My Turn to be Angry!

My turn to post from Perry Noble...

Four Leadership Myths That Aren’t Usually Talked About–Part One
In this series of posts I completely understand that I will really tick some people off…but I feel like some people will be set free. Understand this before you begin reading…God doesn’t use people pleasing pastors to accomplish His purposes! He uses men SOLD OUT to Him…and His call, which means there are times HARD things must be said and done.

Here we go…
Myth #1 – Anger Is Ungodly
Have you ever been told after a message, “You seemed mad today? You should really try to be more kind?”
Believe it or not—that’s been said to me a time or two.

I spent a lot of time thinking about this and came to the following conclusion…if a pastor isn’t pissed about something…he probably doesn’t preach/lead from passion and conviction, but rather from convenience and apathy.

Every leader that did something significant in the Scriptures was ANGRY about something…
Moses was angry about his people being enslaved.
David was angry about Goliath.
Jesus and Paul were angry about religious people.

But the one who sticks out to me on this point is Nehemiah!

In Nehemiah 1-12 we see a man completely sold out to a vision. He risked his life for the vision in chapter one, fought his critics and enemies, dealt with leadership challenges and poured his heart, soul and his money into seeing the vision God placed inside of him come true.

He then honored his word and went back to see the king…then returned to Jerusalem in Nehemiah 13 to see what he had fought so hard for fall completely apart…

And he was pissed!

He SERIOUSLY did things that probably caused the bloggers to go nuts!
In Nehemiah 13:7-9 he literally cleaned out a dudes “office” by throwing things out in the street.
In Nehemiah 13:10-11 he rebuked the leaders for not carrying out the vision.
In Nehemiah 13:15-22 he literally threatened to beat the crap out of people who were threatening the vision.
In Nehemiah 13:23-25 he lost it and DID beat some people up!
In Nehemiah 13:28 he fired a guy pretty forcefully!
Nehemiah was ANGRY…godly anger! He was full of passion…godly passion. He did some things that would be considered unorthodox in today’s world…and yet there is not one single Scripture rebuking him for how he acted.

As a leader there have been things I’ve had to apologize for…but I will NEVER apologize for passion…ever.

MAYBE that’s one of the problems in church world today—there aren’t enough leaders who will FIGHT for what they believe in. The early church leaders were willing to sacrifice their lives…unfortunately many leaders today won’t even sacrifice a paper cut!

People full of passion are used by God to accomplish His purposes. Apathy is absent in heaven…it should be absent in the church and her leaders!!! A leader should always be willing to repent from ungodly anger…but NEVER for being angry because the God given vision is being polluted or diluted.

Well, well. Read that last line again. "A leader should NEVER repent for being angry because the God given vision is being polluted or diluted."

Belmont County is STILL in need of a church that values unchurched people more than religious people.

Belmont County is STILL in need of a church that is willing to set the preferences of Christians aside in order to reach those who don't yet know Jesus.

Belmont County is STILL too full of churches who are willing to tell the unchurched people of Belmont County to "Go to Hell" (LITERALLY) because they are afraid they'll get too big ("I won't know everyone's name") or because they feel more compelled to display their "acts of holiness" (read "weirdness" if you are unchurched) than they are compelled to not freak out their unchurched neighbor.

And THAT makes me VERY angry. And I will not repent!