A few hours ago I wrote a post entitled 7 things self-absorbed super-spiritual pastors say in the pulpit. The post was about the Unfortunate behavior of some preachers who relentlessly use their teaching to cut and hurt people.

My purpose was to argue that sometimes sensitivity,  tact and cleverness in the way we communicate pays off greatly as we seek to deliver a difficult to swallow kind of message, convey a rebuke, or bring correction to a person who really needs it. For me, sometime our so-called speaking truth to power can come across as vicious, rude and simply disrespectful.

However, if not careful, balanced and in tune with the Holy Spirit, we can find ourselves slipping into that place where we are only concern about making people feel comfortable and doing everything not to get them offended. Unfortunately, some churches, preachers and writers have fallen into the trap of being politically correct because of fear that somebody is going to get offended.

This is spiritually dangerous not only for the leader, the membership, but also the entire organization when truth is water down because of fear of being disliked.

Jenni Catron once said, “Great leaders are comfortable making others uncomfortable for a vision of a greater good. They understand that keeping others happy perpetuates the status quo. And they’re willing to risk being liked for being extraordinary.”

Sometimes when the apostle Paul, the same Paul who talked about not pleasing men (1 Thess. 2:4; 4:1; Gal. 1:10), preached, the results led to riots and jail time. This was a guy who was totally comfortable making others uncomfortable no matter the result.

We all know that sometimes this is all it takes to bring down spiritual walls in our christian circles – a man or a woman of God, preacher, writer, poet, singer – filled with Holy Spirit boldness and willing to risk being liked for being extraordinary.

Related articles

• 10 things self-absorbed, super-spiritual preachers say in the pulpit (waltbrite.wordpress.com)
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