Difficult Conversations
February 19, 2011
A breakfast with the chairman of our church board sharpened these intentions. I was a very young pastor, prone to making novice-level mistakes. The chairman often met with me to help me see these and evaluate different ways of doing things. On this particular day the conversation became difficult, and the chairman said some things I didn’t want to hear. I revealed my feelings of hurt and frustration in a less than mature way. I’ll never forget how he slapped his hand on the breakfast table to get my attention and said: “Pastor, you have a serious problem. You are too sensitive to criticism. You take too many things too personally. If you cannot hear the truth and deal with it, you’ll not last long in your work. Get used to difficult conversations. You’ll never be without them.»