For Pastors: Nine Reasons to Stop Telling Everyone They’re Awesome

I’m done with people trying to tell me how awesome I am. Especially fellow pastors. We should know better. I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but very recently I reached my limit on this. Maybe it was the automatically-generated messages I get from some pastors after I follow them on Twitter. Everyone who follows them, including faceless corporations and porn trolls all get the same “you are awesome!” message that I get. So it means nothing. Or it could have been the church I saw on vacation that calls themselves, “The church for awesome people. Like you.” Sorry. No. I don't want a church for awesome people. I'd feel out of place. I need a church that helps broken, sinful people find an awesome, loving and forgiving God.

September 2, 2015

by Karl Vaters

I’m done with people trying to tell me how awesome I am. Especially fellow pastors.

We should know better.

I don’t want a church for awesome people. I’d feel out of place.

I need a church that helps broken, sinful people find an awesome, loving and forgiving God.

Author

Karl Vaters

Karl produces resources for Helping Small Churches Thrive at KarlVaters.com.
He's the author of five books on church leadership, including his newest, De-Sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What's Next. His other books include The Grasshopper Myth and Small Church Essentials.
Karl also hosts a bi-weekly podcast,The Church Lobby: Conversations on Faith & Ministry, featuring in-depth interviews about topics that concern pastors, especially those who minister in a small church context.
Karl has served in small-church ministry for over 40 years, so he speaks and writes from decades of hands-on pastoral experience. He and his wife, Shelley have three children and two grandkids.

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