After being elected the fifth vice president of The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in July 2010 by a "landslide" of three votes (it doesn't pay to take yourself too seriously!) and re-elected in 2013 by a much larger margin, I have been pleasantly surprised by the respect accorded to me by my colleagues in the holy ministry and laypeople whom I have been privileged to meet around our church body. I am not sure what I expected, because I always thought that our church leaders ought to be accorded deferential and respectful treatment, no matter whether I agreed with them or not. I have been aware that their labor is not easy, but fraught with trials and burdens. Now I am finding out in a personal way.

As I have grown older and more responsibility has been conferred on me, I have learned that leadership has its challenges and that the way things look from the outside is enormously different from the way they are on the inside. For example, every parish pastor has had to suffer severe criticism for a decision he has made, but for which he was unable to offer any justification in public, usually because he knew information that is privileged, or that, if known, would hurt other people. Sometimes leaders have to suffer to protect other people. That's what they do. This makes them worthy of a double honor (1Ti 5:17).

True leadership is only possible when the leaders respect those whom they lead. The respect for leaders in my church body makes the task of leadership a delight. I am bowled over by the honor accorded to me. Of myself, I am unworthy of it. It gives me delight to know that my Lord is the one who is being honored by the respect accorded to me. As many of my readers are aware, I was the host of a weekly radio program, Dying to Live, on which I usually had a layperson as a guest doing what I called a "reverse interview." After I deliver the program's message the layperson and I talk about it. They often challenge me with good questions; questions that I think will help the average listener. My program producer, Ken Garza, comes from an evangelical church background, and so I was surprised when he shared the opinion that my guests were verging on disrespect for me in their questions on the program. I actually thought the opposite. I presumed that my guests were too tame. Apparently not.