{"id":32019,"date":"2022-09-10T15:53:02","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/4-ways-to-keep-from-becoming-an-angry-preacher\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T15:53:02","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T20:53:02","slug":"4-ways-to-keep-from-becoming-an-angry-preacher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/4-ways-to-keep-from-becoming-an-angry-preacher\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Keep from Becoming An Angry Preacher"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><\/div>\n<p><em>By Mark Dance<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Dear angry preacher, you have a problem, and thus you\u2019ve become one. Finishing the following sentence will help you know whether this post addresses you.<\/p>\n<p>You might be an angry preacher if\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You shake your fist when you preach.<\/li>\n<li>You blame everything on actors and politicians.<\/li>\n<li>You rant on social media about, well\u2014everything.<\/li>\n<li>You assume I\u2019m writing this to someone else.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Your anger is not unique, but it\u2019s annoying and distracting. I\u2019m sure you\u2019re tired of it too, so my motive is to help you destroy anger before it destroys you, your family, and your ministry.<\/p>\n<p>Although anger is a normal emotion, there\u2019s an invisible line we cross when our healthy anger becomes harmful to others. Here are four solutions I\u2019ve found helpful.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>1. Guard your heart.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Jesus is the only cardiologist who can solve this heart issue. Since patience is a fruit of the Spirit, God can extinguish the anger we can\u2019t manage.<\/p>\n<div class='code-block code-block-1' style='margin: 8px 0;clear: both'> <\/div>\n<p>So when my blood begins to boil, I release control of the situation\u2014and myself\u2014by simply praying for patience.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cBe angry and do not sin; on your bed, reflect in your heart and be still&#8230;and trust in the Lord\u201d (Psalm 4:4).\u202d<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>2. Control your tongue.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Even as I write this in an airport terminal, I\u2019m waiting on my second delayed flight of the day. My last trip included so many delays and cancellations that I arrived home a day and a half late!<\/p>\n<p>The temptation to transfer my frustration onto innocent airline workers is real, but it\u2019s never helpful.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe intelligent person restrains his words, and one who keeps a cool head is a man of understanding. Even a fool is considered wise when he keeps silent, discerning when he seals his lips\u201d (Proverbs\u202c \u202d17:27-28)\u202c \u202d<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>3. Protect your pulpit.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>All Christians need to guard our hearts, tongues, and posts carefully\u2014but pastors even more so. What we say on stage is even more heavily measured both on earth as well as a \u201cstricter judgment\u201d in heaven later (James 3:1).<\/p>\n<p>A young deacon once told me his church was having \u201cmultiple dumpster fires.\u201d He wasn\u2019t wrong. The term \u201cdumpster fire\u201d was just added to Miriam-Webster as part of a batch of 850 new words and phrases added to the dictionary website.<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:1em\">\n<div class=\"centered-text-area\">\n<div class=\"centered-text\" style=\"float: left\">\n<div class=\"u3e8abd47376abf045792ebce7eb507a1-content\">See also&nbsp; Apathy in Churches Looms Large for Pastors<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ctaButton\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As a noun, Webster defines dumpster fire as, \u201can utterly calamitous or mismanaged situation or occurrence: disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All churches have dumpster fires&#8230;just make sure you\u2019re not the arsonist.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cLet your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person\u201d \u202d\u202d(Colossians\u202c \u202d4:6).\u202c \u202d<\/em><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"has-large-font-size\"><strong>4. Dress for success.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>More than a decade ago, I was well on my way to becoming the angry preacher I\u2019m warning about here. I committed the following passage to memory by mentally getting dressed every day for almost a year.<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cPut away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth&#8230;since you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self&#8230;Therefore, as God&#8217;s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity\u201d \u202d\u202d(Colossians\u202c \u202d3:8-10,12-14\u202c).<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m embarrassed to admit it took that long to get my heart right. If you\u2019re an angry preacher, I strongly encourage you to get serious about rooting out anger before bitterness takes root in your heart, home, and ministry.<\/p>\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-genesis-blocks-gb-profile-box square gb-has-avatar gb-font-size-18 gb-block-profile gb-profile-columns\">\n<div class=\"gb-profile-column gb-profile-avatar-wrap\">\n<div class=\"gb-profile-image-wrap\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"gb-profile-column gb-profile-content-wrap\">\n<h2 class=\"gb-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Mark Dance<\/h2>\n<p class=\"gb-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\"><strong>@markdance<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"gb-profile-text\">\n<p>After serving as a pastor for 28 years, Mark is now the director of pastoral wellness for Guidestone Financial Resources. He frequently speaks at churches, conferences, and retreats\u2014often with his wife Janet. Read more from him at\u00a0MarkDance.net.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<ul class=\"gb-social-links\"><\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-box su-box-style-default\" id=\"\" style=\"border-color:#000000;border-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"su-box-title\" style=\"background-color:#333333;color:#FFFFFF;border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px\">Dig Deeper at Lifeway.com<\/div>\n<div class=\"su-box-content su-u-clearfix su-u-trim\" style=\"border-bottom-left-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px\">\n<div class=\"one-third first\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"two-thirds\">\n<h3>12 Essential Skills for Great Preaching<\/h3>\n<p>Wayne McDill<\/p>\n<p>  FIND OUT MORE <\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-website yarpp-template-thumbnails'>\n<h3>Related posts:<\/h3>\n<div class=\"yarpp-thumbnails-horizontal\">  What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times?  What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation?  3 Ways to Reach Non-Religious People in Your Community <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mark Dance Dear angry preacher, you have a problem, and thus you\u2019ve become one. Finishing the following sentence will help you know whether this post addresses you. You might be an angry preacher if\u2026 You shake your fist when you preach. You blame everything on actors and politicians. You rant on social media about, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/4-ways-to-keep-from-becoming-an-angry-preacher\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;4 Ways to Keep from Becoming An Angry Preacher&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}