One young man writes and asks this, Pastor John, what do you do in a local church when

the people affirm your leadership, but the leadership in your church doesn't?

Yeah, that's a question that comes to me often from youth ministers or assistant pastors

who love the Bible and are trying to teach it faithfully. The kids and their parents are often

eating it up or the small groups are and the senior pastors a little bit wary or something like that.

So that's the kind of situation I'm thinking when you ask that question, that's what I've heard.

So whom you listen to in your ministry is really important. Do you listen to the people who are

loving your work or do you listen to your senior leadership? If you're not the senior,

do you listen to others like colleagues outside the church? Do you listen to your spouse,

your friends? Who do you listen to? And here's my, here's my take. First, take your cues from

the scriptures. Listen to God. Whatever any man says, it cannot compare with what God says.

Your conscience must be clear before God that you are teaching and ministering faithfully. Paul said

and it's so sweet. From 1422, blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself

for what he approves. Wow, that's so true. A clear conscience is a powerful thing.

You must be true to your own discernment of what God says in his word. And of course, you know

you're fallible. You know you should be always open to counsel that you may be reading the Bible

wrongly. But in the end, you gotta have peace that you're one with God's word. That's the first

thing. Listen to God. The second thing is listen long and hard to your seniors and your overseers.

Even the ones who disagree with you or are critical of you are not happy with what you're doing.

They may seem to be disapproving of what's going on. But listen, don't write them off too quickly.

Test all things. Hold fast to what is good. I think a mark of a mature young pastor. That is

that pastor whose, whose maturing quickly is his humility and his willingness to be rebuked,

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