Our Lutheran school began an expansion from grade five to grade eight the year I arrived. I was principal and fifth grade homeroom teacher.

From year to year as the class moved up, I remained as principal, fifth grade homeroom and science teacher for the upper grades.

By the time my first-year fifth grade class was in eighth grade, they were emotional cripples. They had been the "big cheeses" in the school for four long years. They constantly picked on one another, knew the teachers so well that they knew every way to get around them and had truly developed a power complex. The faculty, Board of Education, parents and kids themselves were relieved when they graduated.

Q: Could anything have been done early on to avoid the relational problem that developed? Can we develop inter-personal problems in our church as people's gifts clash? In what way do the pomegranates in Exodus 28:33-35 allow each bell (gift) to sound forth clearly? What "pomegranates" do we need in our church to keep gifts from clashing?

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