Caring for Key Leaders
Bruce Larson
A church is not a clinic in which a faceless and interchangeable staff services the clientele by showing up and handing out pills. The staff of a church is a living, breathing family. We may wrestle at times. We may injure one another sometimes and rescue each other at others. But we're in it together and need one another.
— Bruce Larson For several years in Seattle, I owned a sailboat that I loved to take out on Puget Sound to get away from it all. I kept a picture of it on my desk, and it provided a fantasy outlet for me. If things get really bad, I thought, I can get on that boat and sail right out of here! Well, things never got that bad, thanks to the fact that so many people were caring for me, not the least of those being my wife, Hazel (in spite of the fact that last year she talked me into selling the boat!). Actually, Hazel and I have understood our need for care since my first pastorate. That first church out of Princeton Seminary was in Binghamton, New York, where I was associate pastor. Hazel and I had been married during my last year of seminary, and ten months later our first baby arrived. Then four months after that, a second baby was on the way. All the changes in our lives took a toll. Mad and frantic, and with our marriage in serious trouble, we reached out in desperation to two lay couples in the church who were also new parents. "We're going through a terrible time," we confessed. They surprised us by saying, "So are we!" So we decided to meet with them to pray and read the Bible. Those meetings turned us around and saved three marriages. But beyond that, genuine new life broke out, and within a year, a number of groups were meeting. By the next year, there must have been a hundred such groups gathering out ...
Like the preview? To read this complete article
and 18,013 more in the archive—JOIN NOW!
Easily find high-quality, well-researched materials that provide a Christian perspective on topics ranging from headlines to history.
Start using this invaluable tool TODAY for preparing your Bible studies, presentations, class lectures, sermons, meetings, and more.
|
It's easy and quick to join:
Brought to You by Christianity Today Int'l |  |
|
| 
Find similar articles
E-mail this page
