Ever since the time I have entered the ministry people have been advising me that there were certain traits that I HAD to have to survive. The most reoccurring piece of advice I received was, “You must be thick-skinned!” I’ll be honest, I hadn’t thought much about this over the last 5 years, I mean let’s face it: it’s pretty hard to get under my skin or hurt my feelings, but when this subject came up in one of the books I am currently reading it made me really think back over my ministry. Have I been thick-skinned?
The more I thought about it the more I felt like I had been overly aware of how people treated me and what I did in my ministry. If anything I have been thin-skinned. And then I thought about how leaders in the church would function if they truly were think-skinned. We would have a bunch of desensitized robots running one of the most personal and emotional movements all of the world, and that just wouldn’t be right.
I think if I were to tell fellow ministers anything it would be that you can’t run a marathon in a suit of armor. Ministry (and our Christian life for that matter) is a marathon, and if we try to avoid all conflict or deflect all criticism without first thinking about it we will never make it all the way to the finish line. Instead we must learn how to constructively deal with every obstacle and how to turn even the worst of situations into teachable moments. I know that this requires a certain amount of boldness that some of us are not used to displaying, but life is too short to waste being timid and thick-skinned. Let’s get out there, do the best we can, and when we get hurt, get over it and go on.
# ck on October 11th, 2007
Very nice post Joel.