Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
Pastors need Mr.
Wilson.
Everybody needs Mr.
Wilson.
Rick too...
@#$%
When I was in
college, I worked at a pharmacy.
Jackie, old Ed
(who took regular swigs of anything with codeine), and I delivered drugs.
One day, Mr.
Wilson, the pharmacist, caught Jackie in the basement with a customer.
Using Elizabethan
English in a Biblical kinda way, Jackie was getting to "know" her.
Sooooooo Mr. Wilson called
Jackie, old Ed, and me into his office and said, "I am going to tell you
once and only once. Don't ___ where you eat!"
I have ignored
that advice on so many occasions over the years as a pastor; and I have paid
the price for my defiant pride.
I have also
mourned in a Matthew 5:4 kinda way over the collateral damage caused by me.
Anyway, I
remember when I was really famous - pastor of one of the largest franchise
churches in the South after being pastor of one of the largest franchise
churches in the Midwest.
You know, uh, the
kinda churches that peers covet with green eyes.
God knows I heard
the whispers: "How could Kopp...?...If he can...Why haven't
I...?...and..."
Clergywoman/man
ego.
God knows I know
'cause I got one.
Have you ever
listened to clergywomen/men when they get together for the first time:
"How big is your...church...staff...attendance...?"
Size matters to
clergy; and I'm not talking about hearts for Jesus.
Sooooooo unChristlike.
Getting back to
when I was really famous, I was also really screwing up.
The big thing was
I was a Yankee and kinda, you know, didn't have any desire to go, you know,
Neil Young's Southern Man despite
Lynyrd Skynrd's rejoinder.
I started pouting
and whining and bantering and moaning about this and that and how it was all
exacerbated by our increasingly screwed up franchise making me feel this
and that and how I wasn't being accepted and how my predecessors this and that
and how my integrity and pride and ego and...ad
nauseum.
You know what I
mean.
Yeah, pretty
sick.
Finally, I
threatened the session during
a meeting: "If you're not gonna be with me on...[and I listed
everything that was sooooooo
important to me apart from just being their faithful and protective
undershepherd]...I
think I should just quit and resign and go somewhere else where I'll
be..."
No one contended
with me.
After the
meeting, Rick, who remains a very good friend despite me being an ___ on too
many occasions then and since, said, "Bob, most of the session will stay
with you no matter what you say and do. Whether you're liberal or
conservative or just your nutty old Yankee self, they will stay with you as
long as they know you love them and will stay with them no matter
what. As long as they don't think you're always looking for a better gig,
they'll stay with you. But if you keep threatening to leave, your support
will vanish before you know what hit you."
I left that
church.
No one contended
with me.
I was enabled.
Fewer than I had
calculated really cared.
Clergywoman/man
ego.
Here's the
continuing sadness.
I had an
opportunity in those two really
big and really
important churches by clergywomen/men standards to make a
difference in our franchise and even...but I, uh, forgot Mr. Wilson's advice.
@#$%
@#$%
Selah.
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
@#$%
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