by: Jim Schlottman
3/1/2005

In my office are photos of six Native American Indians. Three of them are Chiefs – Chief Joseph, the Nez Perce leader, and Sioux leaders, Chief Red Cloud and Chief Sitting Bull. They are adorned with full bonnets of eagle feathers. Those bonnets signified that they were held in highest regard. I have their pictures in my office both because they are very interesting and because they represent respected and honored leadership.

Respect it is bound up in the respect for the position a person holds, regardless of whom that person is.

Several years ago, on one of my visit to Sweden to visit my daughter-in-law’s parents, I met one of her uncles. He was very excited to tell me about seeing one of our Vice Presidents (Lyndon Johnson) land in a park in a helicopter. He asked me what I felt about my current President. I really didn’t respect the President that was in office at that time. However, a sense of patriotism came over me and I realized that a foreigner was asking about the President of my country. You would be proud of the fine words that I said about that President. I didn’t have to respect the man, but I respected the office.

I’m told that when you walk into the oval office without anyone being there, there is that overwhelming sense of Ah that comes, not from the individual who holds the office, but from the respect that accompanies the position and authority that the position represents.

When the pastor mounts the pulpit, that pastor deserves respect and honor because of the call to that position. My hope is that your congregation respects you as a person when you go to that pulpit to proclaim the Gospel. But even if they don’t feel they can respect the person who is the pastor, they have a God given responsible to show respect for the call to that position.

At Quiet Waters we see many pastors who have been treated with disrespect. Even when their actions deserve disciplining, they were not disciplined with grace and respect. Too often congregations measure their pastor by the standards of a corporate CEO rather than God’s standards. Too often their methods of disciplining fall outside of Biblical instruction.

Most of the pastors we work with fully understand how they qualify for respect. In 2 Corinthians 3:4-6 (NIV) the Bible says, “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant . . . ” To paraphrase it, God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

In 1 Timothy 5:17 (NIV) Paul says, “The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.”

I want you to take a few moments right now to acknowledge and celebrate that double honor that God has placed upon you.