Expect future church leaders to come from within their church

As a regional minister for 14 years I assisted a number of churches in their pastoral searches. When I began we continued to use a model that had worked reasonably well for many years, but by the time I retired it was obvious that model was not as effective in some churches as it once was. In the old model I would take a number of profiles of potential candidates that seemed to match the needs of the church to the pastor search committee. As the years went by it became obvious that the number of profiles generated through our denomination was getting smaller and smaller. Many of our smaller churches began seeking bivocational leadership, and those individuals were virtually absent in our official system.

Finding bivocational ministers is a challenge for smaller churches and the denominational people who assist them. As I shared with many churches, the bivocational pastor you seek is going to be someone near your church geographically. Someone is not likely to move from New Jersey to Indiana to serve a bivocational church.

One very healthy, smaller church was struggling to find a bivocational pastor when a lay leader approached me. He said he felt led to serve in that position although he lacked any kind of ministerial training or education. He was a local farmer with a college degree, but he was also a respected person in the church and community. I recognized that he would come into that position with something someone new would not have: instant respect and a knowledge of the area. He did become the pastor of that church and continues to serve it very well. He went through our Region's Church Leadership Institute to get some basic ministerial and theological training. His success inspired me to suggest to other churches to look within their congregation for their pastoral leadership. This has worked out well for many of them.

Mega-churches do the same thing. A few years before the senior pastor retires the church often names his successor. When the retirement does come, the person has been preparing for the position for a period of time, he or she has already bought into the vision and ministry of the church and is familiar with the members and the community. A new person would spend years learning these things.

As the number of seminary students continue to decline I believe more churches will begin to look within their congregations for future pastors and ministerial staff. We have many pastors nearing (or past) retirement age, several denominations have an emphasis on starting new churches, more and more churches are seeking bivocational leadership, and all of these factors are going to make it more challenging for churches to find qualified people to lead them. It may well be that God is raising up someone from within your church to fill that pastoral role.

Personally, I think this can be a good thing for many reasons.

• The person has existing relationships in the church.
• The person is already a trusted and respected leader in the church.
• The person is familiar with the area and its needs.
• The person has a track record with the church so they know exactly what they are getting with him or her.
• The person has bought into the mission and vision of the church or he or she would not be there.

If you are in a church that will likely be looking for new pastoral leadership soon I would encourage you to begin now looking at who within your congregation might be called to that position. This might be a good time to begin giving this person additional ministry opportunities to see how he or she responds and to learn from the experience. The church might want to invest in ministerial education for the individual.  There are ministry assessment centers the church might want to use to see if the individual has the personality and passion to serve in ministry. There is nothing wrong with planning ahead for your future pastoral needs.

Church growth and the single-pastor staff

 A few years ago I became aware of a new church start that was different than most I had heard about. It was located in a nearby larger city with a vision of reaching the two wealthiest neighborhoods in the community. They understood that wealthy people need a relationship with Jesus Christ just like everyone else does. They were then meeting in a school gymnasium in one of those neighborhoods and raising money to buy land on which to begin building. In about five years they had grown to about 400 people attending their services. What amazed me even more was their staffing. If I remember correctly, they had 14 people on staff and were looking for a senior pastor. They didn't have a Youth Minister. They had a Jr. High Girl's Minister, a Senior High Girl's Minister and others with a focus on special age groups. They were staffed for growth.

Contrast that will how many churches staff their churches. They begin with a single pastor and then add more staff when he or she can no longer handle the growth of the church. The problem with that model is that the church will seldom grow beyond the ability of that individual so additional staff is never added. Seldom does a single-staff pastor church grow beyond about 120 people. The reason is that is the number that most leaders can reasonably relate to. Some pastors might grow the church to 150 or even 175 people, but that number may not be sustained because he or she cannot maintain that many connections. People will begin to leave through the back door until the number gets back down closer to that 120 mark. This is why few churches ever grow beyond 200 people. The single pastor cannot connect to that many people, and the church does not feel it has the finances to hire additional staff.

An old model of church staffing used to believe that staff would be added at about 150 attendees. A much better model today would add staff at 100 people. A church with a very aggressive growth strategy, like the one mentioned above, might add staff at much lower numbers to help facilitate that growth. It's important that churches understand that their staffing decisions will impact their growth strategy.

The church mentioned above had some very wealthy individuals who shared their vision for ministry. They had the funds to support their staffing. Many churches would struggle to have that many fully-funded persons on staff with the number they had attending at the time. One solution to that is to bring bivocational people on staff. Many churches have bivocational pastors who provide excellent ministry. Imagine what might happen with bivocational ministers with very limited ministry responsibilities! Their areas of responsibility might explode due to their focused ministry.

If churches want to grow in the 21st century they will need to rethink their staffing needs. Single-staff churches have already placed a lid on their potential growth. To grow beyond that lid churches will need to add additional staff and engage its members in ministry. Perhaps a model worth considering would be having bivocational ministers leading ministry groups of trained lay leaders. That model would considerably raise the lid of potential growth in the church.

Does the physical appearance of a church matter?

 When churches experience financial challenges one of the first things that often happens is that building maintenance and upkeep are often ignored. Long-time church members may not notice when the physical appearance of the property begins to go downhill, but guests and the neighborhood do. They see the weeds in the flower beds and the peeling paint on the windows and doors. When guests come into the church they see the worn or outdated carpet, the stained seat coverings and the torn and dirty hymn books. They notice the bathrooms that need cleaning and upgrading. All these things impact their decision about whether they will return or not.

Early in my pastoral ministry an incident really brought this home to me. Our pews were stained wood. They had been in the church for decades, I assume they were original to the building which was around a century old at the time. At the time our church was not air conditioned, and this Sunday was a hot one. We had a visitor attend that morning, and I was excited to hurry back to greet him after the service. I didn't need to rush. The back of his white dress shirt was stuck to the back of the pew! The hot day had melted the years of old stain to his shirt, and he had to physically unstick himself from the pew. Although I greeted him as warmly as I could, as he walked away with a large brown stain on the back shoulder of his shirt I knew we would not see him again, and I was right. Not long after that we covered our pews with cushioned seat covers.

The problem is we often view our church property through the eyes of people who have attended there for years. We don't notice how hard our pews are or the dirty carpet. We don't see that we do not have a secure children's area that our guests would expect. We ignore the chipped and dirty baseboards that our guests would notice. One night while traveling we stopped late to spend the night in a well-known motel chain known for being one of the better places to stay. We went straight to bed when we got our room. The next morning we noticed a part of a donut in the corner of the room covered with cobwebs. It had evidently been there for awhile, but no one who supposedly cleaned the room ever noticed it. We did and it has impacted our choice of motels while traveling since then.

If your restrooms are not clean, if your children's areas are not clean and secure, if the appearance of your church building appears to be run-down and outdated, your guests will notice and will factor that in their decision about whether to return or not. You may argue that these things should not matter, but they do. You make a decision about what restaurants in which you will eat and what motels you will stay in on these same criteria, and your guests will decide whether or not to return partly based on this issues.

If your church is serious about having guests and seeing them return, it must take a look at the appearance of its property. Clean the weeds out of the flower beds. Seal and stripe the parking lot. Repaint the trim, the front doors and window casings. Upgrade the restrooms and make sure they remain clean and well lit. Do the same with the children's areas and improve their security. The physical appearance of the church property will have a significant role to play in the church's impact in its community. It does matter.

Guests in the church

Is your church ready to receive guests? As someone who spent 14 years in denominational ministry and visited many churches during that time I can assure you that many churches are not. Although they may say they want new people to attend their church, they are not prepared to welcome guests to their service.

For starters, let's understand the difference between a visitor and a guest. A visitor is someone who shows up uninvited. A visitor at your home might be someone canvassing the community for a political party or a vacuum salesman. A few years ago I actually had the same vacuum salesman come to my house three times one summer. He finally got the hint I wasn't interested in him or his vacuum! We are not prepared for a visitor, we didn't expect the person to show up at our door and most likely we didn't invite him or her inside the house.

On the other hand, a guest is someone we were expecting. We may have invited them to come to our home at a specific time. We have made plans to welcome them, perhaps to offer them a meal or at least some refreshment. Chances are we may have cleaned the house up a little. There is probably a reason they are at our home. We will do everything we can to make their time with us pleasant and comfortable.

Now, does your church have visitors or guests? We make a mistake when we view our first-time guests as visitors. Doing so admits that we are not ready to meet them, we've made no effort to make their time with us comfortable or enjoyable, and, in fact, we may inadvertently give them the message we don't want them back.

Here's another question: Why would God send a church guests if the church is not prepared to receive them? There are many churches in your community your guests could have chosen to attend. If we want to see more attend our services we need to be prepared to welcome them. How can we do that?

Signs are important to let guests know where to go in many churches. Signs that point to the bathrooms help guests know where the facilities are without asking. Signs that indicate the main entrance or which doors are open. I've been to churches and tried to open 3-4 doors before finally finding the secret door that allowed entrance into the building. Very frustrating. I then wondered if I would be able to guess the secret handshake that would gain me admission into the sacred chamber. Is there reserved parking for first-time guests, and is it clearly marked, or do the church members gobble up the closest parking spots? Even worse, are those spots reserved for church staff? Are there trained greeters at each entrance prepared to greet the people as they enter? Here's another suggestion: one or two at each entrance is enough. I hate walking through a corridor of greeters as I enter a church.

Does your church provide anonymity for its guests? Please tell me you don't still ask your visitors to stand and introduce themselves so the usher can bring them a cup and a pen. Hopefully, you don't have a "greet your neighbor" time. The only persons who dislike that more than your guests are your members. It adds nothing to the worship service and feels like an intrusion to the guests.

If your church uses bulletins or programs, make sure they don't have to be translated for your guests. "The women's group will meet at Mary's house at the usual time this week" tells your guests there is a lot of family-speak in this church, and they are not invited to Mary's (whoever she is) house (where ever it is) at the usual time (whatever that is). Make everything in your service user-friendly.

It is permissible to provide Connection Cards that will allow your guests to provide their name and contact information if they choose to do so. Gathering this information will enable the church to thank them for coming to the service. Such a thank you can be sent via email if they provide that information or by a thank-you card. The thank you must be sent that week to be effective. A follow-up phone call can also be made to ask if they have any questions about the church and to invite them to return.

Many churches do not realize the amount of work and expense to requires to make their guests feel welcomed and encouraged to return. That's why they don't make much effort to make their churches attractive to guests. 

Lego churches

 If you've had small children in the home you've probably had Legos. Kids and many adults love them because of the ability to build some very creative things. They are not so much fun at 2:00 in the morning when you step on one barefooted in the dark!

Most Legos have about six snap-on points. Some have more while others have less. As you connect the Legos with these snap-on points you can build just about anything you can creatively imagine. Once all the connecting points are filled you cannot connect anything else to that piece.

Think about this in relationship to the church. The key to getting new people to connect to your church is to offer them connecting points with other people in the church. Unless a new person makes a connection with others in the church in a relatively short period of time they will find the back door and you'll not see them again. The problem is that in many churches, especially smaller churches, most people have all the relationships they can maintain. It's not that they don't like the new people or that they don't want to relate to them, it's that their connecting points are all used up. So what can the church do?

The key is to offer more connecting points. This may be from starting a new Sunday school class. One church had a Young Adult class that had grown too large to allow new people to feel like they fit in. The church started a new class for that age group, and when guests came to the church in that age group they were directed to the new class. Within a few months the new class had grown substantially.

The same thing can be done with small groups. A healthy church should be regularly exploring the possibility to starting a new small group to enable new people to build connections with people in the church. This means the church must constantly be developing leaders for these groups and identifying topics that would appeal to the people in the community for these new groups.

Healthy churches will be very intentional about taking steps to create as many connecting points in the church as possible. With enough Legos you can build anything you want. With enough connecting points in the church it can grow much larger than it is.

Dealing with our fears

I have read that when we are born we are only afraid of two things: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. All the other fears we have are learned, often through experience. Scripture teaches us that God has not given us a spirit of fear and yet fear is a constant companion of many of us. What are some of the common fears that seem so prevalent in the human race, and how can we overcome them?

The first fear is the fear of loss. This loss can involve losing our loved ones, our finances, our careers, our youth or anything else that we hold valuable. Opposing change is often no more than the fear of loss. We are afraid of losing the roles we played in the old system. We fear that our role would change in a new system, or even worse, we might not have a role.

A second common fear is the fear of failure. How many people do you know who want to do a new thing but are afraid they will fail? We set goals that are easily achieved rather than ones that would stretch us so we don't risk failure. Unfortunately, doing that prevents us from living life to the fullest. This week I am holding my first online auction. For the past few weeks I've had to learn a platform that would enable me to post my auctions online. It's been a challenge, and I'm still learning it. I enjoyed the live auctions, the bid calling, and everything that went along with live auctions, but with the uncertainties associated with Covid I felt I needed to move my auctions online. This move might not be successful, but I'll never know if I don't try. You can't let the fear of failure keep you from pursuing your dreams.

The fear of rejection is another big one. There wasn't anything worse that could happen to a young man when he asked a girl to go to the prom with him and she rejected him. The same was true when the young lady hoped a certain person would ask her to the prom but he took someone else. That rejection can follow a person for years! People with this fear often become people-pleasers. They go overboard to ensure people will like them so they won't feel rejected again.

Another common fear is the fear of the unknown. Some people live their entire lives afraid that something bad is going to happen to them, and that something never comes. There are people who live almost in panic that some unknown tragedy will come into their lives. It's a tough way to live.

What can we do to overcome these fears? We begin by realizing that we are trusting our fears more than God. The things we fear the most are the areas in which we trust God the least. It's important that we begin to trust God in every area of our lives if we want to conquer our fears. We can do that by studying the Scriptures that address the areas in which we have our greatest fears. For instance, the person who fears losing his possessions will find a wealth of Scriptures that remind us that God is the ultimate provider of all our needs.

As we begin to learn to trust God more, when we feel the fears start coming back, we can stop and ask ourselves who is really in control of our lives? Are we in charge, or is God? If God is in charge we can begin to visualize Him watching over us and our circumstances. We can pray to Him about our situation and trust Him to help us overcome our fears.

Strategies for dealing with a dead horse

 In a recent Bible study I mentioned  that whipping a dead horse would not make it run any faster. As I said that I was trying to remember this list I had read in John Maxwell's excellent book Failing Forward: Turning Mistakes Into Stepping Stones for Success but was unable to do so. I've since looked it up. Here is his top ten strategies for dealing with a dead horse.

1. Buy a stronger whip.
2. Change riders.
3. Appoint a committee to study the horse.
4. Appoint a team to revive the horse.
5. Send out a memo declaring the horse isn't really dead.
6. Hire an expensive consultant to find "the real problem."
7. Harness several dead horses together for increased speed and efficiency.
8. Rewrite the standard definition of live horse.
9. Declare the horse to be better, faster, and cheaper when dead.
10. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.

What do I mean when I refer to a dead horse? It's any program or ministry in the church that has stopped producing results. Strategies that used to be effective are too often continued even though everyone knows they stopped being effective a long time ago. I suppose we continue doing them because it's what we know. Reluctant to make changes we remain stuck in ruts that lead to nowhere.

How many of these approaches have you seen churches do when dealing with a dead horse? I suppose I've seen just about all of them in one church or another. Sometimes churches even seem to follow them in order like a check-list. If number one doesn't work, let's try number two, and right on down the line. By the time we get to number ten a lot of time has passed by, and the church has even deeper problems.

When the horse is dead the only sensible thing to do is dismount. Rather than spending a lot of time trying to revive the dead horse find one that wants to run. In other words, begin to identify new programs, ministries and ways of doing things that make sense and produces results. It may mean that your church's structure will need to be overhauled. Years ago I read something that has stuck with me: Your system is perfectly designed for the results you are getting. It's true in business; it's true in families, and it's true in churches. Some of us have systems in place that cannot help but fail to produce positive results.

Of course, I realize that some of these dead horses are considered untouchable in some churches. When that is the case, any attempt to change one of these programs or ministries will be met with a huge outcry, "It won't be church without . . . ." At that point, if I may be allowed to change animals, the dead horse is now a sacred cow. Interestingly enough, I am getting ready to read Sacred Cows Make Gourmet Burgers: Ministry Anytime, Anywhere, By Anyone by Bill Easum. I may be able to share some ideas about how to deal with sacred cows in a few weeks.

The power of a vision

 One thing that is lacking in many churches is a fresh vision from God for the direction of the church. Too often we find ourselves content to repeat the same things over and over without ever stopping to consider if God might be leading us in a new direction. One of the things the pandemic has taught us is that if we persist in doing everything the way we've always done them we will one day find ourselves unable to do anything. Churches that never dreamed they would broadcast their services online suddenly found that was the only way many people could attend their services. To their credit, many churches quickly learned how to use the available technology to offer their worship services to their online congregation.

Vision addresses how we are going to do ministry now and in the future. It shows us the direction our journey should take to arrive at the destination God intends. Vision is not merely something a pastor or board determines, but it is to be discerned by the church with much thought and prayer. Once that vision is understood plans can be made for how to achieve it. This allows the church to focus on the things that will help it achieve its vision and eliminate the things that would distract from it.

No vision is permanent. It's important to review the church's vision every few years to make sure it is still relevant to those we seek to serve. When are good times to revisit a church's vision?

• Any time the vision has been fulfilled. One church had a vision to build a new fellowship hall. When the building was completed and dedicated it was time for the church to seek a fresh vision.
• Whenever a church is going through a pastoral transition. Many churches make the mistake of waiting until the new pastor arrives expecting him or her to provide a vision. It's much better to discern where God is leading the church and then calling a pastor who can help the church achieve that vision.
• When a church finds itself becoming stale, its ministries ineffective and people becoming satisfied. All of these are sure signs that a fresh God-given vision is needed to get the church back on track of fulfilling its ministry.
• Every 5-7 years. Even if things are going well, it's important to take a fresh look at the church's vision to make sure this is still the path God has for the church. This can be challenging because when things are good people can be reluctant to rock the boat by looking if there is something else they should be doing. Never let the good get in the way of the best, especially God's best.

As the Transitional Pastor of the church I'm now serving I will begin leading the church in a visioning process in early spring. This is a process I've used in numerous churches as a Resource Minister for our denomination. We are hoping the Covid situation lessens by spring so we can have as many people as possible attend the process. The more people who participate the better results we can expect.

How long has it been since your church has sought a fresh vision from God? I'm not talking about having a vision statement that is sitting in a dusty file somewhere on a dusty bookshelf. I'm referring to a vision that actually drives your budget, your ministries and every decision your church makes. If your church lacks such a budget, you may want to invite a denominational leader or consultant in to lead your church in such an exercise.

Realistic expectations for pastoral ministry

2020 was a year of tremendous stress for everyone. It was certainly a challenging time for churches and their leadership. Many had to learn new technologies and new ways of doing church. Even prior to the pandemic, pastoral ministry has been considered one of the most stressful of all occupations. Much of that stress is due to the unrealistic expectations some churches have for their pastors and pastors have for themselves. If you are a pastor reading this, see if you have any of these expectations for yourself, and if you are a layperson in a church, ask yourself if your church have these expectations for the pastor.

While serving as a denominational minister I was at a dinner sitting next to the chair of a pastor search committee. She said, with what I felt was some pride in her voice, that they had been looking for a new pastor for three years without finding the right person. I responded that they needed to quit looking for someone who walks on water. Pastors are people just like anyone else. We have certain gifts and skills that God has given us, and when we work in those areas we are reasonably effective. Many of the tasks often assigned to pastors are outside of that gift-set. Although we try to fulfill those tasks we face criticism when we do not perform them well. Not only do we encounter push-back from some in the congregation for that, we can begin to feel like failures ourselves. No one can do everything well. I tell pastors to work as much as possible in the areas of your strengths and try to manage your weaknesses. Often, that management will consist of trying to delegate those tasks to others who are more gifted in those areas that the pastor is. As a side-note, the pastor they did call only stayed there 18 months. He could not live up to the expectations of the congregation.

A common complaint heard from pastor's spouses is that they feel they live in a glass fishbowl. They feel everyone is watching them and expecting them to be the perfect family. A pastor friend of mine was fired when the church learned his unmarried daughter became pregnant. The church leadership informed him of his termination while he was in the hospital recovering from an illness. Pastor's families are no different than other families. We have good times and we go through rough patches just like everyone else. Just like other families in the church, we can even have arguments on the way to the worship service. Unfortunately, our humanity does not change the expectations some in the church have that the pastor's family should be the model family for everyone else to follow. I know of one church that became upset when the pastor's young son acted up during a children's choir rehearsal. It was the topic of conversation for weeks in the church. I've said more than once that the reason pastor's kids misbehave is because they play with the deacon's kids! Most pastor's families have enough stress without having to live up to the unrealistic expectations of others.

Because of the pandemic many churches are facing financial challenges that have resulted in some pastors either having to leave the ministry to provide for their families or pursuing a bivocational role in the church. Even before the pandemic, most pastors were earning less than other professionals with similar education. I can remember when our local theater let pastors and their families attend movies free and other stores gave pastors a discount on their purchases. Those days are mostly gone. Pastors pay the same for the goods and services they buy but often with less money. For too long, some churches have subsidized their own lack of stewardship with the low salaries they paid their pastors. This needs to stop. It is unfair to the pastors and their families to expect them to live with an inadequate income that does not reflect their education and the work they do. 

All the blame for these unrealistic expectations do not fall on the church. Sometimes pastors are our own worst enemies. As Dr. Phil often says, we teach people how to treat us. Not wanting to rock the boat, or in an effort to be a people-pleaser we often do not advocate for fair treatment. We accept the criticism for things we do not do well and strive harder to them better in the future. We let people hold our families to a higher expectation than they have for other families. We let churches dictate our salaries and benefits without informing them of what we and our families need. As mature Christians we should be able to have conversations about these things.

As we begin a new year, take time to look at the expectations you have of your pastor, and pastors take a look at your own expectations. Let's develop healthier expectations and enjoy a more rewarding ministry.