The Truth About Lies

I recently preached on truth telling and I got to thinking about how this might apply to something at the church.  Or not.  You decide.

We recently made a temporary change in our worship venue in order to try some new things in our worship style and at the same time save a little money in a more energy effecient space than our big, not-energy-efficient sanctuary.

What was great was that the congregation as a whole was pretty good natured about it and rolled with the punches.  A good, good sign of flexibility and good will.

As you'd expect, some were not so keen about it.  I'm not sure what all those not-avid attenders did.  I noted that some left temporarily.  They went to another church or they stopped coming to church for a bit.  They did what they needed to do, I guess.  We could have used their presence to foster the love and sense of success we need for one another and for visitors but they did what they needed to do.

Some came, maybe less consistently but not all that off-pattern, and they just tolerated it, accepted it, managed it.

Some added to these other options an outloud comment to someone of, "I don't like it," and that's their perfect right.

I've gone all this way because what I found interesting and typical and worth putting reigns on is how a few people said, "There are people who are upset by this move."  Here are my observations or thoughts on this comment.  One, it is feedback and feeback is critical.  Thank you!  Two, it is imprecise.  It doesn't tell us how many or who.  Is it two people out of a hundred?  Is it our resident curmudgeon who is against anything and everything?  Three, some people are very concerned that someone is upset and some people don't really care whether they are or not.  Maybe this is the difference between those who are fearful by anyone having uncomfortable feelings and those who are fearful of giving up reasonable goals because of a couple people having uncomfortable feelings?  The people oriented versus the task oriented?  (P.S.  If someone regularly receives others' fear and negativity, he or she or I might ask if we are giving off some kind of signal that we are good receptacle or receiving dock for such.)  Four, we hear, I think, "People are upset," more than we hear, "People are good with it."  When we repeat, "People are upset," it can start to get a life and everyone who hears this starts wondering who it is and what kind of thin ice we are on.  If we equally reported, "People are loving this," it can get a life too.  To find the truth we need to say both.  Otherwise, the negative can get a disproportianate influence.  To tell the truth we need to say all of the above and then some (stuff that you see that I am not seeing).  Telling the truth is simple and it is complicated.

Now go out there and be honest ... and loving.  Truth needs love.  Love needs truth.