Some thoughts on Loyalty
Loyal (adjective) giving firm and constance support and allegiance to a person or institution.
Loyalty- The quality of being loyal to someone or something.
Occasionally this word pops up behind closed doors between staff members of a church. Not every church. Not every person. Occasionally.
I consider myself to be a loyal person. There are some people who radiate loyalty. If you pause a moment, you can think of a few of these folks. Somehow their very presence exudes integrity and loyalty. These people bug me. It all seems too easy for them. After getting to know some of these folks over the years I've learn their secret. They work for it just like the rest of us. They might even be a bit more motivated to assure you that they are loyal folks. This post isn't about those people.
The rest of us are erratic. Some of us love ideas out side the norm. Some of us are ready to embrace life in unconventional ways. Some of us have crazy ideas. The short of it is this: Loyalty is assumed and we move on.
I've been behind closed doors and had my loyalty questioned. I was a youth pastor and the executive pastor was doing the talking. He was questioning my loyalty to the Senior Pastor. I feeling like this was coming from left field. It was an odd conversation on many levels.
At the time it really bugged me. I got really reflective. Am I saying anything that is disloyal? I don't even think about the Senior Pastor all that much. Maybe I should be thinking about him more often? I don't even know the guy.
Confusion set it. I was in my mid 20's and I remember thinking about how hard I work for God and the church. I remember feeling inadequate.
As best as I can tell looking back I did some things wrong. I didn't give consistent feedback which expressed how much I was for him as a Senior Pastor to accompany my ideas for what youth and family ministry should be in the church.
As a result my ideas in team meetings or even brain storming sessions were taken as lack of loyalty for their incongruence with the Senior Pastor's ideas.
I won't go into details here, but my response was to show him that I was loyal to him, that I was here to serve the church and him. I made it very clear thru this experience that I was loyal to him. I'm not sure I would do it again honestly.
It's interesting what this experience did for me. I've learned from this experience.
Here's my take home personally.
Pastors who talk about loyalty are talking about something else, but loyalty is the words they use to express their feelings.
Youth pastors looking for employment should avoid Pastors who advertise on Job Boards and use the words loyalty or "loyal to the Senior Pastor".
Loyalty is very important to me, but sometimes i send mixed messages by simply being myself.
Read my next post for my last take home.
Loyalty- The quality of being loyal to someone or something.
Occasionally this word pops up behind closed doors between staff members of a church. Not every church. Not every person. Occasionally.
I consider myself to be a loyal person. There are some people who radiate loyalty. If you pause a moment, you can think of a few of these folks. Somehow their very presence exudes integrity and loyalty. These people bug me. It all seems too easy for them. After getting to know some of these folks over the years I've learn their secret. They work for it just like the rest of us. They might even be a bit more motivated to assure you that they are loyal folks. This post isn't about those people.
The rest of us are erratic. Some of us love ideas out side the norm. Some of us are ready to embrace life in unconventional ways. Some of us have crazy ideas. The short of it is this: Loyalty is assumed and we move on.
I've been behind closed doors and had my loyalty questioned. I was a youth pastor and the executive pastor was doing the talking. He was questioning my loyalty to the Senior Pastor. I feeling like this was coming from left field. It was an odd conversation on many levels.
At the time it really bugged me. I got really reflective. Am I saying anything that is disloyal? I don't even think about the Senior Pastor all that much. Maybe I should be thinking about him more often? I don't even know the guy.
Confusion set it. I was in my mid 20's and I remember thinking about how hard I work for God and the church. I remember feeling inadequate.
As best as I can tell looking back I did some things wrong. I didn't give consistent feedback which expressed how much I was for him as a Senior Pastor to accompany my ideas for what youth and family ministry should be in the church.
As a result my ideas in team meetings or even brain storming sessions were taken as lack of loyalty for their incongruence with the Senior Pastor's ideas.
I won't go into details here, but my response was to show him that I was loyal to him, that I was here to serve the church and him. I made it very clear thru this experience that I was loyal to him. I'm not sure I would do it again honestly.
It's interesting what this experience did for me. I've learned from this experience.
Here's my take home personally.
Pastors who talk about loyalty are talking about something else, but loyalty is the words they use to express their feelings.
Youth pastors looking for employment should avoid Pastors who advertise on Job Boards and use the words loyalty or "loyal to the Senior Pastor".
Loyalty is very important to me, but sometimes i send mixed messages by simply being myself.
Read my next post for my last take home.
Labels: youth ministry
posted by mark at
11:42 AM
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