Anyone else finding this series challenging? I know studying for these posts is challenging to me. My friend, Tony Cooke, once told me that Rhema students and pastors, found when Brother Hagin went through these verses and the parallel passage in 1 Timothy 3 the most challenging time in their time at college, or in a minister’s conference.
Paul does not suffer from low standards for leaders. It’s quite remarkable, this apostle of grace who is the one who lets us know above any other author in all history that our righteousness only comes from grace and never from works, is so exacting on standards for leaders. It’s a sharp turn, but it is something we all need to understand – to be part of the church, to be part of the body of Christ, requires only to believe in Jesus Christ, His deity, His humanity and His death and resurrection. But to be in leadership, to be trusted, to be platformed, to be given a place of visibility takes the most exceptional character, devotion and patience! It’s hard work – probably the hardest part of being a leader – working on character. So, yes, be challenged, but don’t be desponent, keep believing and expecting the Lord to comfort you and challenge you and change you.
Today’s phrase from Paul is “not soon angry” (Titus 1.7, KJV) and the phrase “soon angry” is just one word in Greek, orgilos. It is no surprise that it means someone who gets angry quickly – so quickly, they have not assessed the information before losing their temper, they cannot be reasoned with or dealt with. That is a danger for anyone, but for someone in Christian leadership it is deadly. We have to assess a situation before our emotions do! We have to learn there are two sides to every coin (Proverbs 18.17) and that what we see at first value is not always what is there.
I used to teach anger management to students who were one step away from getting thrown out of university. We did a thought exercise that goes like this – you are on an escalator going down and the person behind you is hitting your legs over and over with his umbrella. You get to the bottom of the escalator what do you? These people, all marked by “soon angry” would tell me they would swear, yell, even physically assault the man.
I then said as you turn around it’s not an umbrella, it’s a white stick. Well, normally, even these people would calm down. Now they have new information they would re-assess. The trick is to learn not to assess, not to get worked up before you know the whole situation. That puts you in the category of “not soon angry” which is where as leaders we need to be!
If you are an elder and running a small group, eventually someone will come to you to complain about someone else. If you are “soon angry”, you will accept their complaint at face value, get angry, confront someone, repeat what you heard as fact, but the truth is that it’s probably more likely a misunderstanding. “Not soon angry” will listen to both sides, and try and bring about reconciliation. Guess which one is better?
Another thing that will happen is someone will disagree with your teaching, disagree with faith-righteousness, or prosperity, or something else and they may challenge you. If you are “soon angry”, you will treat that as rebellion, get defensive and cause strife. If you are “not soon angry” you can listen, educate, help, encourage.
Oh and finally, when you run a small group, someone will at one stage let you down – they will promise something and not deliver, they will not turn up at a meeting they were scheduled to run or help, they will be unreliable. You get angry, and then when you find out it wasn’t an umbrella – it was a white stick – it was a family emergency or even just a little immaturity. You can still correct and disciple people without a rage!
We had a pastor on staff many years ago, and during one of our pastors’ meetings he was furious that a children’s worker had not turned up that Sunday to help him with the children’s ministry, and he had to sort out an emergency situation. He was very angry. I had to explain what I assumed he knew – the lady who failed to turn up had woken up Sunday morning to the news that her husband’s grandmother had passed away overnight. Her husband was raised by his grandmother, so emotionally it was like losing a mother. She was comforting her husband, organizing flights for him to get over to his family and so much more. It wasn’t an umbrella, it was a white stick.
Learn to expect the white stick, then when it sometimes is the umbrella, it’s ok – you have already processed the situation and are leading with faith and peace, and are not causing trouble with your anger.
Selah.
Inspiring and Challenging Dreamers 