UNTANGLING THE PAST...is no easy task. When you try to discover the tangled past of a church, it is even more complex because each individual views it through different eyes. We have been here nearly three years now. Before we came, an outside team had come to review the church and assess whether they had a future or not. They felt they did with many qualifications and a lot of work ahead. We were asked to come for a year to help untangle things, but felt that partly because of the culture here, nothing would be done in one year so decided to stay when asked. People here do not easily share themselves with outsiders. This year we are just beginning to get beneath the surface of a few peoples' lives. In some cases, we hear glowing reports of how wonderful the past was. If we hadn't heard the versions of that same past from grown children of the very people who thought it was so great, it would be tempting to believe the happy reports. When reports are extremely different, we figure the truth is somewhere in between the two. However, there are some objective reports that indicate that there have been many difficult years here...at best.
Now that I am starting to work to develop a women's ministry...in very early stages...I am finding some pockets of resistance--especially from the "rosy past" people. (This has not come as a shock by the way. It is borne out by past experience!) My theory is that the women are the often the heart of the church and once you start changing what is being done with them, you are disrupting a balance that has been developed. If your church is "dysfunctional"/unbiblical in the way it is operating presently, it will respond/react that way. Of course, the whole church rarely responds to things, it is groups within the church that we call "the church". Rarely, an individual's response is not seen as a church's response. So, since our leadership team is not yet up and running, the one to attack last week was me. Oh joy, oh bliss!
A few months ago, Ron and I had an interaction with a family unit and I told him I thought the honeymoon was over and the gloves are coming off. The good thing about it is that now we are finally finding out what is actually going on in some of the peoples' heads. The bad thing is that they are often the ones who parrot back the most information and are obviously NOT internalizing any of it. (Again, no surprise.) For any people in leadership including pastors, remember this: do not believe the praise that is heaped on you when people are first getting to know you and like your teaching. Those will often be the very people who will turn on you when you make a decision they don't like. You still must love them and reach out to them, just beware and NEVER believe peoples' praise. Do whatever you do as an act of worship to God with no expectation of notice or reward here on earth. I think it is in Mt. 25 where Jesus talks about the pharisees who have their reward now when they are praised by people. What you want is to be paised by your heavenly Father. It is His praise that is most important! To the degree that we can live that way, we can be at peace with God and the people we are serving. When we look at the beginning of Phil. 2, we see Christ's example...one that is impossible to follow without the enablement of the Holy Spirit living in and through us. On my own, I can't live like this:

5Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!

Whenever this comes to mind, it puts things in perspective for me. Look what Jesus was entitled to...and what He was willing to give up for my salvation. This is not so that I can feel guilty and grovel, but so that I can appreciate and enjoy the gift I have and through the power of the Holy Spirit, live out this kind of lifestyle to those God places in my way.
I'm coming to believe that we'll never untangle all the messes of the past here...and it may not be necessary. We do need to be connected intimately with the great untangler of messes both in churches and in individuals so that He can work the changes that need to be made in us through those events...such as learning to forgive others for the pain and hurt they caused me or my loved one. Only God can work forgiveness in our hearts and it is needed for our personal freedom. Holding grudges hurts us, not the other person.
Grace and peace for this new day.