ICONS EVERY PASTOR NEEDS
Six ways to remember your value.
Greg Asimakoupoulos
January 1, 1993
Six ways to remember your value.
"What a poor excuse for a pastor you are!"
His unexpected words found an unprotected gap in my armor. I swallowed hard to drain the tears before they reached my eyes. My face blushed. I felt humiliated in front of the other leaders of the church.
Merle, the secretary of the church board, had taken advantage of our monthly meeting to unpack his emotional baggage.
"You haven't visited my daughter in the hospital. You haven't shown sufficient gratitude to my wife for her work on the women's commission. And I'm sick and tired of it!"
I hadn't known Merle's grown daughter (who didn't attend our church) was in the hospital. I had not expressed thanks to his wife because I hadn't appreciated her attempts to undermine an effective program.
My history with Merle made his attack even more painful. Shortly after we moved to town, he let us use the family condo at Lake Tahoe, where I spent a week of writing and reflection. He donated equipment for my office. He frequently took me out to lunch. In his words I was "one helluva preacher!"
In the board meeting, I chose not to answer the charges for fear my voice would crack or I would erupt in anger. Instead I stared at the agenda on the table in front of me and wondered how soon the meeting would end so I could go home and die. Fortunately, other members of the board rose to my defense and silenced his thorny tongue.
But I found my sweetest exoneration later, reading a little handwritten note tucked in my Bible. The shaky scrawl belonged to an elderly woman in my previous parish. It was my first year out of seminary. I'd been on staff at the church for only four months when the senior pastor resigned to pursue a doctorate in England. For thirteen months I served ...
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