Changes to the blog

This morning I was surprised to find out someone had hacked into this blog and left comments on all 229 posts I have written. Because the messages are in some form of Oriental writing I have no idea what they say or what they are promoting. I now have to take the time out of my holiday to delete each of these comments. As a result of this I have made some changes on how people may comment on my postings.

Each comment will be reviewed by me before it is posted on the site, and everyone will have to complete a word verification before leaving a post. This will help prevent spammers from doing what happened to me last night, and me having to take the time to delete inappropriate comments from the site.

I am sorry this is necessary. My hope for this site has always been that it would provide bivocational and small church leaders with an open forum to talk with one another and share their thoughts and ideas. Although that hasn't happened as often as I would have liked, at least the opportunity is there. That can still happen, and I hope it does. You will just have to take an extra step or two before being able to leave your comments.

It is a shame that the actions of a few people who have nothing better to do with their lives than to disrupt the lives of others make this step necessary, but I guess it was inevitable that this would be necessary at some time.

Everyone have a happy Thanksgiving with your families!

Thanksgiving

2009 has been a challenging year personally for me in many ways. Like many people, we have struggled with finances although we have been able to finish each month in the black. There have been some relationship issues with family members. Trying to complete my DMin work has been very difficult this year, but I think I'm still on track to graduate in May 2010. I've enjoyed the workshops I led this year, but I find the travel has become more tiring and less enjoyable. I could go on listing more frustrations, but you have your own list and are probably not intereted in reading mine.

As I was praying yesterday I began to think about the Thanksgiving season, and I realized how truly thankful I am to God despite all the challenges and frustrations I've experienced in the current year. He has faithfully walked with me through every event as He promised He would. I've not always enjoyed how some have turned out, but I can honestly say that I am trusting Him, and I have to believe God isn't finished. Some outcomes have not been decided, and I have to admit at times they keep me awake at night, but I am still trusting God. My wife and I talked the other day how we frequently find ourselves saying in our prayers, "God, I believe. Help my unbelief." And that's OK. God understands our imperfect faith. Jesus didn't say we had to have great faith. He said we need to have faith the size of a mustard seed in a great God, and I find that tremendously helpful right now. There are many challenges and concerns in my life right now, but I can be thankful to God that He is with me in the midst of every one of them, and He will see me through.

I am also thankful for you. Those of you who serve as bivocational ministers and those who support those ministers in your denominations are doing a special work. I know how difficult it can be at times, and I certainly understand those times when you wonder if it is worth the difficulties that comes with such ministry. I've been there many times, and I can assure you it is worth it. Despite the numerous challenges of bivocational ministry, there is a joy in such ministry that cannot be found anywhere else. Keep your focus on God, and you will see Him bring you through every challenge you will face.

God bless each of you this Thanksgiving season. Enjoy the holiday with your families.

Things don't always go as planned

As some of you may remember, about a year and a half ago we sold a family business. Last month we got it back. The new owners couldn't make it go and were not able to make their payments. When I sold it I never thought I would ever have to deal with it again, but things don't always go as planned. The business has been closed, an auctioneer has been contacted, and a sale date is set for mid-December. We will have a complete liquidation auction which means that I have a lot of work to do in the next three weeks. This business has been open since 1962 so you can imagine all the accumulated items we are uncovering. Everything has to be prepared for auction, so just about every spare minute is being spent working on that. That is not how I wanted to spend my time, but things don't always go as planned.

This is a concept you soon learn in ministry as well. You may have big dreams about what ministry will look like, but things don't always go as planned. Despite your best plans and efforts you will run into roadblocks that will cause those plans to change. People you thought were supportive of your efforts will occasionally begin to question your leadership. Funds will unexpectedly dry up preventing some of your ideas from happening. Marriages you thought were strong enough to weather any storm will begin to break up. Sermons that you thought would hit a home run will begin to bore even you about half-way through your delivery. In ministry, things don't always go as planned.

As you read the Bible you will quickly find that God's people have found that to be true throughout history. Israel was God's chosen people, but they found that did not prevent them from struggling at times under various oppressors. The religous leaders of Jesus' time thought they had all the answers, but when they encountered Christ they learned they didn't even understand the questions. After closely following Jesus the disciples were convinced this was the Messiah, but when they saw Him hanging on the cross they began hiding behind locked doors. Things were not going as planned.

Life and ministry often takes us down roads we had not planned to take. Each of us will encounter numerous disappointments in life, and sometimes we may even question whether or not it is worth trying any more. Believe me, it is. Time and again you will find yourself overcoming challenges you were not sure you could overcome, and when you get to the other side you will be amazed at how good it feels. No, things don't always go as planned, but God will always have the final answer. The key is to keep our eyes on Him and watch how He leads us through those challenges. Be encouraged, my friend. God is faithful, and you will come through those times when things don't go as planned.

Sabbath Rest

This past week I led four days of workshops throughout Pennsylvania for about 100 small church leaders. As usual, we had a great time, and it was wonderful meeting so many bivocational and small church pastors and lay leaders.

In one of the sessions I talk about the importance of having healthy pastoral leadership if we want to have healthy churches. Part of that presentation involves me talking about the importance of keeping the Sabbath. I share the struggles I had doing that as a bivocational pastor and how I had to set aside one day a week (Monday) for my Sabbath. At one of the workshops someone asked how a bivocational minister could possibly find a day during the week when it would be possible to enjoy a Sabbath. Great question. At the time I did that I was running a business that did not require me to be present every minute it was open, but it would have been much more difficult if I had tried to take a day off each week when I worked in a factory. How can a bivocational minister honor the Sabbath?

Let's go back to the purpose for the Sabbath. I've always taught that the Sabbath was given to us for rest and a time of reconnection with God and one another. I still believe that. While the ideal would be for that to take a full day, that is not very realistic in the 21st century and especially not for a bivocational minister. It may be that we will need to make chunks of time during the week for a time of Sabbath.

Perhaps you can look at your calendar and see that you have a half-day once or twice a week you could spend in Sabbath activities. It may be that your best opportunity for a Sabbath would be for one hour periods each day. These options may not be as helpful as taking a full day, they may be the best opportunity you will have due to your schedule. For some, it would be better than what they are currently doing. It would also be a place to start, and perhaps your schedule could be changed in time to provide you with larger blocks of time for a Sabbath in your life.

The call to a Sabbath doesn't appear to be an option for believers. After all, it is found in the 10 commandments. I also don't believe that ministers can excuse themselves because of the nature of their call. In fact, I think it is even more important for us to incorporate the Sabbath into our lives as a model to our congregations. It is also much needed in our lives. We cannot give what we do not take in, at least not for long. Many ministers could have avoided burn-out if they had enjoyed a Sabbath in their lives.

Remember, the Sabbath is given to us so we can rest and reconnect with God and others. Each of these are important, so I encourage you to make a Sabbath rest part of your plans for the new year.

Pastoral leadership

The more I work with churches the more convinced I am that one of the serious problems we need to address is that of pastoral leadership. This problem has two facets to it. One is that many pastors do not see themselves as leaders, don't want to be leaders, and have never been trained to lead. They have been trained to be managers of the status quo, and that is what their churches expect them to do. Even churches that claim they want a pastor to lead their church often mean they want a good manager to oversee the existing programs and provide quality ministry to their current membership. That brings us to the second facet which is that many churches will not permit their pastors to lead.

Most of our existing churches, especially those that have been around for a few decades, operate through a committee and congregational structure. Committees are formed to discuss issues and make a presentation to a church business meeting which then votes whether or not to approve the proposal. As we all know, this can take months before any decision is reached. Such a structure worked well when the church and society were more settled, but this is a structure that cannot work in the 21st century when things are simply changing too quickly. Today, by the time a church gets around to voting to do something the opportunity may well have already passed.

We need a much simpler leadership structure in our churches if we are going to effectively reach this generation for Christ. We need pastors who are willing to lead, and we need churches who will trust them to do so. I am not calling for a pastor dictatorship, and that is the fear of some churches. Churches can provide the pastor with a leadership team who would work with the pastor in the decision making process. This team would then be trusted to make the day to day decisions that would allow the church to develop an effective ministry to its community. Monthly business meetings could be replaced with an annual business meeting for the purpose of approving a budget and make other decisions for the upcoming year. In the case of a major decision that would require a vote by the congregation a special meeting could always be called. This is a structure that would allow the church to have much more flexibility in responding to ministry needs in its community.

I realize this would be a major paradigm shift for many of our churches. I am a life-long Baptist, and we feel we need to vote on EVERYTHING! But, that's no longer working well for most of our churches. Why is it so hard to trust persons in leadership to lead? I would suggest that if we cannot trust our leaders to lead our churches then we have asked the wrong persons to serve in those positions. We should also be honest enough to admit that most of our churches really don't have a congregational vote to decide most issues. In many of our churches it is rare for more than 10-15% of our normal Sunday crowd to show up for a business meeting. A church that averages 200 on a Sunday morning may not have more than 20 people at a business meeting to vote on the issues that are raised.

This will be especially challenging for most of our smaller, bivocational churches. Many of them are used to such rapid pastoral turnover that it is hard for them to develop a trust for their pastor that would allow him or her to provide much leadership. I still think that some of them could form a leadership team to work with the pastor and trust that team to make many of the ministry decisions that need to be made and eliminate most of the committees and congregational votes that slow the church down. Such churches may find that being able to respond quicker to ministry opportunities will allow them to minister much more effectively to their communities.

I believe this is a topic we need to be raising to our congregations, and I would be very interested in hearing the reactions from our readers. If your church has already moved in this direction please share your story with the other readers of this blog. Your story may help them if they decide to try to steer their congregations in this direction.

Civility

We live in a society that increasingly lacks civility in its dealings with one another. I suppose the current economy has made this worse as people are out of work and losing their homes, but people have been growing more rude and litigious for several years. We see this openly on the radio and television talk shows. A guest is asked a question but is interrupted by the host almost as soon as she begins her answer. There is seldom a civil discussion heard in such settings as each side wants to see who can talk the loudest to ensure their talking points are heard. Less openly, but even more disturbing, are the stories of road rage we read about. Cut in too close to a car and shots might be fired. At the very least you'll probably receive an obscene gesture. There are an abundance of court room shows on TV now that show former friends and lovers suing one another over a television set or a dent fender on the car or some other rather insignificant issue. More disturbing are the family members who sue one another over an inheritance or some other issue. We are a rude and impolite people who look to the courts to settle even the smallest of issues. Unfortunately, the same can be said of many of our churches.

In my 2 1/2 decades of ministry I have seen unbelievable behavior on the part of church members. Business meetings turn into shouting matches because someone doesn't get his way. Parking lots become the informal meeting places for disgruntled members who try to recruit people to their side of the issue. Someone reads a newspaper headline about some action that a denomination or individual took and immediately wants to pull the church out of the denomination without looking deeper into the issue. Chuches run off their pastors without providing a fair severance package that will partially provide for the pastor and his or family during the search process for another church to serve. Churches split over the smallest of issues. Pastors and/or churches hire lawyers to protect their interests from the other side. I know of one church that requested extra police patrols because someone had threatened to burn down the parsonage to get the pastor out. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.

Many people in our society and many of our churches are unable to discuss the issues that divide them. Rather than conducting a civil discussion we immediately go into defense mode. It's like we must defend God on every issue. Believe me, God does not care what color carpet your church installs or what hymnal you use. He does care very much what you are doing to minister to those who are separated from Him because of their sins. He does care about what your church is doing to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and provide shelter to the homeless. He also cares about how we treat one another. The Bible teaches us that the world will know we are Christians by the love we show one another.

Will people in the church disagree? Of course. As someone once said, if two people don't disagree occasionally one of them is not necessary. But we can disagree without being disagreeable. We can speak the truth in love and seek to understand the other person's perspective. We can often find areas of agreement that will allow us to move forward rather than remaining stuck in our positions. As the recipients of much grace in our own lives, we can offer that same grace to others with whom we may disagree. We can certainly be civil to people who have been created in the image of God. And, at times, we may have to accept that we will not agree with others on every issue and find a way to continue to relate to one another with respect.

Jerry Falwell was a lightening rod for much of his life. He was not afraid to speak his mind nor was he afraid to debate anyone on any issue. He may not have always been right in everything he did or said, but he was passionate about his beliefs. One of the interesting things after his death was the number of his critics who spoke so highly of him. They often debated issues with Falwell on the national stage, and they held views diametrically opposed to his, but after his death they spoke of their appreciation for him and for the friendships they enjoyed with him. One reported that when there was a tragedy in his family Falwell was the first person he called. Another said that he was always amazed at how respectfully Falwell treated people even while traveling. Falwell held strong views which he defended, but he defended those views with civility and grace towards those who disagreed with him.

We need to recapture that ability in both our society and in our churches. Shouting matches do not resolve anything. Questioning the character of an opponent does not prove your point. Slurs, put-downs, and rumors do not strengthen our argument. We can once again become a civil society if each of us will work at it. Our churches must return to civility if we want to influence this world for the sake of the Kingdom, and some of us need to begin working on that today.

Secrets

Your organization is only as healthy as the secrets you keep.

This is one of the things I discuss in my "Healthy Small Church" workshop. It's true of any organization whether you are talking about a church, a business, or even a family. When secrets are kept, the organization can never be as healthy as it can be when things are out in the open. And one of the things you can be sure of is that eventually your secrets will come out, and when they do the results are usually worse than if the secrets had not been kept in the first place.

I am aware of a church going through difficult times because the leadership has tried to keep secrets from the congregation. Of course, they say they were just trying to protect the congregation, and that may in fact be what they were trying to do. But, that is not what some in the congregation believe now that the secrets are coming out. What the church is now having to address are trust issues, and it is doubtful these issues will be resolved for months, and probably years, from now.

When I was pastor at Hebron we tried to keep people informed of what was going on in the church. Our finances were published every quarter for our business meeting and copies were left out for people who did not attend the meeting to pick up. The financial report showed every dollar that came in and every dollar that went out. There were no secret meetings held to address issues that came up in the life of our church. At least if there were, they were kept secret from me as well! We tried to keep everything that was done in the church in the open, and if questions were asked we could answer honestly because we had nothing to hide.

One issue die arise during my pastorate there. Some people were concerned that something had been arranged in secret. When one person first heard of it a handful of concerned members immediately began their investigation. It sounded like the Watergate hearings. "When did you know about this, and what did you do?" Despite the fears of these concerned members, nothing had been done in secret. We had nothing to hide. We could answer all their questions honestly and with our integrity intact.

Are there secrets in your church? I encourage you to bring them out into the open. They will probably be revealed anyway, and the sooner they are made known to people the less damage they can do. I also encourage you to refuse to operate secretly. Keep all your dealings in the open so that you can maintain the trust of your people. Once you lose that trust it may never be recovered, and without trust you cannot lead your church.