Friday, January 31, 2020

The lives we touch

There is a story about a king who wanted to set aside a special day to recognize the greatest person in his kingdom. Four finalists were being considered. One was a philanthropist who had given most of his wealth to help the poor. The second was a doctor who had dedicated his life to healing the sick. The third person was a judge who was known for his wisdom and fairness. The fourth was an old woman. She was the one the king chose to be celebrated. When people asked why he had selected her when the others had contributed so much to the good of the people of the kingdom the king responded, "She was their teacher."

Each of us influence others for either good or bad. As our lives touch the lives of other people we are both changed in some measure. I think back many years ago, in the mid-1950s, to a little church in a very small community with no stop lights. Every Sunday our family attended that little church. We moved from that community when I was in the second grade, but on occasion the pastor would ask me to read his text. There are pictures of me standing beside the pulpit with a Bible in my hand reading to the congregation. I had to stand beside the pulpit because if I had stood behind it no one could see me. The pastor was Rev. Brainard Lee. Years later I asked him to speak at my ordination service because of the influence he had on my life. He was the first of many whose impact on my life would eventually lead me into the ministry. A number of his grandsons are in the ministry today because of him.

Sometimes we think that only the powerful, the wealthy, the famous can impact the lives of others. That is not what I have found. Rev. Lee was none of those things. He was simply a faithful pastor who lived out his calling the best he could. Yet, there are people in the ministry today because of that faithfulness. There are people whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life because of that faithfulness.

This faithfulness is what each of us are called to live out. We may think we serve in some obscure ministry or task, but we do not know how our lives are influencing the lives of others. It does not matter if you are a minister or lay person in your church, you will impact the lives of other people. It may come from a comment we make to someone that encourages them when they are feeling down. It might come from an act of kindness that we consider to be rather minor, but to someone else might feel like a lifesaver. That impact might come as we preach a sermon or teach a Sunday school class, or it might occur as we are pulling weeds from a flower garden.

Our legacy will not be found in the size of our bank accounts or the amount of material things we accumulate over our lifetimes. It will be found in the lives we touch and in the way our lives impact the lives of others. If we are faithful to live out whatever God has called us to do we can be sure that our legacy will be a good one.


Tuesday, January 28, 2020

No more excuses

Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. Although there have been different interpretations of what Jesus meant when He spoke these words, most scholars are in agreement that regardless of any attacks or resistance from any quarter, the church will emerge victorious. If this is true, and I believe it is, then why are so many churches struggling today and why are church leaders offering so many excuses for these struggles?

The church has always faced challenges, and Jesus never said that it wouldn't; He said those challenges would not prevail. Historically, the church has faced many difficulties, and it emerged from every one of them. Why is it today that so many churches and church leaders are giving up? Instead of  boldly proclaiming the Gospel and reaching out to people, many churches have circled the wagons hoping to survive until Jesus comes. The church isn't called to try to survive. It's not called to try to hang on. It's called to be the Body of Christ, an army filled with the Holy Spirit, tearing down the strongholds that hold people captive.

We don't need excuses. We need men and women to preach the infallible Word of God and
willing to withstand every attack from the enemy that would silence them. I once recommended a person to serve a church as their interim pastor. This was a church with a history of conflict. Someone asked if I believed this individual could stand up to the pressure a group within the church would bring. I smiled at the questioner and said, "This person would charge hell with a water pistol." This is the kind of leader the church needs today.

We don't need a dozen reasons why something won't work. We need leaders who have captured God's vision for the church and are determined to make it happen. A certain percentage of pastors do not feel called to leadership. May I be bold enough to suggest that perhaps they shouldn't be pastors? Too many pastors are more concerned about the fellowship of the church than they are about the mission of the church. Yes, shepherding is part of a pastor's job, but so is leading, and without strong leadership the flock will wander aimlessly with no real purpose.

Instead of offering excuses for why the church is struggling it might be better to spend more time in prayer seeking God's power to overcome the struggles. The largest church in the world, located in South Korea, is well-known for its Prayer Mountain where hundreds of thousands of persons pray each year. The founding pastor and members of the church quickly point to the power of prayer for the church's amazing growth and ministries.

It's time the church quits offering excuses and starts offering solutions to the challenges it is facing. It's time we become determined to be the church Jesus envisioned when He said nothing could stand against it. In New Testament times the church became known as the people who turned the world upside-down. It's time to do it again.

Monday, January 27, 2020

New life cycles in churches

I often show the life cycle of a church as a bell curve. At the base on the left side you have the birth of the church. As one goes up that side is the growth phase, and at the top is the plateau phase. As you begin to move down the right side of the curve you enter the decline phase until you eventually get to the bottom which represents death. In my pastor seminars I point out that this curve is just like the one each of us experience in our personal lives. We are born, we grow, we reach maturity, we begin to decline until we die. There is nothing you and I can do about our life cycle, but there is something a church can do about its cycle. It can begin to grow a new life cycle.

This new life cycle can begin anywhere on the curve, but the best place is on the left side (the growing side), but it's also the most difficult place to try to begin a new life cycle. On that side things are going well, the church is growing, so why begin changing things? The reason is that eventually, if things do not change, the church will find itself on the decline side. At this point many churches become very risk-averse They may be in a survival mode unwilling to try anything that might deplete whatever resources they have.

A new life cycle may start with a new ministry that comes as God gives the church a fresh vision for ministry. It may begin with renewed leadership, both pastoral and lay. It certainly won't happen unless there is a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation. The good news is that new life cycles can come from any of these and can be repeated as often as necessary to prevent the church from ever entering the decline side.

When I began my pastoral ministry in 1981 the church was in trouble. It was certainly far down the decline side. God was very gracious to a young, inexperienced pastor and the church he had been called to lead. We began to see new life cycles form in the life of the church. Positive things were happening. After a few years of growth we began to find ourselves stuck again. About that time I read a book that basically said that if the church was stuck it needed new pastoral leadership. That bothered me because if it was true then I might need to leave the church, and I felt no guidance that it was God's will for me to do that. After much prayer I decided if the church needed a new pastor, then I would become that new pastor. I would have to reinvent myself as the pastor of the church which I began to do. I realized the church was stuck because I had become stuck. In time, we got unstuck and began to do new things once again. We enjoyed exciting ministries during my remaining years as pastor of that church.

In my post last week I wrote about the benefits of planting new churches. There is also great value in replanting existing churches. In a sense, that is what we did in the church I pastored even though that language was not in use at the time. At least I wasn't aware of it. Since then I came across a book that was not available when I pastored that I wish I had. It is Replant: How a Dying Church Can Grow Again by Mark DeVine and Darrin Patrick. I believe it can be a great resource for church leaders who recognize that their churches need to experience new life.

If your church is stuck or even dying, it's time to consider a replant. Your church can start a new life cycle. It may not be easy, but it can be done. It has been done in many churches across the country, and there's no reason it can't be done in your church.

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Seminaries and bivocational ministers

Check out my article in today's EthicsDaily.com on the increase in seminary students planning to enter bivocational ministry.  You can find it here.

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Why do we need to plant churches?

Most Protestant denominations have a strategy for planting new churches. With about 300,000 existing churches in the US some argue that we don't need new churches. Existing churches, especially those that are struggling, often resent the money being spent on starting new churches, especially in the geographic area where they are located. They wonder why the denomination doesn't give them that money since they've already been there. Their reasoning is that with those additional resources they would be able to do better ministry.

One primary reason for starting new churches is that new churches reach new people for Christ. The people in a new church often have a passion for evangelism that is not found in many existing churches. They attend this new church because they are excited about its ministry, and they want others to experience what they experience. The result is that they invite their friends and family to go to church with them.

There's another reason, and that is the lack of sacred cows in new churches. In my pastor conferences I'm often asked why so many of the denominational churches are barely hanging on while new non-denominational churches in the same community is constantly outgrowing its facilities. I explain that these newer churches are often structured much differently than many traditional denominational churches.

In so many of our churches a person cannot buy a roll of toilet paper without approval in a business meeting. If someone suggests changing the color of the toilet paper being used it must be referred to a committee to discuss it for 6-8 months before bringing a recommendation to the next business meeting where it will then be discussed for another two hours. In the new non-denominational church someone goes out and buys toilet paper. Yes...I'm being facetious, a little. But, the fact is many of our existing churches are structured for maintenance, not growth. We spend so much time focusing on administrative details that there is no time to look at growth.

Smaller churches are often greatly overstructured. They still operate as if they were the larger church they once were. People are serving on three or four committees and a couple of boards, teaching a Sunday school class and singing in the choir, and we wonder why they are not out inviting people to church.

Growing churches, whether new church plants or existing churches, are structured for growth, not maintenance. A maintenance church expects the pastor to grow the church while they keep score and make all the decisions, many of which will limit the pastor's ability to grow the church. In a missional church the members see themselves as responsible to grow the church, and the pastor's role is to equip them and provide leadership. Trying to change the paradigm that many maintenance churches hold to is attacking a sacred cow and often leads to problems for the pastor.

So... denominations focus on planting new churches to avoid that sacred cow, and many pastors and seminary graduates now prefer to serve in these new church plants for the same reason.

Before anyone thinks I've suddenly turned against existing churches, I haven't. Existing churches can begin to function like new churches by starting new life cycles. I'll write about that tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Missional vs maintenance-minded churches

Every author hopes that his or her book will sell a million copies. The reality is that most will sell far fewer than that. Way fewer! Occasionally, someone will call me asking how to get a book published. I explain how I did it, but I also explain to them that writing books, especially for the Christian market is not the most profitable endeavor, unless you're writing about end-times or are a well-known pastor of a megachurch. I always tell the caller to not plan on quitting their day job any time soon!

The one book I wrote whose sales have most disappointed me is Intentional Ministry in a Not-So-Mega Church: Becoming a Missional Community This book explores the differences between maintenance-minded churches and missional churches and discusses how to transform from a maintenance-minded mindset to one that is more missional.

For much of my ministry I have heard small churches complain about their lack of growth and the limited impact they've had on their communities. Much of the reason for this is they are stuck in a maintenance mindset. They continue to do the same things over and over that they've done since the 1950s, and they wonder why it's not working any more. They remain stuck in their ruts because these ruts are comfortable, everyone knows their role, and no one has to do anything differently.

As I point out in the book, a rut is just a grave with both ends kicked out. There's not much life around a grave, and there's not much life around a rut either. God is doing new things today, and the church that signs up to be on mission with God will have to do new things as well.

In order to do new things, some old things will have to change. Some will have to be eliminated. Churches don't like eliminating their sacred cows, and they certainly don't enjoy change. In the book I try to help church leaders lead their churches through the changes they might need to take. I try not to identify what those changes are because they might differ among churches, but I can almost guarantee that some things will have to change to develop a more missional mindset.

If your church is stuck I encourage you to consider buying this book. it may help jump-start your way out of your ruts. I think it's a book that can help a lot of churches.

Various denominational groups have invited me to present seminars based on this book, and these seminars have been well received by those attending. If you think this material might be helpful to your church, association, or judicatory please contact me so we can discuss my sharing it with them.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Caring for the caregivers

So often churches duplicate the ministries they offer their communities. Almost every church has a children's ministry, and many of them offer preschool programs. Many have food and clothing banks. More and more churches each year provide back packs for children returning to school and fill these back packs with some of the supplies the students will need. The list of ministries churches provide goes on and on, and each of these are wonderful ways to impact communities. However, there is one ministry need that often goes unfulfilled in many communities and that is providing assistance to caregivers.

In the small community in which I live I know several people who are caring for spouses who suffer from dementia, Alzheimer, or another debilitating illness or accident. My father provided such care for my mother after she suffered a major stroke. Others provide around-the-clock care for children who have been injured in accidents or suffered other types of problems making it impossible for them to care for themselves. With the numbers of people suffering from Alzheimer rising we are going to see more of these caregivers, and yet, in many communities there is no one in private industry or the church providing any type of respite care or assistance to them. What a wonderful opportunity for a church to make a difference in people's lives.

These caregivers often find it difficult to leave the person they are caring for in order to go to the store or work. In some situations the person simply cannot be left alone so the caregiver has to find someone who can stay with the individual while they leave the house. Churches could provide such people. This could allow the caregiver to not only go to the store or work but also give them an opportunity to go to the movies or do something else relaxing to help them relieve some of the stress associated with providing constant care for someone.

This could be a wonderful ministry for someone with the gifts of healing, mercy, and helps. It would also show the community that your church cares for those who are struggling in life. In my community many noticed this winter that no plans had made been made to help the homeless survive the cold weather. On social media there was a lot of chatter that none of the churches cared about these people. Personally, I know that isn't true, but that was the perception some had, and they were very vocal about it. Having a ministry to come alongside caregivers sends a message to the community that your church does care about people's real-life struggles.

No church can do everything, but every church can do something. Perhaps this is a ministry that your church could provide. I encourage you to pray about it and talk about it with others in your congregation.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

The absence of Scripture in today's church

During my pastorate we had two Scripture readings during the worship service. One was the sermon text which I would normally read as I began my message. The other was another Scripture that seemed appropriate for the day. It might be a responsive reading that contained a number of Scriptures from the back of our hymnal, it might have been a responsive reading that I put together for that day or it may have simply been a passage from the Bible. Regardless, we always had two readings from the Scriptures. On Communion Sundays we had a third reading as I would begin our Lord's Supper with the passage from 1 Corinthians 11 in which the apostle Paul discusses the Lord's Supper.

Unfortunately, I find little Scripture reading in many of today's worship services. The sermon text might be read, but that is often all you hear read from the Bible. I'm not sure I understand why it is this way.

We spend a lot of energy defending the Bible as the infallible Word of God. We talk about how it does not return void but accomplishes its purposes. Many conservative Christians complain about Bible reading being removed from schools, but we don't read it in our worship services.

Billy Graham was well-known for his frequent references to the Bible when he preached. "The Bible says..." he would thunder to his audiences. He was not ashamed of the Scriptures because he knew they pointed to Christ and therefore had the power to change people's lives. He sowed the Word and trusted God to bring in a harvest, and hundreds of thousands of people turned to Christ because of his faithfulness to the Word of God.

Could our barren alters be the result of our largely ignoring the Word of God in our worship services? In the book of Mark we read that the disciples went out to preach and God confirmed his word with signs and miracles. We do not read anywhere that God confirmed the opinions of individuals or the latest polls with signs and miracles. Perhaps the reason we do not see more people saved and transformed is because we have ignored the Scriptures in an effort to be relevant.

Not only do we need to be reading the Scriptures in our worship services, we need to take our people deeper in understanding what the Scriptures teach. As a pastor I began preaching through books of the Bible during the summer months and into the fall. I would begin the Sunday after Father's Day and continue until the book was completed. I never had to wonder what I would preach the next Sunday because I would just start up where I left off. It forced me, and those hearing the messages, to confront passages I might have preferred to ignore. These expository messages helped me and our congregation to grow in our faith and understanding.

Let's bring Scripture reading back into our worship services. Let our congregations be exposed to as much of the Word of God as possible that it might richly impact their lives.


Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Congregational expectations of bivocational pastors

This was my most popular blog post of 2019 according to the number of people who read it. I thought it might deserve repeating.

A major challenge faced by bivocational ministers is trying to meet the expectations of the congregation. Most churches have a job description for the pastor, and most pastors do not get into trouble because they do not meet fulfill that job description. They get in trouble when they do not meet the unwritten job descriptions that exist in every church. If a church has 50 people there may be 50 different expectations placed on the pastor. (I often say that in many churches there is at least one person with schizophrenic tendencies so there may be 51 different expectations. I'm only partially joking when I say that!)

Many churches are now transitioning from having a fully-funded pastor to a bivocational pastor. Such transitions often fail because of unrealistic expectations placed on the pastor. While the church may be paying a bivocational salary some within the congregation still have the expectations they had when their pastor was fully-funded, which may not have been realistic even then.

Some unrealistic expectations that some churches have for their bivocational pastor may include expecting him or her to run to the hospital or home every time someone gets sick. If the pastor has an outside job he or she may not be available to dash to the hospital. When I was pastoring our church we used an SBC program called the Deacon Family Ministry plan which assigned every family in our church to one of our deacons. That deacon became the primary contact person for those families. I was called in more critical situations, but often our deacons would be called and would visit people long before I was able to due to my work schedule.

This is in line with something I've long advocated. We have to get away from a pastoral care model to a congregational care model in our churches. This is a more biblical understanding of how we are to care for one another (Eph. 4). It requires training of both the leaders and the congregation, but when it is done right it works very well, and even more so in bivocational churches.

A second unrealistic expectation is requiring the pastor to speak two or three times a week. Many bivocational churches still expect their pastor to preach Sunday morning, Sunday evening and at a mid-week service. Those evening services may not have but 4-5 people show up, but because they were well attended in the 1950s the church still expects it. That is seldom a good use of the pastor's time. Not only does he or she have to speak each of those times, but each of those messages requires preparation time which may be 5-10 hours each. If lay people cannot lead the Sunday evening and mid-week service then it may be time to give them a proper burial. Again, when I was pastoring I preached Sunday morning and evening but refused a mid-week service.

A third unrealistic expectation is refusing to give the pastor more than a week or two of vacation each year. I served as a bivocational pastor for 20 years. It's hard work that takes a lot out of the minister and his or her family. I always advocated that a church should give their pastor four weeks vacation right from the beginning. Most churches will give two weeks and pay a supply preacher $150.00 or less while the pastor is gone. Giving the pastor two more weeks will cost the church $300.00 or less. That is a minimal cost to the church but provides the pastor and family a huge blessing. Most churches budget X amount of dollars a year for the pastor's salary, so does it really matter whether that includes the pastor being there 48 weeks or 50 weeks? If a church cannot afford $300.00 to bless their pastor in this way it probably needs to decide if it is viable that it remains open.

While I'm upsetting people I might as well go all the way! Give your bivocational pastor a three-month paid sabbatical every seven years. (I just heard jaws hit the floor.) I made this statement in a workshop I was leading a few years ago and an older woman spoke up and said that they all worked for a living and didn't get three months off with pay. I responded that none of them were on-call 24/7/365 and responsible for the eternal souls of those they served either. (She left the workshop.)

That paid sabbatical may be the best investment you will make in your church. I am convinced many pastors leave after 5-7 years, not because they feel led to, but because they are just tired. They resign from the church, rest for awhile, and then begin to look for another place in which to serve. If they had that sabbatical they could refresh themselves and their families and then return back to a church that had loved on them in this way. Virtually every study shows that growing, healthy churches are led by long-term pastors, and this may be a way to keep your pastor for a long time. I can assure you, if you expect your bivocational pastor to just keep plugging away he or she will eventually wear out and have to leave just to protect themselves.

I encourage bivocational churches to invite someone such as a DS, a judicatory leader or a consultant to lead a discussion on how a congregation and bivocational pastor can set some realistic expectation for each other. It may be one of the healthiest things your church can do.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Theology and discipleship

Yesterday's post brought a good question from a reader who wanted to know if one can have theological depth and not make and multiply disciple makers. I started to respond to his question and realized the answer would be too much for a FB response.

It is possible for one to have theological depth and not make disciples. For too long we have confused education with discipleship. Some of our churches offer numerous learning opportunities throughout the week with mid-week Bible studies, men's Bible studies, women's Bible studies, Sunday school classes, small groups, etc. Each of these may be faithful in teaching sound theology. But, discipleship occurs when we combine what we are learning with ministry opportunities. Knowledge alone does not produce disciples. It is when people combine their learning with service that discipleship occurs.

John Maxwell has said that the average Christian is educated far beyond his level of obedience. I believe that is true in many cases. If our churches are to produce disciples we must provide our congregations with solid theological teaching and give them opportunities to serve others.

In my devotions this morning I read in the book of Mark where Jesus sent His disciples out to minister to the surrounding area. He had spent time with them, teaching them, and now He was sending them out to do ministry, to put into practice what He had taught and shown them. This is a good model for creating disciples.

Monday, January 13, 2020

Spiritually immature Christians

This past weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to speak to a gathering of Church of the Nazarene pastors and staff in Indianapolis on bivocational ministry. This was a continuing education event for them, and I was honored to have been invited to be one of the speakers.

Although my focus was on bivocational ministry, during the seminar I veered off into another issue. Those who know me understand that is not unusual! I can chase rabbits with the best of them! I just believe that if something comes into my mind while I'm addressing something it may be that it is a word someone present needs to hear. In this case it was around the issue of spiritually immaturity and the biblical illiteracy that affects so many believers today.

Throughout my ministry I've heard pastors complain about the lack of biblical understanding found in so many of the members of their congregations. What I said to this gathering of pastors is that if they have been in their church for more than three years, and they are complaining about how their people do not know the Scriptures, that is their fault. John Maxwell often says that for the first three years you can blame your predecessor for all the church's problems, but after three years they belong to you. I think there is a lot of truth in that.

As a Resource Minister for 14 years I was in a different church almost every week. My wife and I would leave some services talking about how shallow the message was. There was no meat. There was very little Scripture and even less application to how the Scripture spoke to today's world. The people were being given milk and not meat, and in some cases it was 2% milk, watered down so much that it barely qualified as milk.

Perhaps one reason I spoke about this at the pastor's gathering was because of a book I am reading now, The Pastor as Public Theologian: Reclaiming a Lost Vision by Kevin Vanhoozer and Owen Strachan. The authors point out how in the past the pastor's primary role was to be a theological teacher to the church and community, but now with all the expectations that people place upon the pastor that role has diminished in many churches. Too often, theological depth has been replaced with a feel-good message that may tickle the ears but has no power to change lives. We have given theological teaching over to the academic world and to the "experts" and given pastors the task of doing "practical" ministry. With this kind of separation it is no wonder that many believers are so weak in their faith.

Pastors are to proclaim the "whole counsel of God," and that requires that we take our listeners into the depths of Scripture. Of course, in order to do that we have to set aside time to study the Scriptures ourselves and prepare messages that are theologically sound and address real needs of people. We have to help them develop a Christian worldview, think biblically about the issues and challenges they are facing, and be ready to defend their faith against the critics and unbelievers they will face throughout their lives. We are losing our young people because we have not done that. Multitudes of others see nothing in Christianity that appeals to them because they cannot see any difference in the lives of Christians than what they are experiencing in their own lives.

I'm only half-way through this book so I don't know what advice the authors will offer, but I would encourage pastors to review the past six months of their sermons. Were they messages that challenged your people to go deeper in their faith? Did they challenge your people to think more theologically about some issue? Did they contain the meat necessary to promote genuine growth in the lives of your people? If not, what do you need to do differently in 2020?

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Growing numbers of seminary students going into bivocational ministry

An article in Christianity Today reports that the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) says that one-third of 2017 seminary graduates plan to enter bivocational ministry. This includes 57% of black/non-Hispanic and 41% of Hispanic/Latino graduates. This is a significant number of people who view bivocational ministry as a viable option for ministry and offers hope to thousands of smaller churches who may struggle to find seminary-trained leadership to serve their churches. In addition to those attending seminary, many planning to enter bivocational ministry are being trained in denominational programs such as the Church Leadership Institute offered by the American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky. While never designed to replace seminary this program does provide basic ministerial training for those serving as bivocational ministers or lay leaders in their churches.

Many denominations report that roughly one-third of their churches now have bivocational pastors. Some state conventions report that 50-75 percent of their churches are bivocational. In a sabbatical project I did a few years ago I interviewed a number of denominational leaders from various denominations who all told me they expected the number of bivocational leaders in their denominations to continue to grow. This report from ATS is good news for the churches in these denominations, and it is good news for the future of smaller churches.

For a long time the trend was to build larger and larger churches. Growth was seen as an indication of health. However, recent events have suggested that is not always the case. Well-known megachurch leaders have fallen hard in recent times. Some have been removed for moral reasons while others have burned-out and resigned the ministry. At the same time, other megachurches are serving their communities quite well and continue to grow. It's too early to predict the future of the larger churches, but I can predict the future of smaller churches. They are survivors and will be around until the Lord returns.

Of course, some won't survive. Churches close their doors every week, and many of them are smaller churches. A lack of good leadership, a lack of resources and too few people force some of these churches to close. However, at the same time these churches are closing other churches start. They begin with a fresh vision for ministry and a desire to make a difference in people's lives. They don't bring a lot of baggage from the past into their ministry. Some of these will be home churches. Some will rent space in malls or buy the buildings abandoned by the churches that closed.

All smaller churches, whether new church starts or existing churches, will benefit from this desire of seminary-trained graduates to enter bivocational ministry. As one who has long advocated for bivocational ministry I couldn't be more pleased.


Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Don't overlook the older minister in your search for a pastor

With the holidays behind us some pastors will begin to think about moving to other churches. Those with children is school often want to make that move during the summer months so their children can start the new school year out in their new school, so they will begin looking late winter and early spring. Because of the holidays many pastor search teams slowed down or even halted their search until the new year began. That means they are now ready to resume their search.

As a judicatory minister I worked with many search teams over the years. In my first meeting with them I always asked what they wanted in their next pastor. I usually knew the answer because it was pretty much the same regardless of the church. They wanted a pastor who could preach well, would visit the congregation, be involved in the community and grow the church or youth group. That may not have been what the church needed, but it was what most of them wanted. It was also often said, or at least implied, that they would like a younger pastor (with a spouse and children of course) who could bring in new ideas. I KNEW most of them did not want any new ideas being brought into the church. Often, that was why their previous pastor was no longer there, but it was the politically correct thing to say to the denominational representative.

A few times I asked the search team if they believed that younger pastors were the only ones who might have some fresh ideas for ministry. They often seemed confused by the question especially when I told them that some of the sharpest pastors I knew were older ones who had been in the ministry for years. They had been there and done that. Yes, some of them were trapped in the mindset they had been taught in seminary in the 1960s, but some of the younger ones had been taught by the same seminaries and held to that same mindset. At least some of the older ones had been around long enough to know that some things they had been taught no longer worked.

Churches do themselves a disservice when they automatically reject a minister because he or she is older or has even retired.  I know some older pastors who retired to get away from the stress of being in a dysfunctional church and couldn't find another place to serve. As one told me, his doctor said he could either retire or die from the stress his church was causing him. After he retired I was able to help him find a smaller church that he served very well as their pastor.

Smaller churches especially need to consider calling older pastors. As many of them are finding out, the pool of candidates is not a large one for them. If they are insistent on finding a young pastor whose wife can play the piano they are likely to be without a pastor for a long time.

Several years ago I was having lunch with one of my pastors when he asked me to guess how old he was. I made my guess and was stunned to learn that he was almost 20 years older than I had thought. He had more energy than some pastors I knew half his age. His mind and wit was keen and his passion for ministry was obvious. He loved his church and served them faithfully for many years after our lunch. I always enjoyed the times we met to talk about ministry

As your church looks at potential candidates do not automatically discard those who you think might be too old. When you meet with them you might be surprised to find they are exactly what your church needs for its next phase of ministry.

Monday, January 6, 2020

Sharing the work

A pastor friend of mine recently wrote of the challenges he has in trying to balance the various things he needs to do. This is especially a problem felt by bivocational ministers, but it's one that affects all ministers. As he wrote, trying to serve the church, be an active presence in the community and be present with his family makes it hard to maintain a sense of balance.

We will never find a balance in life and ministry if we never learn to share the work with other people. For too many years we have emphasized a pastoral care model of ministry that isn't biblical, expects too much of our clergy and ignores the gifts God has given others in our congregations.

God has given gifts to every believer which are to be used to serve others. When the pastor reserves ministry for himself or herself that pastor is robbing others of the joy of service. Such a pastor keeps the church from being the church and deprives individuals from using the gifts God has given them.

A more biblical model of ministry has the pastor and other ordained persons in the church equipping the saints for the work of ministry. Our role as pastors is not to try to figure out how to get everything done. Our role is to help equip all those in our churches to be engaged in ministry using the gifts they have been given.

In my pastoral seminars I often tell people that no matter how talented and gifted their pastor might be, he or she can only be in one place at a time doing one thing at a time. However, if there are 50 people in the congregation who see themselves as ministers and who have been equipped to use their gifts you now have 50 people in 50 places doing ministry. Which is going to be most effective for the Kingdom of God? The answer is a mathematical one. Do you prefer 1X1 or 50X1? I'll give you a hint: the most effective will be the one with the most people involved.

As we enter a new year let's take a look at how ministry is being done in our churches. Are we expecting the pastor to take the lead in doing ministry, or are we expecting the pastor to help equip us to do ministry? Your answer will tell a lot about what the future holds for your church.

Friday, January 3, 2020

Space station and God

My wife and I enjoy watching the international space station fly over. Every few weeks we'll check the Internet to find out when it will be visible in our zip code so we can watch it. It normally is so bright and large in the sky it's hard to believe that it maintains an average of 250 miles in altitude and travels 17,500 miles per hour enabling it to orbit the earth 15.5 times per day. Recently we were able to do something for the first time: we saw it twice in one evening. The first viewing lasted four minutes while the second viewing was only for one minute.

No doubt the space station is one of the greatest scientific and engineering feats man has ever accomplished. No matter where in the world one lives, they can go online and know exactly when and where it will be visible. Space shuttles are able to fly to the station and dock there while transferring supplies and personnel. Spacewalks are done to perform maintenance and repairs to the station.

For me, the operation of the international space station is one more evidence of God's existence. Non-theists would point out the fact that man's knowledge and abilities built the station and keep it functioning. While that is true, it is only due to the fine tuning of the universe that the station is able to operate as it does. If our universe was not fine-tuned as it is science and engineering alone could not predict the exact location of the space station at any moment.

The fine-tuning of the universe is one of the strongest evidences of God we have. Right now the planet earth is rotating about 1,000 miles an hour at the equator. It is also flying around the sun at over 67,000 miles per hour. In addition, we are part of the Milky Way that is flying through the universe at over 1.3 million miles per hour. Are you starting to get dizzy, yet?

What keeps us from being flung out into space? Gravity. Gravity keeps our atmosphere in place and keeps us at just the right distance from the sun. How fine-tuned is gravity. Theoretical physicist Brandon Carter, who worked with Stephen Hawking, claims that if gravity was weaker or stronger by 1 part in 10 to the 40th power life would not be possible. There are many more evidences of fine-tuning that permits life than this, but are we to believe that all of this just happened? Or does it point to a Creator? It seems to me that it would require much more faith to believe that this universe is so fine-tuned by accident than it does to believe in a Creator.

Now, go back to the figures  I gave you concerning how the earth is moving through our universe and consider that the space station travels 17,500 miles per hour and yet its travels can be pinpointed exactly as to where it will be at any second, how long it will be visible at any given time at any location throughout the world. That is only possible because of the fine-tuning of our universe.

Psalm 19:1 tells us "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." Romans 1:20 reminds us "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Start the new year off with a good book

In my last two posts of 2019 I shared my favorite ten books for the year. For the past several years I've averaged reading 50 books a year although the number was less in 2019. Some have asked how I can read so many books in a year. In fact, someone recently told me they have not read that many in their entire lives.

First, there are many people who read far more than one book a week. Last week I saw one person post the list of books he had read in 2019. He had read 65. One well-known leader claims to read 125 or more books a year. The voracious reading habits of such people as Warren Buffett, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates and others are well-documented.

Secondly, I have always loved reading. We didn't have a lot of books in our home growing up, but my mother made sure I went to the public library as often as I wanted. As a young child I probably read as many books as I do now. I read Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn numerous times and all of the Hardy Boys mystery books. Every week we went to the library where I would turn in the books I had read that week and pick up more. I do not know anything a parent can do to better prepare their children for life than to instill in them a love of reading.

For years I've shared my top 10 books on FB, but what about the ones I don't list. Some may wonder about those books. Virtually all of them are non-fiction. I seldom read more than one or two, if that many, fiction books a year. Most of them are ministry, business, leadership or theology books. These are the things that most interest me so I concentrate on learning more about them. Occasionally, I will throw in a book that is related to history or military or a biographical look of someone I want to know more about.

As I start a new decade I am reading Jesus Drives Me Crazy!: Lose Your Mind, Find Your Soul by Leonard Sweet and Connecting: Healing Ourselves and Our Relationships by Larry Crabb. Both of these are re-reads that have been sitting in my library since I last read them a few years ago. Jesus Drives Me Crazy is my devotional reading right now. In Sweet's unique style he reminds us of how the wisdom of Jesus seems crazy to the way normal people think and live, and yet it is living according to this wisdom where true life is found.

Crabb is a well-known therapist whose book challenges Christians to form healing communities to bring about true healing for hurting people. He writes, "We have made a terrible mistake! For most of this century we have wrongly defined soul wounds as psychological disorders and delegated their treatment to trained specialists. Damaged psyches aren't the problem. The problem is disconnected souls. What we need is connection! What we need is a healing community!"

In the last mail I received in 2019 came The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. In this book the author asks, How do you win a game that has no end? Baseball has nine innings; basketball is played in two halves; football games last four quarters. There are a set number of players that can be on each team. The way one scores is clearly laid out in the rules. At the end of the game the team that scores the most points wins.

However, life isn't like that. Businesses, organizations, families and churches play an infinite game with no defined end point. While the organization may enjoy successes along the way, the game never ends. Sinek claims that one of the reasons many organizations struggle is because their leaders are playing an infinite game with a finite mindset. He seeks to change that mindset in this book. I have already started reading it and finding it an excellent read.

Several times in my life I have read through the Bible in a year. This year I decided to read through the New Testament. I usually read a different version each time, and this year I decided to use The Message.

What books are you planning to read in this new year? Pick some good ones because they have the power to change your life.