A thousand difficult conversations

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. (1Timothy 5:1-2)

Everyone faces, at various times in our lives, a moment when we need to say difficult things to people. If you know me, I imagine you’re picking your jaw up off the floor, because you know confrontation is about my least favorite thing in the world. I would be willing to wager that confrontation is low on your list as well. But we cannot get away from these kinds of conversations. As my wife wisely says, a healthy church is built on the relationships that are formed amid a thousand difficult but loving conversations. Anecdotally though, I know that many, many relationships between churches and their ministers—indeed between friends and even families—have been brought to an untimely end because of ugly confrontations. Since we can’t get away from confrontations, let’s learn how to have them. Let’s look over Timothy’s shoulder as Paul gives him instruction on how to have these difficult conversations.