Anyways, I've learned a lot this week about expectations; mine and others. When you become a Christian, you hear, or at least some hear, the charge to always be careful of your audience. In other words, you are always being watched, so be who you say you are. Not so much "act" Christian, but "be" Christian. We have enough actors, and actors belong in Hollywood, not disguised as Christians.
So as a Christian, you need to remember that a lost world, a "seeking" without letting you know they are world is watching you to see if you are legit. They want to see if you are loving, and caring and "Christ" like, even if they don't understand fully what that means! Do WE even understand fully what that means? Anyways, this is a given.
When you become a "Christian leader" the stakes are higher. Now, not only are non Christians watching your every moved, but Christians are as well. Now friend or foe, is judge and jury. I am not saying this is the correct way, just simply that it is the way. People watch, and scrutinize your every move, right or wrong. When I say right or wrong, I mean their perceived right or wrong. Committee's are formed, and people tell you what you should do, what others think of what you are doing, and so on.
Where is God in all of this? Clearly, these checks and balances are needed, and sometimes are beneficial. There are many kind souls in the church that are eager to help me understand how to handle certain situations, or quite frankly how I messed up in a certain situation. This is very necessary. I may be a leader in the church by the nature of my job, but that in no way makes me an island or above correction.
I need, you need it. But again, we need it in Love, with the purpose of reconciliation. At the same time however, we as leaders need to remember that for everything we expect others to do (i.e. tithe, don't gossip/slander, evangelize, et cetera) we must make sure we are not doing the same thing.
To often, I find myself being "loosed lipped" about things with my age group, because it's my age group. But again, that is not an excuse, I MUST be above that by the nature of my position but also because God calls me and others to be above it. I can't very well preach to people to be one way and then do another. That's why people don't want to go to church or have lost faith it the church's leaders as a whole.
So I am learning to speak on certain subjects only when absolutely necessary. It's going to be interesting as this isn't like me, and if it goes as planned then people will notice and probably won't like it. You discover a lot of the people you tell "secret" things to are the very ones that leak said secret.
Loose Lips Sink Ships, haha. Sometimes, it's better to leave things left unsaid!
Thoughts?
-Brian
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