It is 60 degrees and cloudy outside with smatterings of rain. Last week I drank not one but two Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Yesterday I finished off the last of a jug of Simply Lemonade and sadly don’t plan on buying another one until late April, early May. And due to the weather, I seriously debated not wearing shorts today. In the end I put the shorts on because you can’t let go of summer al at once. Yet still, it must be Autumn.
Nobody is happier about that than me. I love the Fall. I love football games and cross country races and pumpkin flavored everything and brown leaves that crunch beneath your foot. Everything about this time of year is simply amazing, with one huge exception.
In the Autumn, because I am pastor, I have to spend huge amounts of time recruiting people to do things for me.
Of course us pastors are not really asking people to “help us out” but more to “help the church out.” Yet it is hard to see it that way. The church and its pastor get so closely intertwined during this time of year that we feel like we are asking everybody for deeply personal favors. In fact, what little political capitol we have been storing up all summer is spent quite quickly through carefully worded, overly polite requests to “invest in discipling our children,” to “assist us in making our building more hospitable” to “aid our worship service in making it more vibrant” and to “help our outreach event reach the lost for Jesus.” (See the key below for translations of all that Christianese.)
Not surprisingly most Christians in America don’t want to do any of those things. After all it is the Fall, which means their personal lives have all become ten times busier than they were just one month ago, which is crazy because they were really busy a month ago.
So throughout the country church goers have specialized in the polite and non confrontational rejection that is barely a rejection. Most times your poor pastor doesn’t know they have been rejected until they reflect back on it the next day.
“I just don’t feel like that is my calling.”
“I just need to focus on my family right now.”
“I have too much going on and can’t give it the attention it deserves.”
“I’ll pray about it.”
Once again, see the key below to translate all those Christianese cliches.
And I appreciate polite non confrontation as much as the next person. In fact, I suppose the fact that nobody is willing to just say “no” outright symbolizes that there is just enough positional authority in the title “Pastor” to warrant some degree of nicety.
And yet I have found over the last couple weeks that I deeply appreciate outright “no’s” way more than the overly polite avoidance tactics adopted by most Christians.
In fact, those few times someone has just said, “no, I don’t want to do that,” I have found myself going back to tell them “thank you” because I would rather a blunt and honest truth than an overly polite lie. I think there is biblical warrant for that. Politeness is rarely, if ever, extolled in our great book but honesty is a downright basic requirement. And sadly one that most Christians today sorely lack.
For that reason, when someone lies to me about wanting to help with the children’s ministry, I always wonder what else they are lying about and who else they are lying too.
But when someone just flat out tells me, “No, that isn’t my thing” I at least know I can trust them.
After all, the worse thing that can happen is that someone says yes out of obligation and then ends up hating the church and hating me because they felt coerced into doing something they don’t want to do.
So this gorgeous Autumn, as you sip those Pumpkin Spice Lattes and watch those Sunday night football games and feel the cold rain fall across your brow, feel free to be honest with your pastor(s). Be polite and respectful as can be about it for there is a big difference between being honest and being a jerk.
But trust your pastor enough to tell them the truth about that halloween event or that children’s program or that lawn maintenance project. Seriously, if your pastor can’t deal with a little bit of honesty they are probably in the wrong profession anyways! Instead, I hope they reward you richly for it!
Christianese Dictionary
“Invest in discipling our children” means showing up once a week to color pictures with them.
“Assist us in making our building more hospitable” means taking time to fix a broken toilet or mow the lawn.
“Make our worship service more vibrant” means joining our worship team in whatever capacity.
“Help our outreach event reach the lost for Jesus” means showing up on Halloween and passing out candy to the trick-or-treaters.
“I don’t feel like it is my calling” means I don’t want to do it.
“I just need to focus on my family right now” means I don’t want to do it.
“I have too much going on right now and can’t give it the attention it deserves” means I don’t want to do it.
“I just need to focus on my family right now” means I don’t want to do it.
“I’ll pray about it” means no.
Go-Before Grace 