Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Disproportionate Precautions

I had lunch with two young Pentecostal pastors -- the significance of their being two will become apparent. They described to me what I thought were disproportionate measures to protect their reputations. One of them said: "We will not have a milk-shake with a young man at a restaurant, in case anyone should cast aspersions." OBSERVATION: One needs to take reasonable precautions, but my attitude has been far more relaxed than this. I consider that my reputation is in God’s hands. But apart from that, the worst accusations against me have been things that didn’t happen -- so it didn’t help that I didn’t do them! And this is where these Pentecostal ministers' strategy seems misguided. In my studies of Church Leadership (my Master's degrees), it emerged that no strategy protected a minister from enmity or conflict -- although some helped.

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