Ministry--in its various forms is a very vulnerable thing. It is a personal offering of yourself and your talents.
A friend was telling me about how in ministry people are allowed to trample over you and hurt you, and in a way, you cannot have any friends, or love anyone because you are just opened up to pain and hurt. One never knows when the person you are ministering to will turn against you for something. Listening to my friend as she cried over the pain of ministry broke my heart. And it made me angry.
Why is it that people feel they can bully others around to get what they want. Or they can be willfully ignorant and no one else could possibly be correct except themselves. As people give and minister to others (schools, teachers, churches, pastors, etc.) they are offering themselves to serve. Often that service is crushed by the weight of the meanness of those who are being ministered to.
I had another conversation with someone else who was on a committee in a different state, and the things that were said to tear down the leadership were upsetting to many who attended.
As a teacher, I hate when I see bullying in the classroom. But at least I can do something about it. How do I change it in these situations? I love my world-wide church. But I do not like what I am seeing show up in the inner-workings of our schools and churches. It is heartbreaking.
Are there any ideas on how to stop adult bullying in our schools and churches--especially for those in ministry?
I am tired, tired, tired of it. For myself and others.
**Sorry for the unfinished post the other day. It didn't save it as a draft like I had meant it to.
