What would I do differently?

There was a question posted to some prominet american pastors recently on what would they do differently if they were to start allover again in ministry. That got me thinking about myself. I guess thats a very relevant question at this point of my life.

As I bring a close to being in full time christian ministry and leadership, what would I do differently? I think a lot of things. But I guess my first would be that I would live and speak according to my convictions. Its not that I never did, but there were times when I did not say or do anything for fear of "rocking the boat" or that people would not be ready to hear a certain thing. Looking back, I think that has caused confusion to people. I was motivated by a pastoral concern to help people understand and have them move along as we went through a change process. But most probably I did not move forward fast and clearly enough. Partly I was also motivated by fear.........what if they cant take the change too suddenly and leave? So in order that people wont leave the church I agreed to things that I was not convicted about.

If I did this again (which I wont by the way), I will try to live by my convictions......and not live by fear. People leaving will be part of it, but at least there will be certainty in who I am, and what the church really believes in. These people left anyway, so that never really made a difference. So the lesson learned is never to try and be somebody you are not. We will never please everybody and we are not supposed to anyway.

I guess there are other things I would do differently as well....but that's for another day/post. Till then.........