Name your top three pet peeves.
I have always been a bit easily irritated by certain things, but ministry softened me in some ways to this while heightening my sensitivity in others. Church can be a strange place. We do weird things and spiritualize them. Here are a few of those things that have become my pet peeves.
Weird church lingo. The church phrase that drives me crazy more than any other is, “Sister Bertha is going through a hard time right now, so we really need to love on her.” I get the point, but “loving on people” can sound extremely strange to some.
Using Jesus as an excuse to give less than our best. I haven’t heard this in years, but it used to be rather common for churches to have what they called special music. People would preface their solos by saying things like, “Y’all pray for me. I ain’t practiced” or “Don’t listen to the way I sing. Listen to the words.” A former pastor of mine used to say, “If all we need to do is listen to the words, then just read them to us.” I’m not saying you have to be a professional singer, but please don’t use Jesus as an excuse to not do your best. Jesus should be the reason we go above and beyond!
Church announcements. I hate announcements! Churches typically put announcements in printed form, send them in emails, put them on the church app, and flash them on the screen before and after services. Why get up and read the bulletin to the people?!? Most people check out during that time anyway. I always have when I’m not the guy doing it. Plus, there’s nothing worse than interrupting the flow of worship so Bubba can chastise the congregation for 10 minutes for waiting until the last minute to sign up for the bean supper coming up that night.
I could probably come up with more pastoral pet peeves, but the prompt only asked for three. I know I sound like a pain, but I’m sharing this in a lighthearted manner. Lots of people in church life (and life in general) mean well, but their delivery could use some direction. The things we think are noble can often be the very things about us that annoy others. Let’s be guilty of showing grace to people, pet peeves and all.
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