Offense, Part B

Since being in ministry I have offended plenty of people for plenty of things: asking people not to smoke on a church outing, removing an adult youth worship leader for being romantically involved with an underaged student, making the decision to keep an emotionally unstable teen at a youth camp, teaching too much Bible on Sunday mornings, trying to place someone in a ministry that fits them better than the one they’re in, having the music too loud, requiring musicians to practice in order to play on a worship team, showing a tiny antique painting of Adam and Eve in a PowerPoint that partially showed Eve’s breasts, choosing to eliminate music “specials” on Sundays that include backing tracks and applause, being married to a woman one year older than me, having a church that doesn’t speak in tongues much, etc…

You name it, I’ve probably offended someone for it.

Now I by no means am anywhere remotely close to being perfect. I’ve made many mistakes and have probably done plenty to legitimately offend people. But it seems like I’ve never offended anyone with the legitimately offendable stuff.

I’ve even seen someone leave a church over not having “Happy Birthday” sung to them publically by the church.

For some reason, church people love to get offended! And they love to take that out on pastors.

My ponderings, now that I’m a pastor, are do I care if I offend someone? Do I try to smooth things over with someone who’s been offended for ridiculous things, or do I simply let them leave. Won’t something like this just come up again?

These are some things I will try to address tomorrow, if I am able to. Right now, I’m stuck in the middle of it.