Love/Hate

I love being a pastor, and sometimes I hate it. Well, I hate certain parts of it. For the last few weeks, it's seemed pretty manic-depressive, high highs, low lows, and it's been hard to get into a rhythm. I hate the fact that I'm writing sermons long into Saturday night, I hate the fact that I don't see my family as much as I think I should, I hate the fact that this church isn't the way I think it should be yet. I hate the fact that I'm having such a hard time picking hymns that people will know and that I'm spending so much time worrying about it after a couple comments I got. I love the fact that people are excited about church and telling their friends. I love the fact that they're getting the Word of God from my sermons. I love the fact that there's a lot of unity and trust in this church, and even though I get criticism, that people tell me in a spirit of trying to be helpful.

I went on a sermon planning retreat earlier this week. It was an awesome opportunity for the pastors in my circuit. I got to hang out with 2 retired and 2 current pastors in a cabin overlooking Lake Tahoe for a few days. It was everything I had hoped...an opportunity to spend hours uninterrupted in planning, an opportunity to pick at the minds of some men who had served long term pastorates (one for 35 years, one for 42!).

Big conviction of the retreat: I spend a lot of time telling people to do evangelism, but I don't spend a lot of time teaching them how to share the gospel. If that's really what we're all about, I need to lead people to learn how to be all about evangelism. It's easy to say "Just Do It," it's pretty hard to try to explain how.

It's hard work to love people. But it's good work.