family ready? Are the people ready? Is the Lord wanting to speak to me through others?
Has my joy been displaced by fear? Have I asked the Lord to change me if necessary?
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