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How NOT to be Discouraged by Your Church

I was disappointed by this church person and thinking to myself things like:

“How dare he ______________?”

“He should know better than to _______________.”

“What was he thinking when he _____________?”

This line of thinking was quickly causing me to spiral downward from disappointment to discouragement.

But my friend’s question helped me remember that church people are flawed people. And flawed people blow it sometimes.

The bottom line of my post today is simple: If your expectation is that the church is a hospital for spiritually sick people, you’ll be emotionally ready for disappointments. But if you always expect the church to be a gathering of saintly, mature people, you’ll be emotionally vulnerable to discouragement.

This doesn’t mean we let people off the hook or never hold people accountable. This certainly doesn’t mean that we should not disciple people to maturity. That’s another conversation altogether.

The point of today’s post isn’t to address the spiritual growth of others. Instead it’s meant to address our own emotional readiness for disappointment.

Remember: People will let you down, but don’t let it get you down.