Are Pastors Allowed to Get Angry?
Heck Yes!
The new roof on our church is a disaster and I am furious. We hired a roofer who had excellent references, and he hosed us. What else can I say. The above picture is one of many horrible sections of our brand new flat roof. It looks ugly because it is ugly. I had an engineer look at it and he called it shoddy workmanship that will not hold up over the expected lifespan of the roof. I call it incompetence, or maybe, malpractice. Either way, I got to get it fixed.
I had a meeting with the roofer on Monday afternoon. I screamed at him. I also threatened him with an official complaint to the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs, which can take away his license, and I threatened a lawsuit if he didnt make this right. At one point he said, what kind of minister talks like this. I got three inches from his nose, and said in a quiet voice, Im the kind of minister whos going to sue you for everything youve got. I meant every word.
Funny, this is not the first time Ive talked like this to someone. Before I became a minister, I was a collector for a large bank. I didnt collect consumer loans (thank God!) I collected money on under water commercial loans. Our department was called The Work Out Group. We should have called ourselves, The Special Forces. Thats because we did the dirty work for the bank. We went into bad situations and did whatever was necessary to collect on our loans. If we couldnt get our money back, we destroyed the people involved. In the commercial lending world every owner of a company signs a personal guarantee. That means, we can go after every asset they have. Their homes, their cars, their money, everything! That is not the case with mortgages or credit card debt. So, I would say to my customers (if you were wondering, most of the people around me called them deadbeats) if you dont give me x amount of money by Friday, I will be forced to do this And what that meant was the lawyers would go after them and lay waste to their lives. Sad isnt it?
It was a miserable job, but I was good at it. And so, there came a momentous decision in my life. Walk away from a good paying career and enter the ministry? I didnt hesitate for a minute. I dont get paid a lot as a minister, but I love what I do, and I love my life and I am very happy. Its a shame that I have to revert back to the collector to deal with this disaster, but maybe God prepared me for just such a time as this.
Now we answer the big question; Am I (mild mannered pastor) allowed to get Angry!
You bet your Great Aunt Sadies gottchies Im allowed.
Exodus 32:19-20 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
2 Samuel 12:9-10 (the Prophet Nathan speaking to King David) Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.
Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. It is written, he said to them, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.
When it comes to righteous anger, I feel I stand in good company.
Let me ask you another question; if not me, then who is going to fight for my people and my mission? If not me, then who is going to go to war to protect the kids who come to my church from an unhealthy environment created by a leaking roof? If not me, then who is going to stand up to the people who would rob and cheat us and tell them no? If I dont get angry and fight for what is right, then who is?
This is more than my job, this church is my life, this church is my family. And if I have to stomp on this guy to get him to do the right thing, then I will.
If anyone doesnt like it, tough.
God bless you,
Pastor Bill
www.FBCRahway.Blogspot.com
Heck Yes!
The new roof on our church is a disaster and I am furious. We hired a roofer who had excellent references, and he hosed us. What else can I say. The above picture is one of many horrible sections of our brand new flat roof. It looks ugly because it is ugly. I had an engineer look at it and he called it shoddy workmanship that will not hold up over the expected lifespan of the roof. I call it incompetence, or maybe, malpractice. Either way, I got to get it fixed.
I had a meeting with the roofer on Monday afternoon. I screamed at him. I also threatened him with an official complaint to the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs, which can take away his license, and I threatened a lawsuit if he didnt make this right. At one point he said, what kind of minister talks like this. I got three inches from his nose, and said in a quiet voice, Im the kind of minister whos going to sue you for everything youve got. I meant every word.
Funny, this is not the first time Ive talked like this to someone. Before I became a minister, I was a collector for a large bank. I didnt collect consumer loans (thank God!) I collected money on under water commercial loans. Our department was called The Work Out Group. We should have called ourselves, The Special Forces. Thats because we did the dirty work for the bank. We went into bad situations and did whatever was necessary to collect on our loans. If we couldnt get our money back, we destroyed the people involved. In the commercial lending world every owner of a company signs a personal guarantee. That means, we can go after every asset they have. Their homes, their cars, their money, everything! That is not the case with mortgages or credit card debt. So, I would say to my customers (if you were wondering, most of the people around me called them deadbeats) if you dont give me x amount of money by Friday, I will be forced to do this And what that meant was the lawyers would go after them and lay waste to their lives. Sad isnt it?
It was a miserable job, but I was good at it. And so, there came a momentous decision in my life. Walk away from a good paying career and enter the ministry? I didnt hesitate for a minute. I dont get paid a lot as a minister, but I love what I do, and I love my life and I am very happy. Its a shame that I have to revert back to the collector to deal with this disaster, but maybe God prepared me for just such a time as this.
Now we answer the big question; Am I (mild mannered pastor) allowed to get Angry!
You bet your Great Aunt Sadies gottchies Im allowed.
Exodus 32:19-20 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.
2 Samuel 12:9-10 (the Prophet Nathan speaking to King David) Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.
Matthew 21:12-13 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. It is written, he said to them, My house will be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of robbers.
When it comes to righteous anger, I feel I stand in good company.
Let me ask you another question; if not me, then who is going to fight for my people and my mission? If not me, then who is going to go to war to protect the kids who come to my church from an unhealthy environment created by a leaking roof? If not me, then who is going to stand up to the people who would rob and cheat us and tell them no? If I dont get angry and fight for what is right, then who is?
This is more than my job, this church is my life, this church is my family. And if I have to stomp on this guy to get him to do the right thing, then I will.
If anyone doesnt like it, tough.
God bless you,
Pastor Bill
www.FBCRahway.Blogspot.com
