Crusty Old Blood

I’m relatively new at my church, which means I inherited a group of leaders. Old blood. 

They’re all great leaders. They care about the kids and the ministry. I don’t know if I could categorize a single one of the youth leaders as being a trouble-maker. Not one of them feels like a willfully rebellious member of the team. 

But, it’s hard being a leader of people who have been doing ministry here longer than I have. I have picked up on a very subtle vibe from a few of the leaders that manifests itself in mistrust, or distrust, of my leadership. 

If I was a member of the team, I would do what the leader asked. For some reason, when I ask this team to do something, they simply don’t. 

I wanted them to read through some small group questions and accompanying Bible passages, and then write a few of their own questions. Also, I requested that they pray over these materials in preparation for their meetings. 

This is a weekly thing. I think it wouldn’t take more than 30 minutes for them to do this simple task. But for some reason, there has not been one week where all of them did it. There hasn’t even been a week where MOST of them did it. 

My conclusion is this: old blood is hard. That seems a little gross I guess, but it’s true. 

I don’t have influence based on experience with this team yet. I don’t know if I ever will. Because I’m just the new guy. I always will be. To compound the issue, I’m younger than some of them. And the ones I’m younger than seem to view that as reason to look down on me. 

They’re good people. Just a little crusty. Old, hard, crusty, blood. 

I’ll keep trying. I’ll not give up on serving and loving them. And hopefully, one day, I can lead them in that.