Church leaders don't bite... most of the time

“Timid” has never been a word used to describe me when it comes to interacting with leaders.

When I was 12, someone snuck up behind me at our main grocery store in Uganda. He put his hands over my eyes and said the mandatory “guess who”. I was pretty sure that it was my dad, so I spun around and knocked his hands off my eyes, only to find the Bishop of Kampala laughing hysterically in my face. I have been picked up and swung around by bishops. I am privileged to count church leaders, bishops, archbishops, and others among personal confidants, and I have sympathized with their wives when we were surrounded by church leaders and both a little overwhelmed… all before I turned 18.

And yet, today I am headed to meet with my new pastor, and I find myself… nervous. Perhaps it is because of recent experiences. Perhaps it is because I am trying to establish a home for myself.

My dad reminded me that church leaders need you as much as you need them… That they need you “being there, being part, loving and praying”. Food for thought…

One thing that I have noticed about church leaders is that they fundamentally seek out joy. It’s as if they’re saying “my job sees a lot of pain, and I just like seeing you smile”. It’s as if they’re just craving an interaction where they can do their job and be supported themselves with a hug, a smile, or a goofy face.

Obviously, it’s easier to make faces at a bishop when you’re 12, but I think there is a basic truth about church leaders.

They are here for us.

Yes, they are serving God. Yes, they have a calling. But I would guess the calling is also to help us draw closer, to know better, and they are called to literally be the body of Christ reaching out to us. They can speak healing or hurt, love or hatred, peace or war to our hearts. And yet, they are people. Broken, stressed, but incredibly loving people.

They need for us to be engaged, because we are their job. They take our panicked, late night phone calls because they care. God never sleeps, and so they try to be a personification of some of that. They are called to not abandon us, and so they strive to love us more and more.

These are the people who battle in prayer and words for our souls. More than that, these are the people who hand us the weapons and the armor and a little courage and send us out to fight for ourselves.

At the end of the day, they need us to be our beautiful selves with them so that they know that the battle is not in vain.