Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Church Politics: Afterthoughts

I have thought a lot about my three posts on church politics this past week. Even though my hardest experience with them happened over four years ago, it still feels very real even to today. I guess that is the problem everyone has with politics in church,. Church needs to be more than a business environment. There are people, that if I saw right now, I don't know how I'd react. I like to think that I could be cordial and leave the past in the past, but I thought a lot this week about that. I still think church politics exist in every church, but I hope I didn't come across as hardened by my experience. Such as simply thinking that they exist and we just need to deal with it. Partially, this is true. But also, everyone deals with emotional hurts and pains different. Some people never recover from being hurt by church leadership or even in a small group and they allow this hurt to wreak havoc on their relationship with Christ. The bottom line for me is that if you are expecting church to be a bubble from the crap of life, you are fooling yourself. If you put yourself into church ministry whole heartedly, you will get hurt at some point. The saying goes...better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. This applies to church politics because you can only get out of ministry what you put in. If you never put your whole self into it, you will never get everything out of it that you can. Only CHRIST can be that safe haven from life's crap. He is our comfort. Him alone.

3 comments:

Miranda said...

it's very evident the integrity you and your family have regarding the church politics issue. to see you guys from the outside looking in, the pain and hardship, but to come together as a family and keep Christ the center and go on, and to see you NOW. it's an honor to be a part of your oregon family.

also, it's an incredible testimony to all of us what it means to be incredibly dedicated to Christ and not get swallowed by sin that the church body's individuals can bring into the church. the overall goal here is to not get burned by thinking that God is a reflection of the issues church politics can bring, but to lift him high in spite of them. great post mr. braun.

Jenni Clayville said...

Great post, Tyler...

You're right. It's better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all.

Good thing all this politics junk won't be in heaven, right?

Anonymous said...

I can totally relate to getting burned by the church. I saw my mom experience it time after time growing up because she was in ministry (and still is). I've personally experienced it a few times in my past eight years of being in ministry. To be honest, I am actually in the process of experiencing it currently.

A song by Sara Groves has encouraged me during this time. It's called "Love Is Still A Worthy Cause". I think God has used that song to remind me that no matter how much I get hurt or burned by people or by senior pastors, love is still a worthy cause.