The mic is always on

The owner of an NBA team certainly learned that words have consequences in recent days.  Following reports of a recorded message in which he made discriminating remarks about African-Americans he found himself banned from any contact with the basketball team he owns.  Steps are now being taking to force him to sell the team.

He is not the first person to get into trouble for saying things he did not know would be heard by others.  Before the last election President Obama did not know a microphone was picking up his words to Russian President Putin when he explained to Putin that after the election he would have more flexibility.  Obama's critics were quick to question what he meant by those remarks.  Other presidents have had their own embarrassing moments when a live mic picked up words they never intended the public to hear.

Ziz Ziglar used to tell of a similar event in the life of a public figure before he would remind his audience that they should always remember that "The mic is always on."  By that he meant that anything we said might be heard by someone we did not intend to hear it, and words do have consequences.  What was intended to be a private comment can quickly go public bringing embarrassment and much worse to ourselves or to others.  For that reason we should choose our words wisely, and I think this is especially true for us in ministry.

In my role as a judicatory leader I am sometimes asked about my opinion on some church matter.  I have to be very careful how I respond to those questions because more than once after sharing my view on a matter someone has gone back to their church and reported that "Dennis believes that...."  A couple of times my view was misstated by the person, and I've had to go back and try to undo some damage and correct the individual's misconception of what I said.  These are never pleasant so I try to  avoid them in the future by making sure people clearly understands my response to their questions.

Inappropriate language and stories are also areas where church leaders can create problems for themselves.  I must admit that I may be old fashioned, but I simply do not understand it when I hear pastors use profanity.  You've probably heard the term "cuss like a sailor."  Well, I spent four years in the Navy and I was proficient at cussing like a sailor.  However, when I got saved God cleaned up my mouth.  Early in my pastoral ministry our church had a softball team that played in a church league.  One night I arrived at the ball park while the game before ours was to be played.  I heard someone in the field issue a string of profanity that I never dreamed I would hear at any church sanctioned event.  I asked who the person was who said those words and was told he was the pastor of the church.  I was truly shocked that night and continue to fail to understand why Christians, especially those in leadership, use language that casts Christianity in such a poor light.  Again, we must remember that people will judge us and what we claim to believe by what they see and hear.

Church leaders also need to be very careful about what they say about other people.  In some cases, even if people might agree with you, they will not respect you for saying negative things about others.

The Bible is clear about the difficulty of taming our tongue.  I suppose everyone has said things they later regretted.  I know I have.  Many times!  Once the words are out of our mouths they can never be taken back.  We can apologize for saying inappropriate things, but the pain they caused can take a long time to go away.  In some cases, the damage can never be undone.  We need to live every moment realizing that the mic is always on and adjust our speech accordingly.