Humbled By A Compliment

As the fall is approaching and I have begun my 5th year of ministry here at First UMC, I have started to seriously meditate on what I have accomplished as a pastor and what we had to build on. I had come up with a list of things I hadn't accomplished, things that still needed to be done, and things that would be challenging yet necessary for us to do in order to truly begin to grow.

It is easy to be our own worst critic when it comes to fulfilling the expectations we have set for ourselves and especially when we compare them to someone else. Yet we also need a reminder that sometimes we may have a time line that is not necessarily Gods time.

I was pleasantly delighted to receive a note from a guest who worshiped here this summer. In that note they described the sermon as "easy to listen to and made us think." (I'll start shrinking my head now).

But beyond that they began to describe their appreciation for our congregation as "open and friendly" noting that several people made it a point to visit with them before and after the service. They said they felt at "home" and said it was "refreshing to be a part of a functioning church."

The words of Christian song artist Bob Carlisle came to my mind: "for all that I've done wrong, I must have done something right." I'm not sure what that is and perhaps that is not the point, other than if we are faithful to the journey that God is leading us on, then even if we are not as far along as we may want to be, for right now we were right where we needed to be. Sometimes we need an outsiders perspective to point out where we need improvement, and sometimes we need an outsiders perspective to point out where we may in fact be getting it right. No matter where we are on our journey, God is with us.