Proud of my last name!

Let me just go ahead and put this out there. My father-in-law is the senior pastor of the church my family attends. My husband is the associate pastor. And, yes, I can see how that looks bad. Like there’s some kind of familial power play going on. So, yes, again, I can understand how it looks that I’m being voted on to be the children’s director. But here’s the thing. Should my being related to the pastor(s) really have any bearing on whether or not I get the job? I understand the whole nepotism thing in business. However, in a church setting don’t you want people in positions that they are gifted for and for which they are called? For some people, the answer is “no.” They want to accuse my family of trying to control everything. So my question is, when I stepped up to fill the position as interim children’s director giving the leadership six months to pray over the situation and receive resumes of interested people, why didn’t these people step up? Why didn’t they go to friends and make sure anyone they knew who might fit the bill knew about it and applied? If it’s such a big deal, why did they do nothing but sit back and gossip? How does that fix anything?

I was very upfront with the leadership when I interviewed for the interim position and have been upfront with anyone who talked to me about it, if someone came along whom the leadership felt God had placed here, I would willingly step aside. I did not want to get in the way of the Lord’s plans for Bethel. I still don’t. But in the six months I’ve been interim children’s director, there have been no resumes submitted for the position. (In full disclosure, there was one resume and one interest letter submitted when the position was opened and the first children’s director was hired, the one I replaced, but those parties weren’t qualified then and they aren’t any more qualified a year later now that the church is looking for a children’s director again.)

On top of that, I don’t particularly like feeling like a pawn in someone’s vendetta to get back at Leadership. Just because you don’t like someone doesn’t make them a bad leader. On the same thought, just because you are friends with someone doesn’t automatically make them a good leader…which is why I understand how bad it looks to have so many same last names lined up under staff.

I don’t know. I guess I wish we could all just sit down and talk like adults. But that’s not as much fun as sitting in a pew muttering snide comments to your audience, is it?!