Trying to set a good example

If anyone should know about the dangers of pride, it should be me, a pastor. However, I did have a moment today when I felt a little bit prideful. Don't worry, I quickly repented. Here is what happened. I walked into Walgreen's to pick up a prescription for my youngest son who had two teeth pulled today. As I walked down the aisle with the ibuprofen and other stuff on the way to the pharmacy, I recognized a guy that I have seen before during some of our neighborhood outreach activities in one of the surrounding neighborhoods of our church. I said, "hey, didn't I meet you on Christie Street." You have to know that this guy is rough around the edges. His response was, "Who are you?" I told him my name, and then he remembered. We carried on a conversation. During our whole conversation, there was another gentleman in the aisle looking at some medication and kind of glancing our way every now and then. I continued my conversation with the guy. I asked him about his family, his life, etc. As he responded, he dropped some profanity every few words. He is one of those guys that couldn't care less that I am a pastor. He is going to say what he wants to say no matter who is around. We kept talking and eventually I asked him, "When are we going to see you over at the church?" He said, "Aww, I came to see you one day and they told me that you were in a meeting or something. I waited for over an hour, and then I left." I told him that I felt bad that he had to wait so long. I told him, "you know we want to see you come to one of the weekend services one day, Sunday mornings at 9:20 and 11:00 in the morning." He didn't commit one way or the other, and we parted ways. I passed by the gentleman that had been glancing our way and headed to the pharmacy counter. After paying for my items, I exited the store. In the parking lot, the gentleman that had been listening to our conversation said, "Hey, pastor, I enjoyed your sermon on Sunday. It was a good message..." Now, if you're reading this, you might think that this is the point that pride crept in, but it wasn't. I appreciated the encouragement, and was thankful that the Lord gave me the words to say during the sermon. The pride crept in a bit when I thought about the fact that a KCC congregant saw me, the Outreach Pastor, modeling extending an invitation to someone in the community. Like I said, I quickly repented. However, I do long for the day when every KCCer would feel the boldness and the courage to invite people like crazy. I hope that as I am out inviting people to KCC activities, there will be some timid KCCers that get greatly encouraged by my example. I hope for this not for my glory but so that many more people can be exposed to the truth of Christ through the ministries of KCC.

In Christ,
Kyle