Holiday Season Heartache

"Tend ... the flock of God ... Not domineering [as arrogant, dictatorial, and overbearing persons] over those in your charge." (1 Peter 5:2a, 3a; Amplified)

Can I just be honest with you? If you're a minister, preacher, on staff, even a volunteer at a church, the holiday / Christmas season can be (and is many times) a burden. It's true.

This is how it happens. You have outreaches planned, parades, free meals you're offering, etc., that you must and will be a part of. You've spent the last six months preparing for a holiday play ~ and in some churches with real animals to boot! (I don't know where the idea of competing with Hollywood crept in.) And all these other holiday season type things you're offering beyond what is already an overflow of regular commitments and expectations. (I've lived it.)

And if you daresay you can't participate / choose to do something else, you will be frowned upon and thought of as not very committed to Christ's cause. ("What's wrong with you?") If you don't think it takes place in the church, well....

And what happens is the holiday season, Christmas and Jesus at the center of it ~ it all becomes a blur for ministers and their families. It does! And you're really just trying to survive until you can have some alone time with your wife and kids (and personally). And you lose a piece of yourself. (Selah~pause to reflect)

Pastor's kids become bitter over it. Good, caring (and called) ministers eventually leave the ministry. (Many of them do.)

It simply ought not to be. It takes compassion (and courage) to change it.

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• Favored One
• There Was No Room?