Misunderstandings

I just finished meeting with the Pastor of our Armenian congregation, a great man of God who has suffered much persecution and has come here to the US to minister to other religious refugees of Armenian background. During our discussion, we were talking about Bylaws and governance (exciting, huh?) when he asked about some church ownership and relationship with the General Council details. The details aren't important, but what we both realized was that we do things very differently from how they were done in Iran. And that reminded me of the times when serious disagreements have ended up being based on assumptions on the part of both parties that the other party was not even aware of. I once worked for a pastor who said that one of the biggest mistakes we make in relationships is "imputing bad motive" - assuming that the reason the other person did something we don't like is because they meant to hurt us! It is amazing how often that turns out not to be true. When I was growing up, my mother used to encourage me to give other people "the benefit of the doubt." After our discussion today, I realized that that is still good advice today.

Pastor Ken