Here’s something that I’ve been mulling over lately.

The Church is a messy place.  Don’t ask me how, but as leaders in the Church we have perfected the duplicitous thought that perfection is a requirement for leadership.  While 1 Timothy, Titus and other scripture lay out some very important ground rules for leadership, perfection is not one of them.  In fact, if it were we’d all be in big trouble!

I’ve found that as a Pastor it is sometimes easier to dismiss someone as not fit for leadership simply because their personality doesn’t jive with my own.  The same is true in relationship to my own calling.

As I hone in on my true calling as a Pastor (the great commission to “make disciples”), I’m realizing that the very act of dealing with personality conflict is part of the discipleship process.  It’s part of me becoming more like Christ and it’s part of them becoming more like me (in Christ).  To use a cliche song lyric, it’s really just a big “beautiful mess”.  So I’m finding myself repeating this phrase over and over in regards to myself and my leadership teams…

“Don’t confuse personality conflict with divine calling… or lack thereof.”