As a Pastor I’ve learned you can’t please everyone all the time or any time. There is always one group or one person who will get upset. I’ve just learned to deal with it and go on. It’s a tough life having someone always mad, upset, or disappointed with you, but that’s life as a leader. Mark Batterson, posts the following giving insight into why there is always one.
The Bell Curve
In his book, The Big Moo, Seth Godin says, “Take any population anywhere on the planet and measure just about anything and the distribution of the population almost always comes out as a perfect bell curve.”
There is a bell curve within every church.
There are innovators and resisters. There are adopters and laggards.
I don’t care how big your vision is or how good your idea is. You will always find someone who supports a bad idea and someone who opposes a good idea. It’s inevitable. Why? Because there is always a bell curve. In other words, don’t expect 100% endorsement of your vision. Expect some resisters along the way!
Even Jesus lost one of his disciples who sold out for 30 pieces of silver. Maybe 11 out of 12 isn’t a bad batting average for leaders?
I think sometimes we get too discouraged by the one out of twelve who betray our vision and we forget about the eleven out of twelve who would die for us! That’s what the other disciples did.
Don’t let a Judas keep you from doing what God has called you to do. There’s a Judas in every church. There’s also a Peter, James, and John. Sometimes you have to do what Jesus did. He told Judas to do what he needed to do.
Whenever I get discouraged because someone isn’t as excited as I am about an idea I remind myself that there is always a bell curve. I don’t care how charismatic you are. I don’t care how God-ordained the idea is. I don’t care how much sense you make. There will always be resisters and laggards. It’s the bell curve.