21
From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go
to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests
and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be
raised to life.
22
Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said.
“This shall never happen to you!” 23 Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” ~ Matthew 16:21-23 (NIV)
Peter was in trouble again.
He was kind of prone to that – always sticking his foot in his
mouth. He meant well, but he was still
learning the way of the Master. And wow,
what a rebuke from Jesus. Jesus pretty
much tells him that he’s playing for the other team. That must have stung.
Thing is, even though Peter screwed up and got such stern
words, we don’t have any indication that Peter was disqualified from being a
disciple by his mistake. In fact, Peter
remained one of the “Three,” the “inner circle” of Jesus’ closest
followers. And Peter continued, on
occasion, to stick his foot in his mouth.
It wasn’t until after Pentecost that Peter preached a great sermon
without embarrassing himself – a sermon God used to bring in 3,000 new
disciples. Good thing he wasn’t
sidelined because of his goof-ups.
When I think about my own journey into ministry, I can
relate to Peter a lot. I made lots of
mistakes. Still do, although they’re
maybe not as noticeable. I’m glad I
wasn’t disqualified from ministry during those months and years I was still
learning. In fact, the longer I work in
ministry, the more I appreciate the gracious people from my home church that
supported me even when I forgot portions of the service or stammered through a
prayer. Shoot, the first time I administered
Holy Communion, I ended up dropping Jesus’ body (the bread) on the floor right
smack in the middle of the most serious part.
Our church board saw the whole thing and you know what? No one complained that I was completely
disrespectful or immature or had brought dishonor upon the Sacrament. They understood that it was my first time,
that I am human, and that my nerves got the best of me.
The biggest factor that kept me in ministry was my pastor,
Dr. Rick McCartney. In him, I had
someone on my side. When I got my first
district license (which he encouraged me to get), he immediately began to refer
to me as “Pastor Lisa” in front of the entire congregation. He gave me responsibilities and trusted me to
do them, even if I didn’t do them perfectly.
When I screwed up, he exhibited not only grace, but he convinced me not
to quit during those times I was wondering what in the world I was thinking
when I thought I could minister in the church.
He had confidence in me even when I didn’t. If someone didn’t like a decision I’d made in
my area of responsibility, he backed me up.
He was a great mentor. I didn’t
always appreciate him enough, but I sure do now.
The more I see other
brothers and sisters (especially sisters) struggling to learn and grow in
ministry, the more I realize how blessed I was.
Unfortunately, lots of senior pastors and church boards have forgotten
the lessons that Jesus taught us about teaching others. Instead of grace and encouragement, young
ministers often face legalism, condemnation over the silliest mistakes (we’re
not talking doctrinal issues here) and when it comes to a church board’s
authority over the new minister, they tend to “lord it over them”. I seem to recall Jesus saying something about
that NOT being the modus operandi of
Christian leadership.
Makes you wonder how Christianity ever grew seeing as how it
was run by a majority of blue-collar riff-raff who’d never gone to
seminary. Then again, Jesus didn’t go to
seminary either…
