CULTIVATING GENTLE AND LOWLY LEADERSHIP
Ronnie Martin & Donnie Griggs
There once was a man who was called to pastor a small but growing rural church on the outskirts of a small town . The pastor , who had relocated from a metro area , had a personality most would say “ outsized ” the town God had called him to serve . He had an obvious gift for networking , gathering pas- tors together from diverse traditions , staging large community events , and cultivating relationships with most of the county officials and influential business owners .
After a few years , even though this pastor didn ’ t have the largest church in town , he was certainly the most influential pastor of the town . When the mayor had an important public announcement to make , he was there . When a political rally came to town ( provided it was the party he supported ), he was there . If some tragedy struck a blow to the community , he was there . When the newspaper needed a sound bite for an editorial piece concerning religion , he was there . He was a faithful man who embraced his town and took every opportunity to spread the gospel in all the ways he believed it needed to be spread . He did have some detractors within the pastoral community , but they rarely uttered anything mean-spirited or harsh about him . “ He ’ s a great guy with a good heart ,” they would say , and they genuinely believed that to be true .
Where am I going with this ? Well , although this pastor did some undeniably good gospel work in the community , he also leveraged his position as a “ big fish in a small pond ” to create pockets of subtle and not-so-subtle disunity , especially when it came to issues regarding religion and politics . His was the “ God and country ” church many flocked to through much of the political upheaval that happened as the pandemic unfolded
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