trust

by kristin friedery

recently an older woman at my church invited me out for coffee. i accepted enthusiastically outwardly, but inwardly i was suspicious of her motives. i had just been nominated to be an elder and i had a feeling the two were related.

Sure enough, after a bit of small talk, the conversation eventually came around to the point that she didn’t trust that I was ready to be an elder in leadership at the church. When I asked her why she replied “because I don’t know you, of course!”

At first I was very offended by her remarks. If she didn’t know me, how dare she assume she can’t trust me? But the more I thought about it, the more it actually made sense. Why should I assume that people trust in me, even though they don’t know me? For that matter, why should the older population trust in the younger folks at my church, and vice versa?

The disconnect can come when people begin to worry about their personal agendas instead of God’s will. This older woman certainly cannot trust me to push her agenda to the rest of the leadership, but that isn’t the point. Our agenda’s shouldn’t exist. We should align ourselves so with God that our desire is solely for him to be glorified, regardless of church property issues, denominational disagreements, or how to implement Sunday school.

I have since been voted in and will be ordained as an elder at my PC(USA) church beginning in January 2009. It is my prayer and hope that I can live my life in accordance of God’s word and the principles of my church. I will strive to prove myself trustworthy as a leader working to discern God’s will in my church, but the burden isn’t only on my shoulders. My hope and prayer is also that this woman I had coffee with that one day will be able to place her trust in the fact that God is working through me and the other leaders of the church. This is my prayer not just for me and for

It is a difficult place for me to be, a 25 year old in leadership at a church that has been around for over 100 years. And I know it is difficult for someone 40 years my senior to place their trust in me. But the point is that our trust should be in God. Both of us. I will fail at times because I am human, but we have to trust that God will use those he has ordained for particular purposes. While I may not always be trustworthy, God is. He always has been and always will be.