Our ministry may be over. Chris discovered a dissonance within himself. As a pastor, he tries to be vulnerable, transparent, authentic. Now you find yourself closed, covered, less than transparent about something that is important. Some ministers have discovered, however, that silence is not always golden.
Benefits often come from sharing the burdens.
At the time, Tiesel and his wife, Margaret, were missionaries to Barbados. He confided in fellow missionaries, only to find that most of them felt the same kind of shame at some time. Together we found better ways to heal and cope with the situation. Melvin Hart, who has ministered with the same Midwestern congregation for more than 20 years, did not have the option of keeping the family's troubles secret. A decade ago Hart's daughter, then 18, was arrested on prostitution charges, and her name appeared in the police blotter in their small town's newspaper.