Leadership Disappointments

I have learned this quite awhile ago, but it is still not always easy to face when it comes. As much as I might try to make people happy and on board with what we are doing and where we are going, sometimes it is just not enough for them. People get upset, blame you, talk behind your back and sometimes they leave. Though it may not have anything really to do with you as a leader, the blame lies with the leader anyway.

Pleasing people is not our job, but the relationship and love we have for them never makes it easy as they go, but at the same time, we cannot succumb to their whims just to keep them around and happy. Obviously, if we are at fault, we should do everything we can to make it right, but the reality also is, is that some people are just never going to be happy and we cannot curtail ministry just to make them happy. That can make ministry man-centered, not God centered. Disappointment and rejection come with the job and we are not alone in this. Everyone who has gone before us in any kind of ministry have dealt with this.

In fact, Jesus faced it his whole 3 years of ministry. Remember these from his life:

• Rejected and run out of his hometown.
• His family members thought he was crazy.
• His closest disciples all ran away when he needed them most.
• When he needed them to pray in the garden, his inner circle fell asleep on Him.
• "He came to His own and his own people did not receive him." John 1:11
• Rejected at every corner by the religious and traditional establishment.
• Told he did his miracles by Beelzebub, not by the power of God.
• He was accused by being a drunkard.
• John 6 tells us that after a difficult teaching many of the disciples left and no longer followed anymore.
  
• He was rejected and despised by men according to Isaiah.

The list could go on and on. Since it is going to happen to us, how can we best deal with it? John records these words in chapter 2. Here they are: "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man". John 2:23-25

The crowd wanted Jesus to do what they alone wanted but He knew He can come for another reason. He knew the fickle nature of man and that they did not have in mind the things of God for him or for the kingdom. They were selfish and had in mind the things of man. We are not Jesus, but the implication applies to us in ministry. We are to do what God wants us to do and in doing that, it can cost us plenty.

People will leave, reject us, falsely accuse, manipulate and the like and we have to keep our eyes on Him or we will get swallowed up in all the expectations that are not of God, but of man. Also, in these moments of brokenness, we have to run and hide in Him. It is the only real place that can keep us focused and to get us through the disappointments of people.