The pastor of a small church in southern Indiana was telling me about his year-old ministry. Amid his upbeat comments about his church's building program and the growth of the congregation, he spoke about his burr in the saddle. Let's call him Bill.

"Bill doesn't like me. As far as I can tell, there's no reason. We just don't hit it off. So he often manufactures situations to make me look bad. At our last board meeting, for example, he asked the board to discipline me because I hadn't been turning in written monthly reports. It caught me cold.

"Fortunately, one of the elders spoke up: 'Bill, how can we discipline Pastor for that, when we've never asked him to turn in written monthly reports?' "

Unfortunately, not all attacks are so easily blunted. Some persecutors want our jobs, threaten our reputations with slander, or torpedo the neighborhood outreach program we've spent six months setting up.

How do we handle the feelings unfair persecution creates? Self-righteousness and revenge raise ...