I was talking to a staff memeber yesterday who mentioned that in a previous job, people who had completed a doctoral degree often went through a personal life crisis. I wondered why but got no real ideas. So it got me to thinking, how has this experience changed me and will it be the cause for me to have a personal life crisis? One question at at time...
How has this changed me? A lot in some ways and not at all in others. This process has forced me to be more serious about my ministry and my call than I have ever been before. I was forced to take a very hard and personal look at what it means to be a leader and what it means to be both committed to lead something like a church or any group for that matter and at the same time to be led by and have the heart and mind of Christ. I have found that to do that I must have Christ' passion for people, while being highly aware of how to lead this organization in a healthy and godly manner. I am, I admit, much less tollerant of church leaders who seem to be coasting or whose passion seems to be gone. All the while I feel a deeper passion for people, for their spiritual state and for their soul. So, yes this has changed me.
Second question, will this cause me to have a personal life crisis? Probably. Not in the sense of me doing something stupid, but I can find less reason in my own life to not want the best service to God from myself and those around me.
At the same time, I am really no different at all! A title doesn't change us, it is the experience that changes us. It is now my task to make my experience mean something in the course of my life and minsitry. And in that, comes the real challange.
hmmm.....
