Pastoral Discoveries

So....Pastor, you have discovered that everyone doesn't love you. Someone actually dislikes you. They don't like your preaching. They are critical of your wife and watch your children like a hawk. They give the impression to others that they are devoted Christians, but truthfully they are full of envy and jealousy. They resent going off to work while you sit in your office studying your Bible. They tell others that they think you get your sermons off the internet. You are not nearly as smart and scholarly as a previous pastor was. He knew some Greek words. You haven't visited their ex-cousin-in-law who has been in the hospital in the next county. You bring new people into church and they make them feel uncomfortable. As soon as they get the chance, they will inform the new people about what is all wrong about the church. You can't get them to come to prayer meeting, but they always show up for business meeting to express their opinion. You see needs that could easily be met by the church. There is plenty of money in the treasury. But they insist that we "take up a special offering." They seem ready to support mission projects in far off lands, but say too much money is being spent on the youth program or gasoline to pick up children in the church van. They sit for hours waiting to be the first into the big college game, but when it gets close to 12:00 in church, they start rustling around and looking at their watch. They bemoan the decline of the community and note the declining church attendance, but they don't want the kind of people who now live around the church. Yet, they get teary eyed when they say they wish they were in a position to go on a mission trip to Mugabe. When you tell a humorous story to lighten the mood, they are offended and too spiritual to laugh. You are not to have any political views -- unless they are the same as theirs. Oh....No. Now you hear that they have been visiting another church ....and you may lose them!!! Oh my, pastor, what will you do? Everyone will blame you.(See Psalm 3)