Advise to the young preacher: Don't vent from the pulpit, bro.

Preachers, teachers and Christian communicators are, first and foremost, persons. Before we fulfill any ministry role, we are fragile human beings and sinners in desperate need of the grace of God.

Every pastor, evangelist, teacher or what-not isn't a celebrity who has already "arrived" but, rather a child of God in the middle of his sanctification process.

This means that, just like any other human being, preachers get offended and ticked off.

Someone didn't like what we said or how we said it, and we take it personal.

Someone doesn't like the way we lead the church and we take it personal.

Someone says our teaching is not deep enough and we take it personal.

Someone says our teaching is too deep and we take it personal.

To an extent, that's normal. And with time, the Holy Spirit chisels away everything that does not look like Jesus and we realize that God didn't call us to be everything for everybody but He assigned us a specific mission to accomplish while on this earth.

But, that's a lifetime process and not an overnight act that happens all of a sudden.

However, those of us in pastoral ministry have an asset that the "regular Christians" don't have: a pulpit. And that can be very dangerous. Scary, even.

Because from the pulpit we can take the anger off of our chest toward a specific person and camouflage it as "the voice of God speaking."

From the pulpit we can boldly scream that which we are too coward to speak in person...and still sound spiritual.

See, if you're in ministry, you will get hurt. You will be offended. Count on that.

But, deal with your problems and fix them in private. If your heart is hurting because you have been offended, try to talk it over with that person.

If he or she doesn't want to talk about it, get a friend so you can vent and receive counsel.

Pray. Cry. Pour out your heart before the throne of Grace.

Nevertheless, don't hurt your congregation because your ego was hurt. Your church is not guilty of your personal issues.

People who come in through the church doors are usually weary, tired and heavy laden.

They got issues with their dysfunctional family.

Their jobs are uncertain.

They have financial shortcomings.

But they show up.

And they show up with the vague expectation of probably hearing a message from the Holy Spirit that will draw their hearts nearer to beauty and majesty of God...not the pastor using the preaching time as a cathartic opportunity.

Insecure leaders tag all sort of feedback as opposition. Healthy leaders evaluate criticism to see if there's some truth in it...and, usually there always is.

I'm not saying hold up and swallow your grudges. Work through them. Confront the person. 

Vent...but not when you're up there.

May our pulpits be streams of grace and truth to the hearts of our brethren...and not the place where we wash our dirty laundry.

-Luis Luna Jr.

Sinner saved by grace. Abba's beloved child.