The Christian Century

Terra Pennington felt like walking away from her job. She was planting a church and feeling so burnt out that she didn’t know what to do. So she started counting down until UNCO.

We have a culture of nice that allows bullies to flourish. I have watched as this culture allowed certain people to take over a church. Then the group placates that person, and even asks the person who stands up to the bully to sit down, in order to maintain peace. This dynamic can and does kill churches.

Just as it is the cable news network’s job to keep the fear-mongering ratings up, it is the job of religious leaders to remind us to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. It is our job to make sure that we keep up our interfaith dialogue. It is also our job to inspire people to forgive.

 There is a prevalent idea in culture that pastors are money-grubbers. I think I have met one of those. Maybe. But, for the most part, we hate asking for money. The majority of church budgets go to salaries, and we feel bad about that, even if we make less than a third of the average person in our congregation. So we can get embarrassed during stewardship time.