Simultaneity

There was a time before I beagn serving as a youth minister when I was very heavily involved in a Star Trek fan organization and served, for a time, on the board of directors. This was an organization that was dedicated to improving local communities, serving the fans, and building community among its members (sound familiar?). But, at every turn, there was back stabbing, bickering, and in-fighting.

At first, I thought that this was just on the lists and the forums of the general membership, after all, people are people and not all of them know how to behave. After moving through the ranks and begining to serve on 'the inside' I found that the mailing lists of the leadership of the organization was even worse. The people who were supposed to be moving the organization forward where the ones that best and verbally abusing one another...In fact, it's one of the reasons I left...that and the populace of the organization seemed to chew up and spit out anyone looking to imporve things...typical work your tail off and make a difference and eventually you get tired of it not being enough....

Anyhow, on to ministry. I fully understand that the church isn't perfect and it will only be that way when Christ returns, so there is always going to be disagrements and a little infighting. People come up with silly reasons to be disgruntled and rather than seek reconciliation often tend to make problems worse...but again, I believe that this was mostly among the laity.

Recently I joined the Youth Specialties mailing list...already I've found some great ideas and I'm glad to have the resource. Unfortunatly, it seems like the fan club all over again.

The list is mixed with both paid and unpaid ministers, but there seem to be some that have forgotten why they are there...or perhaps the reason they are there is that the feel the need to fight with others. In a recent post someone felt the need to defend what they percieved as an attack on Calvinist and rather than point out where the mistakes were made, they went on to attack the person.

Sigh...I realize that we're all human and we all fall short, but how do we reach the unsaved if we cannot show them that being a Christian is different.

"And they will know we are Christians by our love."