Pastor, Be Careful the Snapshots You Bring Home from Church

For pastors, church ministry is like living within the movie of your life. It may shift radically from tragedy to comedy and back again (with the occasional musical thrown in) but it’s constantly moving and changing. When we go home, we give our spouse a snapshot of the day. If the day ended on a sour note, that might be the only thing we tell them. So, while the day was a movie to us, it’s a snapshot to our spouse – the snapshot we choose to give them. When we go to church the next day, the movie keeps going. And, quite often, the bad moment from the previous day is forgotten. But the snapshot you gave your spouse sits in their head and heart, growing bigger. We need to be more careful about the snapshots we bring home. What we give them lasts longer than we realize.

March 10, 2017

by Karl Vaters

When we go home, we give our spouse a snapshot of the day. If the day ended on a sour note, that might be the only thing we tell them. So, while the day was a movie to us, it’s a snapshot to our spouse – the snapshot we choose to give them.

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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