Reading an issue of Worship Leader Magazine (Nov/Dec 08) this week and found an article written by Paul Baloche of real interest. For those of you who aren’t familiar with his name (though most of you probably are) he is the author of such songs as ‘Open The Eyes of My Heart’, ‘Hosanna’, ‘All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises’, just to name a few out of hundreds. But Paul is much more than a song writer. He really is a worship pastor.
In the article he shares his personal experience of going from being pretty much uninvolved to being stretched way beyond his comfort zone as a young believer and how that set him on a path that eventually led him to pastoral ministry. It is the same old story that I never grow tired of hearing - how, against fear and trepidation, someone steps out (or is pushed) and ends up, eventually, being just an amazing leader.
It is quite a journey with lots of learning along the way. I found the following words from Paul to be particularly thoughtful:
“The church needs leaders. It’s easy for us to sit back and let someone else do it. It’s easy to analyze and criticize the decisions that our elders or pastors make. But I learned very quickly how difficult it is to wrestle through the endless array of problems when I stepped up to be an elder myself. Wow! What a revelation it was. Since then I have gained such an appreciation for those who are willing to sacrifice hours and hours for the sake of the local church, getting involved with everything from the most difficult personal issues of church members to mundane minutiae of buildings and budgets. So many times we want to walk away and leave it for someone else to figure out, while we sanctimoniously sip our Starbucks from the sidelines and point out the flaws and inconsistencies.”
Enough said,
Steve
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