I have a confession to make: I am not good at confessing things. I have good reasons. At the top of the list of good reasons is paranoia. In fact, I am sure paranoia holds many churches and pastors in its grip. We have a fear of being ‘real’ with each other (even though we preach it to our people). Why? Fear. Fear of what? I think its competition. If we were to reveal what really goes on in our minds and hearts we fear other pastors would ‘throw us under the bus’, ‘rat us out to others’, and judge us. We are afraid that we might seem weak and unspiritual. Pastors have one of the highest stress jobs. Yet much of that stress could be alleviated if we learned to share life and cast out fear with our ministry peers. We fear authenticity because we are weak. We know it. Yet we do not take the same medicine we give in ample doses to the people God has given us. Sad, but true, isn’t it? One of the root causes of paranoia is fear of losing people from church or not being liked or not being the hero to every family that passes through our church doors. However, the pastor must come off the pedestal so that we can put Jesus on it. It is about Him, I want to see Him high and lifted up. It was only then that Isaiah was able to truly see and feel God’s will for his life. As pastors, we have taken such ownership of our own local church that we are defined by it. We feel inferior if the church across town has more than we do and feel superior if we have more. The truth is, the Church is His, not yours. It is not about you and never has been. We are stewards of the local church. We live in the Kingdom. The local church can divide us, however, the Kingdom unites us. If the local church defines who we are; we will live in fear. If we allow the Kingdom to define us, we will live in cooperation. By living in cooperation we see God do great things for His Kingdom. Make sure your ministry is about the kingdom and reveal/ exchange your own weaknesses to your trusted fellow Kingdom citizen. Let’s risk ourselves and our image for the Kingdom sake.