Fire Starters don't wear their warning labels for everyone can see. In fact, Fire Starters usually sweep onto the scene as heroes first. They are the impetuous ones who jump in where they are needed so typically you'll find that one saved the day by filling an empty volunteer spot at just the right time or can carry a little more load than others.
Fire Starters attract other fire starters. In fact, they have a club. I'm sure of it. They have tv shows too. The Real Housewives of Wherever-ville. Fire Starters have other names: Drama Queen, Mouth of the South, Troublemaker.
At first the fires are small. A snappy word you have no problem forgiving or unwelcome advice about how to deal with another person. When did you notice the fires were bigger and more frequent and you needed more than a big boot to put them out? Oh the drama! Why is drama so appealing to some people? If you have the answer to that one, I'd like to follow your blog.
A program I invest a lot of my time and creativity into, has really been attacked this week. My first thought was, what did I do wrong? Are these issues the result of bad decisions, poor planning, or did something I said get misunderstood? While all of those things can cause problems in a great program, sometimes it has been infiltrated by a Fire Starter. Every leader has experienced this. And every leader has had the gut wrenching decision of what to do with that person. Put on your smoke mask, make nice and keep the hole filled? Banish the Fire Starter to another ministry and cover up the warning label with a name badge? Or remove her from the program and trust God to fill the empty position with a dark and handsome Firefighter, oops! Analogies really got away with me.
Allowing a Fire Starter to remain is a stain on your whole program. James 3:6 says: And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,[a] and set on fire by hell.
Rescue your program by kicking out the Fire Starters. God says we don't even have to do it kindly. That's a joke. Kindness goes a long way toward putting out fires. What God really said was that He delights in kindness, "I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” Jeremiah 9:24.
So when you blast your Fire Starters, delight God at the same time.
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