Dale Carnige said; “Give people a good reputation to live up to.” He was right. This is close to the the heart of ministry to people. We know that people are far from God and unable to help themselves, but we have to learn to see, with the eyes of faith, the potential of Christ in them.
Great pastors know this. They say Pastor Howard Sugden was such as man. Doris Seger was his secretary for over fifty years. She said of him; “Pastor Sugden is really a patient and scholarly man who loves people. He always knows people are going to be better with the Lord’s help. He is an optimist.” A long-time member recalls, “Pastor was positive, that was probably his most endearing trait. He thought so highly of us as a congregation. When he made a point of how we should act as God’s people, he implied that we were already that way.”
To put it simply, Howard was positive about people! He would often say, “Mark the man or woman who sees something good in everybody; there goes a magnificent soul.” -From; For the Love of Preaching by Don Denyes
This is South today.
I JUST wrote about something similiar on my blog – from Monday, March 10th… entitled – “Sometimes Christians are the worst!” I can be to blame at times too but – I sure try to see the potential in our kids and catch them doing something right!!!
I left a message under this post last week… did it not connect or did it get deleted??