Hurt Feelings

Please add to the pastor's job description: "peacemaker when people's feelings are hurt . . ." because in a church they WILL be hurt.

In tonight's committee meeting, one 80 year old stringently objected to celebrating communion by intinction (dipping the bread in the juice/wine) because Jesus celebrated it around a table. When we mentioned that even when we pass the communion elements around in little cups and tiny squares of bread we're not around the table either, she seemed to think it was more like the way Jesus celebrated it. If I remember correctly, they were celebrating Passover which included more than just flat bread and wine. Anyway, so I had to be peacemaker and make sure that it was noted in the minutes that Person X disagreed with intinction.

At the same meeting another woman got her feelings hurt because the chair of the committee mentioned that she didn't like how something was done in worship and it just so happened that this other woman was the one who had volunteered to do it when it was not done well enough. Ouch! So I invited the hurt-feelings-woman into my office with the door closed so she could cry about not being appreciated.

And so this is the church. A bunch of people with different opinions all wanting to do God's work in the way they assume is best while hurting other people in the process. I have to believe that we are the very people God-so-loved.