11 I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. 12 I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles. 13 How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!

14 Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 2 Corinthians 12:11-14

Paul went out of his way to not be a burden to the church in Corinth. He knew he was being compared to other apostles but that didn’t matter. He knew what he was called to do. Just by the length of his writings to the church, we see that he spent quite a bit of his writing addressing problems in Corinth. Even though he loved the people there, they were clearly a work in progress, a headache he’d rather not have.

We get to peek into a little bit of history. But before we get carried away and shake our fingers at that church, the problems we face in church are still very real and require wisdom from leadership. Most pastors have seen their fair share of pure junk in the church, and this from Bible-believing Christians. The work they do is difficult and often very thankless. They work long hours, take very few vacations, are on call all hours of the day and night, are under a microscope while in the pastorate, must be good speakers and teachers, and must have good leadership skills.

Take your pastor out to lunch this week. Ladies, take the pastor’s wife out to lunch if you can. No agenda, just lunch.