I’m just going to come right out and say what’s on my mind: people who are not good at a certain thing, whether if they are “passionate” about it or not, just need to stop doing it. It’s messy and ugly and the pain that others have to endure because of your “passion” is both unfortunate and tiresome.

I’m sorry if that offends you but it’s the truth.

Most of the time, these passionate people I’m referring to are really good at one thing. The “jack of all trades” is just mediocre at a lot of things but not really good at one specific thing. The middle-of-the-road guy can get by with his middle-of-the-road abilities, most of the time, but the guy who is really good at one thing – his gifting if you will – should really only focus on that one thing and keep his passions to him or herself.

Can he be passionate about other things? Sure. But he shouldn’t force that inward passion, especially if what that passion is producing is just a bunch of junk, to produce something it simply isn’t capable to produce. The end product is ugly.

Concerning church leadership, this is one of my major pet peeves.

Take for instance the youth pastor who desperately wants to lead worship but can’t hold a tune and only knows how to play the guitar in the key of G.

Or the associate pastor who desperately wants to preach at the pulpit but can’t connect with an audience if his life and/or ministerial creditials depended on it.

Or the “creative” lead pastor who wants to design the church logo and maintain the church website but his all-time favorite font is Rage Italic and his web development tool of preference is Microsoft FrontPage 97.

Let’s face it. Churches don’t grow because the senior pastor creates his own PowerPoint slides, especially if design is not his gifting. I’d rather see a church without graphics than a church laced with an abundance of crummy designs. I’d rather attend a service without music, than suffer through some miserable tunes at the hands of some dude’s passion.

Churches grow because leadership realizes the importance of placing people in areas where they can focus solely on their gifts. And if an area is not someone’s gifting, they shouldn’t be involved in it.

Can they be passionate about it? Sure. But be passionate on your own time.

Here’s the thing. I’m that middle-of-the-road guy. Everything inside of me wants to be great at one thing. For those of you like that, I envy you. You should stop trying to be mediocre at a few things, when you have the ability to be great at one thing.

So, to you one-gifting-guy, see this as my encouragement.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.