Almost every pastor has had this experience: You walk into church on Sunday, feeling great about the day ahead, only to be accosted by an angry church member about a trivial problem two minutes before the service starts.
As you leave that encounter and step up to speak, you have a choice:
1. Live in the obvious, immediate, lesser truth: a church member is angry at you—and carry that into your message and out to the congregation in emotion and spirit, if not in words.
2. Live to the greater truth: God knew this, but still gave you a message of hope to share, maybe as much for you as for the congregation.
This is not just wishful thinking, positive affirmation, or a mind game. It’s choosing to see a deeper reality.
People of faith don’t deny reality. They choose to see a greater truth behind the immediate difficulty.
This is especially important for church leaders.
The Challenge of Great and Lesser Truths
Sometimes the most dangerous threat to the truth is not a lie, it’s a lesser truth.
Lies are usually easy to spot, but lesser truths are harder because … well … they’re still true.
At virtually every moment of our lives, greater truths and lesser truths are battling for our heart. The challenge is that the lesser truth is usually louder, stronger, and more urgent.
If you’re a small church pastor, greater truths can be especially hard to see because there are fewer layers (usually no layers) between you and the lesser truths.
How Do We Live to the Greater Ministry Truth?
Okay, fine. Living to the greater truth sounds like a good idea. But how does someone actually pull it off in the real world?
Usually from the outside in. Here’s an example.
Tell Your Face
Years ago there was an older lady who lived on my way to and from church. She couldn’t drive, so I would pick her up and drop her off every Sunday. One week on the drive home she told me a painful truth. When I wasn’t paying attention to it, my face would carry a scowl that could frighten a pit bull. (This is now known as Hostile Resting Face – so it’s not just me!)
For a few moments I was upset at her. Then I realized she had done me a favor. I could now fix a problem I hadn’t even been aware of.
I had a choice. To live to one of two truths.
- Lesser Truth: Some Sundays don’t go well.
- Greater Truth: I’m privileged to serve a great God and a great church, including a plain-spoken woman who loved me enough to tell me the truth on the drive home from church, not on the drive to church.
I chose to live to the greater truth. How? By telling my face to do what my heart felt. So, I became more conscious of slapping a smile on my face whenever I was in church. No matter what.
And I mean slapping it on. At first, it felt horrible. Fake. Like I was acting. But I did it anyway.
In reality, I was acting. But I wasn’t being fake. I was happy to be in church. That was my greater reality. I lived to the greater reality by forcing my face to act like it.
After a while my face started affecting my emotions. The smile on the outside became a smile on the inside. Because my smile was based on a deeper truth, not a phony pretense, it became more natural and automatic, even when things went bad.
I’m still not a big grinner, but now there are very few times when I need to force a scowl off my face, even when the lesser truth isn’t going well. No, not all problems are as simple as slapping on a smile. I’m not naïve. But I am a realist. I know it worked.
The Greater Truth In Your Life and Ministry
When a lesser truth makes itself known, it’s usually trying to distract us from a greater truth.
Don’t let it win.
Here are some battles between lesser and greater truths that many pastors face. Especially in smaller churches. Do any of these sound familiar?
- Lesser Truth: Money is tight.
- Greater Truth: My God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:19)
Live to the greater truth.
- Lesser Truth: A megachurch just built a state-of-the-art facility across the street.
- Greater Truth: They’re our partners in ministry, not our competitors.
Live to the greater truth.
- Lesser Truth: A couple just left the church, complaining that they’re not being fed. (Yeah, that never gets old.)
- Greater Truth: The rest of the church supports you. They’re being fed and they’re learning to feed others.
Live to the greater truth.
- Lesser Truth: The church I serve is small.
- Greater Truth: God knows how small the church is, and he will use it to do great things if we let him.
Live to the greater truth.
(Photo by Paul O’Rear | Flickr)
