The Trauma of Transparency
There is no one without faults, not even men of God. They are men of God, not because they are faultless but because they know their own faults, they strive against them, they do not hide them and are ever ready to correct themselves.
Mohandas Gandhi
Every honest minister preaches from a reservoir of guilt and grace.
Gary Gulbranson
For Christmas one year, my kids gave me the Gospel Birds tapes by radio storyteller Garrison Keillor of "A Prairie Home Companion" fame. In one of his yarns, Keillor mentions that if a pastor stands before the church and says, "I'm a human being just like you," the first questions in the minds of the congregation are Who was she? and For how long?
Their immediate conclusion, Keillor suggests, is that he must have committed adultery. Why else would a pastor admit humanness?
His humorous insight got me thinking about that interesting dilemma in ministry. What do we do with our infirmities — our misgivings and fears, our failures and sins? How transparent can a public figure such as a pastor or Christian leader afford to be?
The Need to Be Transparent
Part of the challenge comes from our need to express emotions, both the positive ones and the negative ones. We've already discussed how repressing our humanness can jeopardize our ministry. We're to be spiritual examples, yes. People watch us. But that's not reason to hide our faults; it's reason to admit them. If people watch us closely enough and long enough, either they'll discover what we try to hide, or else we'll crack under the strain of struggling to keep it from view. For our own health as well as for the sake of honesty, we need to find appropriate ways to express our feelings.
But there's another reason transparency is important. It makes our ...
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