I hope I am never one of the 8

The Man Minute
May 4.09

There are many areas in life that we neglect out of the simple assumption that somebody else is on top of it. Take politics for instance. Our nation's representatives have no real idea of accountability because we, as citizens, basically provide very little of it. What else could explain the fact that our politicians spend millions of our dollars on things that make us want to vomit? We always assume somebody is on top of it, when in fact, it's our very own job that we are neglecting.

Believe it or not, the same is true with the concept of encouragement.

Do you know that some studies show that the average pastor will resign and walk away from a church over ... wait for it ... eight people! Eight people make his life so miserable that he literally gives up.

Just so you know, that statistic holds true ... wait for it again ... for mega church pastors as well. Even in churches that host thousands of people in worship, the average mega church pastor is not exempt from the eight people who seek to destroy his spirit. If you were the devil, how would you go about destroying the spirit of a man of God? Would you cause him litigation grief by having the city council sue him for preaching the gospel? No. If I were the devil I know exactly how I'd destroy a pastor's spirit. I'd put eight of the most sour, bitter people front and center on Sunday morning so that when he preaches he must look at their "faithful" faces. I'd find a way to make them deacons, and committee members, so that he must deal with their venom at every turn.

Pastors face incredible spiritual battles, but the average church member never knows it until the battle has gone public, and the pastor is already on his way out the door. In a church of 500 members, what would happen if the voices of the "great eight" fell on deaf ears because the pastor was surrounded by 492 ambassadors of encouragement? Don't worry about it, though, somebody else is on top of it.

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