Four things the post-pandemic church must focus on

We have spent much of 2020 dealing with a world-wide pandemic that has impacted many aspects of our lives including the church. Churches have scrambled to continue providing worship services in-person and online and have sought new ways of conducting Bible studies and small groups. In some states churches have been forced to close for a season. Church camps and other church-related entities were forced to cancel many of their activities resulting in financial challenges. It has been a difficult and challenging year. While many are looking forward to the end of 2020 there is no guarantee that 2021 will not present even more challenges. Rather than sitting back and waiting until things return to "normal" I believe there are four things the church must focus on as we move into the new year.

The first of these is prayer. We talk about prayer more than we actually pray. One reason we don't see a spiritual revival in our country is that we don't pray as we should. When one studies the great revivals of the past it becomes obvious that each of them began as a result of prayer. We need to pray bold prayers asking God to move across our nation to bring healing and revival. We need to pray prayers of confession admitting to our sins and seeking God's forgiveness. We need to pray intercessory prayers on behalf of one another. And as we pray we need to do so in faith believing that God will answer those prayers.

Secondly, the church needs to refocus its commitment to fulfilling the Great Commission. This is the mission of every church. This is our mandate, and yet many churches do little or nothing towards the winning of souls to Christ. The numbers of non-Christians continues to grow while the numbers of Christians continue to become less and less. It seems the modern church is willing to do anything except evangelize the lost. Let's not forget who these people are. They are our neighbors, the sweet grandmother next door who does not know Jesus Christ, the young lady who checks us out each week at the supermarket, the teacher who helped our children learn. They are our parents, our children, our grandchildren, and our best friends. Rather than think of non-Christians in the abstract let's begin to put faces on them and then begin to take seriously the Great Commission and make it a focus of everything we do as a church.

Thirdly, we must be open to radical change. Many churches don't like any change; now I'm talking about radical change. What kind of radical change? No one knows, but as the challenges the church face increases it will require us to make the necessary changes in order to address them. Not only will the changes we will be forced to make be radical in nature, they must also be made faster than we are comfortable with. I do not believe the church in the future will have the luxury of spending months discussing potential changes in committee and board meetings before voting on it at the next business meeting. In many cases the church will need to respond quickly to grasp the opportunity before it. These changes will no doubt make some people uncomfortable, but they will be necessary in order for the church to succeed in its mission.

Finally, the church must be willing to sacrifice it all. Yesterday, during our invitational hymn the church sang "All to Jesus I Surrender." As we finished I responded that it is often easier to sing the great hymns of the faith than it is to live them. Are our churches really willing to surrender everything to Jesus. Are we willing to sacrifice it all if that is what is required of us? Sometimes we cannot know victory until we are willing to lay it all on the line.

While we do not know what 2021 will bring we can begin now to prepare for whatever it might be by focusing on these four things.

The real loser in this election

One of the key ingredients that determines if a leader can lead is trust. If people do not trust the leader they will not follow him or her. This is true in churches, in businesses and other organizations, and it is true of a nation. It is almost a certainty that Joe Biden will be our next president. However, whether that is the case or if President Trump somehow retains the office, America is in trouble.

This was a close election with nearly one-half of the votes going to each candidate. If Biden becomes president a large number of people will claim that many of his votes were fraudulent. If Trump wins his court cases and remains in office Biden's supporters will claim he stole the election. Either way, many Americans will resent whoever is in office. If Congress remains split with the Democrats in the House holding a slim majority and the Republicans in the Senate holding a slim majority our nation will once again be held captive by partisan bickering and posturing. By virtue of holding office the president will be able to enact some of his agenda through the use of executive orders, but that is not true leadership. These orders will be met with great resistance due to the lack of trust half of the nation feels towards whoever holds the office. Some are saying the Joe Biden received a mandate from the American public for the things he wants to do, but no such mandate exists. Neither did this election provide a mandate for the current president if he remains in office.

The approval rating for Congress tanked years ago and shows no signs of improving any time soon. Although a few new faces were elected to office in the recent election, for the most part we returned the same politicians we claim we don't trust back to office. I guess enough pot holes in our streets got repaired for them to stay in office. Much is made of the president's approval rating, but at even their lowest levels the past few presidents had ratings much higher than that of Congress.

What is lacking in our nation is statemanship. We have an abundance of politicians, but we do not have statesmen. When our nation was founded it was led by statesmen such as George Washington, John Jay, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Samuel Adams and many others. While these individuals held different views on various subjects, they worked together to create a constitution that has stood the test of time and been the envy of people around the world. Now we have politicians who want to rip up the constitution and replace it with their own private agenda. Is it any wonder they are not trusted and are unable to accomplish anything meaningful for the good of the nation? I find it interesting that our nation is so much larger now than when it was founded and yet we are unable to find leaders of the caliber of our founding fathers. We might want to explore why that is.

We have also learned that we cannot trust the news media. Not only do they determine what news to report, they determine how they can best spin it to fit their worldview. This is true whether one watches media with a conservative bias or a liberal one. I used to watch 3-4 hours of news every night. Now, I watch about a half-hour of local news and then go on to other things. I don't trust them so why should I listen to them? Until someone figures out how to restore trust in our elected leaders and our media we will see our nation continue its downward spiral. 

I must point out the same is true of churches. One of the reasons so many churches struggle to remain healthy and to have an effective ministry is that its leadership is not trusted. There are many reasons for the lack of trust in churches. Former pastors may have provided poor leadership which has made the congregation leery of trusting another pastor. The church may have a lot of secrets it is trying to keep from being made public. A church is only as healthy as the secrets it keeps. Lay leaders in the church may have deep divisions among themselves, and any time there is factional fighting there will be a lack of trust and a breakdown of leadership. When any of these things occur, the church is in trouble.

We may still be a few weeks away from knowing who the next president will be, but this election is going to impact our nation for years to come. We simply have to do a better job of ensuring fair and honest elections in the future, and we need to begin now looking for qualified people to support for office who will have the good of the nation ahead of their own personal good or that of their political party.

Can we have morality without God?

Philosophers have long tried to insist that man can be a moral creature without a belief in the existence of God. As our society grows more secular today this claim is heard even more frequently. Many would point to the work of Immanuel Kant as the godfather of this worldview. Kant taught that the rules of morality were rational  and evident to people apart from any belief in God. He further believed that people not only had the ability to know right from wrong but also had the ability within themselves to choose to do what is right. Obviously, there are some problems with this philosophy.

One, watch any news program and you will readily see that many people do not appear to have the ability to know right from wrong nor the ability to choose to do what is right. Our world is overwhelmed with violence, chaos, greed, hatred, abuse, addictions, and far more problems than can be listed here. Without a Moral Lawgiver there is no universal standard of right and wrong, and without such a standard there is bound to be everything described above as each person does what seems right in his or her own eyes.

A second problem arises when the person who insists there is no moral standard given to us by God but then complains when someone does something they believe is wrong. If God does not exist, and there is no objective moral standard, then who is to say that anything is right or wrong? What is the basis for such judgment? Without such a standard then there is no compelling reason why a person cannot do anything he or she pleases. 

What we often find is that nearly every person will eventually admit to certain behaviors as immoral, but then they struggle to explain why those actions are immoral. The reason they struggle with their explanations is they are using biblical standards of right and wrong and doing so while still trying to deny the existence of God. It is here that the hypocrisy exists.

The late apologist Ravi Zacharias frequently wrote about this dilemma faced by those who claim that man can be moral without God. In his book Can Man Live Without God he wrote, "Let me say forthrightly that what we have actually done is to smuggle in foundational strengths of Christian thought, buried far below the surface to maintain some stability, while above the ground we see humanism's bizarre experiments growing unchecked. If we truly put into place the same principles below the ground that we flaunt above the ground, we would completely self-destruct."

Our culture wants to deny the existence of God, claim that mankind is free to create its moral code of conduct without an objective moral standard, free people to live according to their conscience, but then revert back to a biblical foundation of morality when needed. They cannot have it both ways.

Change in the digital world

I'm currently reading a very interesting business book that was published in 2009. That doesn't sound very long ago until you begin researching some of the things recommended in the book. The book focuses on doing business in the 21st century and the importance of having a web-based business. In one chapter the author suggests six free online tools that entrepreneurs should use. Two of the six have been discontinued since the book was published. Just as quickly as online tools are developed, they are replaced by something better and faster. It's kind of the like the new computer you buy with all the bells and whistles, and three months later it's outdated due to new technology having been developed.

Think about other changes that have occurred in the digital world. From 2005-2009 My Space was the largest social networking site in the world with over 100,000 users per month. However, it was then surpassed by Facebook, and today it is but a fraction of its former size. Now, Facebook faces challenges from newer social media sites such as MeWe, which is the currently the second most downloaded app on Google Play Store, Pinterest, WT Social and a host of others.

Another change that is coming in 2021 is that Microsoft 365 products will stop supporting Internet Explorer. In 2003 IE was the most widely used web browser, but its popularity has decreased steadily since Firefox and Google Chrome were introduced. In 2015 Microsoft announced that Microsoft Edge would replace IE on its Windows 10 devices.

Now, you may be like me and these changes do not affect you very much. Or you may be a person who is always on the lookout for the latest and greatest in technology. If you are in the latter group, good luck keeping up with all the changes occurring in the digital world. I suspect these changes will only increase in their rapidity. 

The real purpose of this post is to point out that changes are coming just as quickly in the church world as well. This year we saw the need for churches who had no online presence to quickly develop one. For many of these churches their online presence was an introductory one. The challenge now will be to understand how to build upon that. 

Many churches that began offering their worship services online found that their in-person attendance and the number of those who were watching the services online were more than previously attended their services. I mentioned in a previous post that we now have three congregations: those who attend in person, those who attend only online, and those who attend some services in person and other services online. How do we minister to these three different groups of people? How do we even identify the ones who only attend online? How do we do discipleship with each of the three groups? How do we help the ones online to feel connected to our churches? How do we provide pastoral care to our online congregation if we do not even know who they are? I'm sure you can add many more questions to this list, but this is enough to help us understand that we are facing an entirely new way of doing church that most of us have not considered in the past.

We can ignore these questions, but we do so at our peril. If we want to continue to be used by God to be a witness to this generation we must find answers to these questions, and many others as well. In my opinion, if you think 2020 has been challenging to the church, you ain't seen nothing yet!

The failure of atheism

 Many would point to Frederick Nietzsche as the philosopher who has had the greatest impact on atheism today. In a very powerful book I'm currently re-reading, Can Man Live Without God by Ravi Zacharias, the author points out the fallacy of Nietzsche's claims about the positive attributes of atheism.

Nietzsche taught that Christianity denied human progress because of its teachings on morality, repentance and humility. He believed that a civilization of power could not be built on such teachings and therefore Christianity, and the belief in God, had to be destroyed. One who bought into his philosophy was Hitler who tried to create a world without God and plunged the world into a horrible war.

Zacharias points out that the reality of Nietzsche's philosophy "is, under close examination...philosophically incoherent, morally bankrupt, and unable to logically or existentially support civilization...We do not see the promised greatness or harmony. Instead we are trapped in a world of violence, discord, emptiness, alienation, and racial hatred. But having become masters of deceit and able manipulators of reality, we have also become deaf to the truth."

Does this not sound like what is happening today in our world? Violence, discord, emptiness, alienation and racial hatred make up the news stories every evening. We have removed God from the public square. We have rejected the very teachings Nietzsche said was preventing society from moving forward, and the result is chaos, confusion and division.

Atheism is a failed philosophy, but it is quickly becoming the dominant worldview of many within our nation. We have seen the results of this belief system played out in such countries as the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, and other nations, and yet it is proclaimed in the media, on university campuses and in a growing number of our political leaders as the best hope for mankind.

The church must boldly proclaim the truth of God's Word and challenge atheism wherever it is taught. We must know what we believe and why we believe it. We must pass our faith on to our children and grandchildren. As someone has said, we are only one generation away from losing Christianity. We must be able to defend our beliefs and faith to those who would question it.

It's important to remember that Jesus promised that the church would withstand every attack made against it. Our battle against atheism is not a battle against flesh and blood but against the powers of darkness. It is a spiritual battle that we will win but only if we are willing to stand firm on the beliefs we claim we hold.

Sometimes we just need to reboot

 When I came into the church office this morning I tried to call a church member. There was no dial tone on the phone. I checked with the office administrator and learned she didn't have a dial tone either, and a couple of people had called in and they could not hear one another. We assumed the power outage last Sunday had fried our phones and were looking into replacing them. I suddenly thought that maybe if I unplugged my phone and plugged it back in it would reboot. It worked!

Sometimes we need to reboot our spiritual lives as well. When someone has been a Christian for a long period of time it's easy to begin taking our spiritual lives for granted. We stop reading our Bibles as we did as new believers. We pray when we think about it. We find it easier to not attend church services than it used to be. Suddenly, we feel distant from God and wonder what happened. We know God hadn't moved so it must be us who have began to distance ourselves from Him.

At some point in our lives most of us will need to reboot our relationship with God. That doesn't require that we disconnect with him as it did with the phone. It just requires that we return to doing the things we did when we first became Christians. We spend time in prayer, in reading the Bible and in attending the worship services. We find ways to serve others on His behalf. We ask God to restore unto us the joy of our salvation.

We can be certain the devil will attempt to stop our efforts to reboot our relationship with God. He has invested a lot in luring us away from that relationship, and he will not let go easily. It's important that we surround ourselves with people who will help us rebuild our relationship with God. That's one reason it's so important that we are faithful in being active in our church. Everywhere there are people and other things that work to pull us away from God; we need persons and activities in our lives that will encourage us to grow in our relationship with God.

If you live in the Westport, Indiana area, and you need to reboot your relationship with God we would love to walk with you through that. If you don't live in the area, find a good Bible-believing church to help you.  If you've never invited Christ into your life but feel this is the time, please contact us. If you just want to ask questions about what it means to be a Christian, please feel free to DM me. I would love to talk with you about that.

Five levels of leadership

 Thanks to the pandemic and spending more time at home than usual I have read over 100 books so far this year. I just finished what was probably my favorite one of them all. The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential by John Maxwell is an excellent book for anyone in a leadership role including those of us in ministry. It builds on his belief that everything rises and falls on leadership. In order to grow and improve an organization the leader must first be growing in his or her leadership abilities and then develop other leaders. It is a concept that I bought into years ago, and I have tried to do both ever since.

The five levels are

1. Position - The person is given a leadership role and others follow him or her because that person is in charge. This is the lowest level.
2. Permission - People follow the leader because they want to because they have a relationship with the leader and trusts him or her.
3. Production - At this level the leaders gain credibility because they have produced results.
4. People Development - Level 4 leaders change the lives of the people they lead and empower them to become leaders in their own right.
5. Pinnacle - Few leaders reach this level of leadership. At this level they develop others to become Level 4 leaders.

Maxwell points out the upside and downside of each level and explains how one can move into the next level. He also explains why many do not move into higher levels of leadership. It costs something to move into a new level of leadership, and many are not willing to pay the price. As he said in one of his other books, you have to give up in order to go up. Moving into the next level will always cost the leader something, and unless the individual is convinced it's worth it, he or she will likely decide to stay at the level where they are.

Of course, that decision can also be costly. Once a leader decides to remain at his or her current level that means he or she cannot take the organization any further. How many pastors have resigned their place of ministry because they realized they had taken the church as far as they could? On the one hand, it's good they recognized that and stepped aside so new leadership could be brought in, but on the other hand it is often an admission they have not grown as leaders.

While there are some who seem to be born leaders, anyone can learn the principles of good leadership. Even the born leaders must commit themselves to growing in their leadership skills or they too will find themselves and the organizations they lead stuck. Every person called to ministry must commit themselves to being a lifelong learner in the area of leadership.

I have only one regret after reading this book. I wish I had read it sooner.

Is your church ready for a bivocational minister?

 Yesterday I wrote about a pastor who had asked permission to seek part-time employment to supplement his salary due to financial challenges the church was having due to Covid. I mentioned that he would probably have no problem finding such employment in his area, but the greater challenge will be for the church making the shift from having a fully-funded pastor to one who is bivocational. During my time in denominational work I found that churches often had more trouble making that transition than did the pastor.

Churches whose pastors move into a bivocational role cannot expect that individual to be available as they once were. Their other work now requires a certain amount of their time, and they still need time for their families and their own well-being. That means the church has to assume more of the ministerial tasks that they may have asked their pastor to perform. For instance, he or she is not going to be able to be in immediate contact with everyone in the church. When the pastor is at the other place of employment he or she cannot be reached at the church office as before. His employer likely will not want him or her taking phone calls regarding church business when he is at work. 

Some bivocational ministers contract with the church for a set number of hours each week. I've never been a fan of this. No minister is going to refuse a phone call because they have already worked their contracted hours for the week. When I served as a bivocational pastor I told our church there were some weeks I probably didn't do more than 5-6 hours of church work a week. There were other weeks I did 50. I felt it all balanced out. Like most bivocational ministers I know, my motto was "Whatever it takes." So I didn't worry about tracking hours.

One pastor who moved from a fully-funded role to a bivocational one in his church was able to make the transition smoothly, but his church didn't. Although they agreed he could go bivocational, they could not overcome the mindset that they held when he was fully-funded. They resented he wasn't there at their every beck and call. I had met with the church before he made the transition and explained to them the differences they would experience. They were in agreement with all of them until they actually began to experience them in real life. I understand it eventually led to so much conflict in the church that the pastor resigned.

If your church is considering making the shift from a fully-funded pastor to a bivocational pastor make sure you understand all the changes that will occur. Bring in a consultant who understands bivocational ministry or a denominational leader who has helped lead other church through this transition to meet with the pastor and congregation so everyone is fully aware of how things will change. Make sure there is agreement within the congregation as to their willingness to accept greater ministry responsibilities. Identify who will be primary contacts for people when the pastor is unavailable. With proper planning this can be a smooth transition that can benefit both the church and the minister.

Church giving and the pandemic

 A fellow minister posted on Facebook last week that their church was experiencing financial shortages due to the pandemic. He had asked the church for permission to begin seeking part-time employment to supplement his salary. He did not say if the church had reduced his salary due to their financial situation or not. The church allowed him to seek that employment. He lives in an area with a lot of jobs available so he should not have a problem finding one. The challenge will be whether the church can make the shift to being led by a bivocational pastor.

Most of the church pastors I speak with tell me their churches are doing OK financially during the pandemic. Although their giving is down a little, their expenses are also down. I suppose the ones who are struggling the most are those churches whose budgets consist mostly of pastoral salaries and benefits. If 80 percent of a church's budget goes to the pastor and/or staff there is not a lot of room to cut expenses without impacting the minister. Denominational leaders may want to study how many of their churches were forced to allow their ministers to become bivocational due to financial giving issues related to Covid. It might serve as a predictor of the future for those churches.

Unless a church has a number of people unemployed due to Covid there really is not a good reason there should be a significant decrease in giving. Those members of the congregation who are not attending services due to the pandemic are not prevented from mailing their giving to the church. The giving of our tithes and offerings should not be limited to just when we attend services in person. Every church with a web presence should offer online giving options to make it even easier for people to give. When the pandemic started many churches found how easy it was to begin offering their worship service online, and they will find that it is just as easy to make online giving available.

As I wrote last week in this blog, things are not going to return to "normal" any time soon, if ever. That includes the way we receive the offering. Many churches, rather than passing the offering plate, now place them in the back of the sanctuary. That's a different way of doing this for many people, and new things are easily forgotten. There is nothing wrong with reminding people occasionally of those offering plates. Just this past Sunday I realized I still had my offering in my shirt pocket when the treasurer came to collect the money from the plate near where I was standing. People start talking with one another, as I was doing, and simply forget the offering plate is there.

If providing online giving options and reminding people of the offering plates in the back of the church doesn't improve the giving in your church, then it's probably past time to preach on stewardship. This should be part of your annual sermon planning anyway. Despite what some people believe, there is nothing wrong or improper about sermons on stewardship.

Giving our tithes and offerings is part of our worship the same as our prayers, singing and other things we might do in our worship service. We should never be embarrassed about inviting people to worship God through their giving.

Neither rain, nor snow, nor sleet, nor pandemic, nor darkness...

Yesterday was a first for me. It was the first time I've preached with no electricity in the church. Strong winds knocked out the power in the area surrounding the church. The lights went out 4-5 times before staying out. The energy company reported they didn't expect power to be restored until later in the afternoon. So, we had no sound system, no songs on the screens, no PowerPoint for the message and no lights. What we did have was a worship service.

We had enough outside light to see inside the sanctuary so we opened our hymnbooks and sung. A young couple provided some wonderful special music. Two people recorded the service on their phones to be put on our website later in the day so the many who tune in each week for the service can watch it. And I preached just as I always do. As I've often said, I have a great voice in case of fire or shipwreck (in other words I'm a loudmouth) so I doubt no one in the sanctuary or those watching the service at home had a problem hearing the message.  

Sometimes the church gets too used to the technology it has available today. We can become dependent on it if we're not careful and feel we can't function without it. All that technology is great, but the only thing we really need is the Holy Spirit in order to worship and serve. Our electrical power may fail; His power will never fail.

Invest in yourself

While the stock market is doing well right now it's probably about due for a correction. One thing long-term investors know is that the market does not keep going up indefinitely. There comes a time when it corrects itself. Values go down as investors take their profits. Or, a situation like 2008 occurs and stock prices plummet overnight. Whether it is due to a correction or a recession, stock prices do go down for a period of time, and people who have not invested wisely can lose a lot of money when that happens.

There is one investment that will never lose money. That is investing in yourself. We live in a time when being a life-long learner is not an option. Whether you are a minister, a business professional, or a blue-collar worker, your world is constantly changing requiring you to have new skills and a new knowledge base.

As a factory worker I saw our company change from using single-spindle drilling machines to highly computerized equipment. The company began offering various training courses to the shop workers, and I took advantage of every class I could take. During my 30 years working in that factory I saw amazing changes take place, and I'm sure since taking early retirement a few years ago the changes have come even more quickly requiring new levels of knowledge.

I've owned businesses that required licenses and continuing education to maintain those licenses. The business world keeps evolving, and anyone who doesn't stay on top of it soon finds himself or herself on the outside looking in. As the saying goes, what got you here won't keep you here, and it certainly won't take you there.

I'm approaching my fourth decade of ministry, and, again, the changes that have occurred since I began in 1981 have been amazing to consider. Many of the things I did in my early years as a pastor cannot be done effectively today. I remember the first sound system we had in our little church. At times it picked up the CB radios the truckers used out on the highway. That was entertaining! Today, I serve a church that began broadcasting its services on social media when Covid began to shut down churches. Along with technology changes in ministry, there have been many changes in worship styles, outreach, discipleship, and virtually all aspects of ministry.

How does one acquire the knowledge to stay current? One can take courses at nearby colleges or universities or take online classes. There are numerous conferences and seminars available where new insights can be obtained. Some of these are now being offered online due to Covid. Reading books and serious journals can add to one's knowledge base. Podcasts have become a popular way of keeping up with the changes occurring in one's field. Joining a peer group can help one learn best practices.

Some of these suggestions cost very little while others will involve some cost. However, rather than looking at it as an expense it's best to look at it as an investment. It is an investment in yourself, your future, your success, and your family. It's the one investment you can never lose. As we prepare to enter a new year, now is a good time to consider how you can invest in yourself in the coming year. 

Will your bivocational church close due to the pandemic?

 Since the Covid pandemic began last spring many church consultants have predicted that a number of churches would be forced to close their doors. Most of these are expected to be smaller congregations often led by bivocational pastors. One reason these churches are expected to close is because these churches closed down when people were being told to stay at home and did not offer online services as  other churches did. In some cases, those with primarily older members may not have resumed services yet due to the higher risk Covid presents to persons in that age bracket. Many of these churches are waiting until things return to "normal" at which time they will reopen. This may be nothing more than wishful thinking on their part.

As I have written before on this blog, we will have to find a new normal. Covid and the fear it has generated among many will be with us for a long time. We are now seeing even larger numbers of Covid cases across the country leading many states to issue new guidelines. In my home state churches are currently exempt from the new guidelines issued this week, but that doesn't mean that we will continue to be if the pandemic grows worse. Nor does it mean that everyone will feel comfortable attending worship services. In fact, we currently have about three times the number of people watch our service on social media than we have in attendance in our sanctuary. I wonder how long those churches who have remained closed believe they can continue before closing their doors permanently. Fortunately, this does not have to happen.

It's past time for the pastors and lay leaders to quit waiting for normal days to return, and it's past time for them to argue that no one in the church knows how to air their services online or that no one would watch them. A Facebook account, a sound system, a laptop and a camera with video capabilities is all you need. Yes, other equipment might make for a better production, but you can get by with the above listed items. Chances are someone in the congregation knows how to use the video on their phone and can record the service and then air it on your Facebook account. If no one in your congregation has that capability, I'm quite sure some of them have grandchildren who can teach people how to do that.

The church where I currently serve as Transitional Pastor airs our service live on our Facebook page, and that afternoon it is downloaded on our FB page and website for people to view any time. As I mentioned above, about three times the number of people view it online than attend the service. We are in the process of encouraging those viewers and others in the community to contact us with their prayer concerns and seeking other ways to reach out to them.

Churches do not have to twiddle their thumbs while waiting for the Covid to go away. Even with social distancing and other limitations there are ways to continue to serve our congregations and communities. Sunday school classes are meeting on Zoom. So are mid-week Bible studies. We just finished our Bible study on Zoom. Our last leadership meeting was held over Zoom. There is no reason for your church to shut down just because there is a pandemic. In fact, there are some in your community who need your church even more.

While no one wants to see a church forced to close its doors, if it happens it happens because the church made the decision to close. Now is the time to become creative, to think outside the box, to throw the box away and find new ways of provide ministry to those your church is called to serve. Bivocational ministers are entrepreneurs, and it is an entrepreneurial spirit that is needed right now. I regularly tell churches that their best days are ahead of them if they choose for them to be their best days. I hope you'll make that choice.

Veteran's Day salute

 From 1967-1971 I served in the US Navy. For three of those years I was aboard the USS Enterprise, at the time the largest warship in the world. We made two tours to Vietnam during my duty on board the ship. My wife and I were married when I enlisted, and our first child was born while I was on the ship. I never saw her until she was two months old, and after a two-week leave I didn't see her again until she was ten months old.

Duty, honor, respect, responsibility, pride are just some of the things that were instilled in me during those four years. When I watch the rioters, the looters, the punks screaming in the faces of our police, the college students who need a safe space to hide out in when someone says something that offends them I wish we had a mandatory military service requirement similar to Israel's. Maybe it would help some people grow up. Of course, their helicopter parents would probably call the Pentagon complaining that their baby had to do push-ups when he was tired and that someone had said something mean to him.

A lot of the young men and women my age served in the military. Many spent time in Vietnam and too many never returned. Since then we've had more wars that have resulted in young people losing their lives. War is never a good thing, but sometimes it is necessary to preserve a way of life worth preserving.

The freedoms we enjoy today were won through the sacrifices of those who fought the British to gain independence for our nation. Those freedoms have continued because men and women have been willing to fight and die to preserve those freedoms. These individuals deserve our respect and appreciation.

It's also important to remember that these same freedoms will only be ours if we are willing to hold on to them. We now live in a time when the state believes it has the power to grant or withhold our freedoms. That has never been the case. The Founding Fathers insisted the freedoms we were given were given to us by God, not by the state, and could not be taken away by the state. Unfortunately, we are in danger of allowing the state to take away our rights and freedoms.

I want to take this opportunity to thank every veteran and current military person who reads this blog. Your service is appreciated. The sacrifices you made for your country are also noted and appreciated. God bless every one of you. 

The spiritual battle now going on in America

 Now that the elections are over, mostly, it's time to look at an even more important battle going on in America. This is the spiritual battle that has been occurring in this country for the past several decades. It began with the removal of prayer and Bible reading in the public schools. Legalized abortion and no fault divorce soon followed. Now we have legalized the use of drugs in much of the country, same-sex marriages are now legal, and we see a number of cities calling for the defunding of police. Many want to see socialism take over the nation, and steps are being taken to make that happen. Religious liberty is increasingly under attack.

One place we see this attack is the growing concern of elitists who want to eliminate homeschooling. A professor at Harvard recently published a piece advocating for the elimination of parents homeschooling their children despite the studies that show that homeschooled children often score far higher that students who attended traditional schools. Her reasoning is that many evangelical parents are homeschooling their children and in the process they are passing on their religious beliefs and values. Since these beliefs and values often conflict with those of the state, this must be stopped. In effect, according to her and others, parents have no right to raise their children with Christian values and beliefs. Only the state is allowed to instill in our children the values the state wants them to have. This should concern every Christian and non-Christian family.

For decades our society has tried to force Christian teaching out of the public arena. Such teaching, we have been told, belongs within the confines of our church buildings but has no place in the schools, the government, business, and now we are being told they do not belong in the home. Unfortunately, the church has often been willing to go along with this mandate. Lest we complain too loudly someone threatens to revoke our tax exempt status and that is enough to silence our objections. We cannot afford to remain silent any longer. Too much is at stake.

The Bible encourages believers to take up the whole armor of God and to stand against the attacks of the enemy. There was a time when Christians would sing "Onward Christian soldiers," and take seriously the mandate to stand for religious freedom. Unfortunately, many denominations have removed that song from their hymnbooks. They don't sing it any longer nor do they take a stand for their religious beliefs.

The Founding Fathers recognized that our religious freedoms came not from the state but were inalienable rights given to us by God. It's time we remember that. We must also remember that our weapons are not those of the world: violence, verbal attacks, riots, and force. No, our weapons are prayer and the Word of God. Let the church begin to pray for a spiritual revival to sweep across our land and let every pulpit boldly proclaim the truth of God's Word. When we do so we will begin to recapture the ground we have lost.

Window shopping

 Yesterday I saw a Facebook meme on window shopping which brought back some fond memories of the first year Faye and I were married. We rented an apartment in downtown Madison for $50 a month. As you might imagine, we didn't have much money. Some of our favorite memories of that winter was walking up on Main Street and window shopping while the snow was falling after the stores closed. Window shopping was about all the shopping we could afford to do, but we had so much fun. Like I say sometimes, we were young and dumb, but we had so much fun.

As Christians we don't want to make the mistake of window shopping God's Word. James 1: 22-25 tells us, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in the mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it - not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it - they will be blessed in what they do."

As a young married couple we could look into the store windows and go on to the next store forgetting what we saw in the first one. As mature Christians we cannot do that when looking into God's Word. When we look at His Word we need to let it pierce our hearts and spirits and then do what it teaches us to do. Doing this leads us to true freedom and joy. Ignoring it leads to sorrow.

Some might say that there is much in the Scriptures that is hard to understand. I agree. Many people credit Mark Twain as saying, "Some people are troubled by the things in the Bible they can't understand. The things that trouble me are the things that I can understand." Whether or not he actually said this isn't important; the statement is valid. Using the difficult passages as justification for refusing to follow the ones we can understand isn't wise. I have often found that when I am obedient to the Scriptures I understand often open me up to understanding more of God's Word.

In these chaotic times in which we live it's important to have something that we can stand on that will support us. The Scriptures can do that. They teach us the way we can live our lives that will stand no matter what is going on around us. Obedience to God's Word and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ will help you stand firm regardless of the storms that rage around you.

Define yourself in the face of criticism

Anyone in pastoral ministry for very long will face critics. Some of that criticism may be valid. A pastor once asked me at a conference I was leading why pastors get stabbed in the back so often, and I replied that I wasn't sure we got stabbed in the back as often as we shot ourselves in the foot. Sometimes we in the ministry can do some really dumb things for which we should be criticized.

There will also be those criticisms that are not valid but instead reflect the preferences or expectations of the person making the criticism. What do we do then?

The first thing we should do is to listen carefully to determine if the criticism is valid. It might be pointing out some blind spots in our lives and/or ministries about which we've not noticed. In such cases, the criticism can be very helpful to our personal and ministerial growth. 

Perhaps one of the most important things we can do is to make sure we define ourselves in the face of criticism. If we do not define ourselves others will define us. I know who I am and what I believe God has called me to do, and I will not allow others to determine that for me. If I am criticized for something outside that sphere I will explain that what the person is wanting is not something I'm going to provide. Like Popeye used to say, "I yam what I am."

Too many pastors allow others to shape them into the molds of their expectations and wants. I believe that is one of the reasons we see so many pastors leaving the ministry. They are tired of trying to be something they are not. One can only play a role he or she is not gifted to play for so long. God called us into the ministry because of what we would bring to that role, not so we could become a clone of someone else.

When I left the church I had pastored for 20 years I told the congregation not to look for another pastor who preached like I did, who visited like I did and who ministered like I did. If God had wanted another me there He would have left me there. So many churches have a favorite pastor of the past, and they want to shape their new pastor into the image of that person. It never works, and when it doesn't work it will lead to criticism. "Why don't you do such-and-such like Rev. _____ did when he was here?" Because I am not Rev. _____.

Criticism can help the minister grow, but it can also help the critic grow when you take the time to define who you are and what you bring to the table as the minister. When the critic learns that he or she cannot define you it can be a breakthrough for the whole church.

In an earlier post I encouraged the reader to "Know thyself." You first have to know who you are and what you are called to do, and then you can begin to help others know the same things about you. This can lead to a much healthier ministry for you and the church.

Leading the team

 For a number of years I coached baseball in our parks department leagues. The leagues had rules that ensured that every child played in each game that I thought was fair to everyone involved. At the start of each season I had a meeting with the parents of my players and went over the rules and my expectations of the players. One of the things I explained to the parents was that I would ensure each player got to play in the game according to the rules that were in place, but I would not guarantee that every player played an equal amount of time in the games. While I wanted to be fair to each player I also had a responsibility to another group, and that was the team itself. I had to coach in a way that gave the team the opportunity to win the game. Having that meeting before the season caused me to have fewer parent problems during the season than some of the other coaches had. Occasionally, there would be an issue with a parent, but I would remind them of the earlier meeting. Only once or twice did a parent remove their child from the team I was coaching.

My last year of coaching a parent came to me after the season ended thanking me for coaching his son. I had him every year on my team, and until the last year he didn't play a lot. But, he kept getting better, and the last year he became a starter. The father told me how fairly his son had been treated and how much he had developed through the practices we had over the year.

Those in leadership positions at every level face the same thing, and this is true of church leaders as well. We cannot ignore the needs of individuals while at the same time we have to remember our greater responsibility is to the organization. Colin Sewell, the owner of several auto dealerships, has said, "Leaders have to make the best decisions for the largest group of people. Therefore leaders give up the right to cater to an individual if it hurts the team or the organization."

Most pastors tend to be people pleasers, so this can be difficult, but it doesn't make it any less true. Too often, churches give veto power to an individual or small group of individuals even if most of the church agrees with the direction in which the church wants to go. This is hurtful to the church and, more importantly, the work of the Kingdom of God. What is best for the team, whether that is a church, a business or an organization, must take priority over individuals.

When I worked in denominational ministry a lady called one time complaining about how the pastor of her church dressed on Sundays. She felt he should wear a suit and tie, but she said he dressed more like he was going to the golf course than to church. I asked if the rest of the church felt as she did, and she admitted most of the church had no problem with his dress, but it prevented her from being able to worship God. She wanted to know what she should do. I told her she probably needed to find another church where the pastor dressed according to her expectations. That was not the answer she expected!

In an old Star Trek movie Spock has a line with which he was forever associated. He entered a nuclear reactor to shut it down before it exploded and was dying as a result. When asked why he did so he responded, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Leaders need to be reminded of this truth and not allow a handful of controllers to prevent the church from moving forward. We have a responsibility to meet the needs of the individuals but not at the expense of the team. I know from experience how difficult this can be at times, but no one said leadership was easy.

2020 Election

 Tomorrow is election day. Some of you have already voted, Due to the early voting many are predicting this to be perhaps a record turnout for voting. No doubt people have strong feelings for both presidential candidates and others on their local ballots. I'm a traditionalist and have waited until election day to vote. The only time I have ever voted by absentee ballot I was sitting on an aircraft carrier off the coast of Vietnam. Since returning home I have voted in every primary and every general election in person on election day.

This election cycle has been rough with strong words coming from both camps. Polls show the election could be close again, but after 2016 I'm not sure how much attention we should pay to the polls. While most focus has been on the presidential race, we should not forget the congressional seats up for election as well. Many of these races are tight and the results of those races may, in some ways, be more important than who sits in the White House.

I think it is a sad commentary on the state of our nation when stores such as Wal-Mart have pulled their guns and ammunition from display in their stores due to the election. Many fear riots will break out across the country regardless of how the election turns out. In light of what happened after the 2016 election, and since, that fear is well-founded. This speaks volumes about how divided our nation is and the total lack of respect for one another that now exists in America.

In every election there are winners and losers. In the past, the losers went home and vowed to work harder next time. They didn't use their loss as an excuse to burn down homes and businesses and loot and shoot.

Today, partisanship rules our elected officials. Compromise is no longer a reality. The good of the nation no longer is the focus of our elected officials but the good of their party and their own pocketbooks. Statesmanship is no where to be found. Leadership is largely absent. This is true on both sides of the aisle.

So  why bother to vote? I believe as Christians we have an obligation to be good citizens of the place we now call home, and that obligation includes participating in determining who our earthly leaders will be. We have an obligation to vote for those persons who best represent our values and will promote policies that are good for all people and the nation, not a select few. When the election is over, regardless of who wins, we have an obligation to pray for those elected.

As I've written before, our salvation will not come from the White House, the State House or the Court House but from God's house. God is ultimately in charge. Let's be good citizens while we are here and work for the betterment of this world, but let us always keep our eyes focused on God and our eternal home.