Gospel Music Times Feature Article
What Are You Gonna Do About The Christian ‘Crazies’ Out There?
If you haven't encountered one yet, just hang on. It's not a matter of IF, it's just a matter of WHEN. Ministry is all about people and there certainly are a few interesting flavors of ‘em out there!
When we set out to do ministry, we expect to encounter only Godly people who show integrity and grace. Spoiler alert. It doesn’t work out that way. And you know why? Because everyone out there has their own 'stuff'. And if you're going to survive being in ministry you're going to need to learn how to separate their 'stuff' from your 'stuff'.
So, how do we identify a ‘Christian Crazie'? Well, for me, there are several things that point out the craziness. It can be an issue of opinion or perspective. Certainly we all have our opinion and our perspective and our experience. Where it can get crazy is if someone judges someone else as less Godly because they don't think like them.
Sometimes it can be a circumstance that brings out craziness. Let me give you an example. Let's say you're charging $20 for a CD or a book (or anything else for that matter) and because someone is unemployed or suffering financial hardship you're now deemed as ‘unGodly’ because you're requiring money for an exchange. I know...it sounds crazy, but it happens.
Sometimes it's emotional reverberation. We all experience life in very different ways and we can bounce our current experience off the walls of our past experiences. Someone might have an interchange with you that (for some weird brain connection reason) makes them associate that interaction to some negative painful thing that happened with someone else in their past. They make an immediate emotional connection to that incident and then over react with you. It’s easy to get emotionally confused, and an easy way out is to lash out against the situation that’s right in front of us.
I have a sign on my office wall that says, “The bigger the pain, the bigger the pain.” What that means is people have unresolved pain in their life and that can cause them to be a ‘pain’ to deal with. Usually the bigger the ‘pain’ they are to you, the larger the pain in their life. So when they act out with you, even though you're the lucky recipient of their actions, it's really not about you. You just happen to be a reminder of something else going on inside them. It may temporarily alleviate their pain to lash out, but it doesn't ever get down to their real core issue. You are just a temporary diversion to the real work that needs to be done between that person and the Lord. Sadly, as much as you'd like to be able to reach out and help them in that situation, you’re not likely to be able to. That kind of stuff takes deep trusting relationship over time.
So what do you do when you collide with a Christian Crazie? I have three helpful tips for you:
1. Stop your racing mind and immediately pray a prayer of protection over your own heart and emotions. Simply ask the Lord to protect your heart and keep it from any further wounding. Remember, you don’t want to do any emotional reverberation of your own!
2.Then, pray a prayer of blessing over this person.
3. Do not attempt to convince or persuade this person in any way.
You can make a choice to take whatever happens to you personally (or not). Although something really isn’t actually about your failure in some instance, you can be encouraged to FEEL like it is. But, let's be full of grace and love when we encounter one another. Let's try to believe the best in each other and leave the other stuff up to God. Let's be crazy in love with Him when we encounter one of His crazie kids. (Psalm 55:22)
Just something to think about…
Tami Rowbotham
Vice President A&R
Incubator Creative Group
www.IncubatorOnline.com/GPS
P.S. If you haven’t already, be sure to tap into our complimentary 7-hour music ministry GPS. Visit
http://www.IncubatorOnline.com/GPS for some helpful direction along the road less traveled in ministry.
