The joy of ministry

 The title of this post may have caught some of you off-guard. So much has been written lately about the struggles many pastors have and how many are leaving the ministry because of these struggles. I get that. For years now we've known that about 50 percent of pastors leave the ministry within five years of graduating from seminary. Studies have found that many pastors believe that going into the ministry has been a hardship on their families and on their own health. I have met many of those pastors, and I understand their pain and frustration. I've been involved in ministry since 1981, and I've had my share of difficult situations as well. That does not change my opinion that there is joy to be found in ministry.

Regular readers of this blog know my story. I began in 1981 serving a small, rural church as its bivocational pastor. I served that church for 20 years until being called to be a Region Minister with our region. I served that role for 14 years before retiring. After retirement I served three churches as Transitional Pastor, and last year, at the age of 76, accepted the call to be the pastor of the last church I  served as Transitional Pastor. As a Region Minister, I saw it all. Before retiring I was responsible for 133 churches so I saw the good, the bad and the ugly. I've often said that if you like churches, do not look behind the curtain. You may see some things you don't like.

I've seen pastors afraid to speak out on things they knew were wrong because of threats from powerful lay leaders in their churches. I've seen church leaders fire pastors who then offered them severance pay if they never told anyone they had been fired. They were just supposed to announce they felt led to seek another place to serve. I do not talk about the joy of ministry wearing rose-colored glasses and having a Pollyanna view of the church.

Maybe it's my age. After all, what can a church do to a 76-year-old man? Maybe it's because I've always been bivocational with income from other sources of work. Like I told my first church, if you fire me today, tomorrow morning I'll go into the factory, clock in, and on Friday come home with my paycheck. Being bivocational did give me some freedom that fully-funded pastors do not always enjoy. The same is true of being older. I have rods and reels hanging in the garage; I can always return to retirement. And, I'm still bivocational with my auctioneer business.

Actually, it's not either of those things. I have been blessed beyond measure by serving in wonderful churches, without exception, and serving in a region that appreciates bivocational ministers. Yes, there have been the occasional problem in the churches I've served, but we've always been able to rise above those issues and move forward. My family and I have felt loved and appreciated by everyone involved in every ministry I've had.

However, this is still not why I talk about the joy of ministry. God has called me to this work. God, the creator of heaven and earth, the Almighty, saw fit to call me, with all my flaws, to serve Him in this work. Those who focus on the negatives of ministry have lost sight of their calling from God, or they were never called by God in the first place. Some were called by Momma and sent by Daddy. God had nothing to do with it. But, when God calls you, it touches something deep inside of you. You realize that you have been given a privilege not given to most.

What else can you do that gives you such access into people's lives? We are with them in their mountain-top experiences and in their deepest times of despair and hurt. We have the opportunity to touch people in their deepest needs and speak words of encouragement and healing to them. As a pastor, I have the privilege of sharing with a congregation the words of Almighty god, and I have an even greater privilege of seeing persons make life-changing decisions when they invite Jesus Christ into their lives as their Lord and Savior.

Yes, ministry can be messy and sometimes tough. But, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. What God calls us to do, He equips and enables us to do. He walks with us and refuses to abandon us. I have always known God was with me as I served Him in this work He gave me, and that knowledge alone is enough to bring me joy.

Ministry challenges today

In 2021 I published an e-book titled Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? It had been a few years since I had published a book, and I didn't realize how much the publishing world had changed. It was nearly impossible to find a publisher willing to look at any book that did not come to them from an agent, and it seemed many agents were more interested in the author's social media followers than in the content of a book. I finally gave up and released it as an e-book with Amazon. Of course, the problem with that is that same year 2.3 million self-published e-books hit the market. It's easy for these books to get lost in the shear volume of available books.

I wrote this book because pastors and churches are facing new challenges as our society continues to change. Ministry today is much different than when I first began as pastor in 1981. While there is nothing new under the sun, the issues people now face are much more in the open than they were in the recent past. The church is constantly being challenged to address issues that previous generations of pastors never had to face. If we are to speak a word of hope to our culture we must understand these challenges and think about how to best address them.

The book contains chapters on several of the bigger challenges facing today's church. Issues such as racial reconciliation, mental illness, poverty, addictions, suicide, sexual issues and many more are included in the book. I tried to bring some of the latest studies into the discussion of each topic and show how the church can speak to the issues lovingly and, at the same time, be true to what Scripture teaches.

I seldom promote my books on this blog because that is not the purpose of this site. However, like I said earlier, so many e-books are published each year they can easily get lost in the crowd. This book sells for only $6.95 and is available on your Kindle devices. If you think it might be helpful to your ministry you can find it here. Thank you.

When Life Knocks You Down

 Nobody goes through life without getting knocked down a few times. Financial reversals hit. A simple medical test reveals some potential problems that require further testing. Relationships fail when someone you loved walks out. Companies downsize and you're no longer needed. Sometimes it seems like we get knocked down by one thing, and by the time we get back up, something else knocks us off our feet. I know I've been knocked down more than once. But, there is something else I know.

God has always been there to help pick me up. Sometimes I stayed down longer than necessary, but that was a choice I made. There's been times I was ready to give up, but He wouldn't let me. I'm thankful for that. A passage of Scripture has become my personal mantra. Jesus said, "I'll never leave you nor forsake you." I have repeated that to myself many, many times when I've been going through difficult times. Believing that to be true has been the one thing that has brought me through some tough times.

I recently read about a one-legged skier competing in the Paralympics. She was competing against another one-legged skier who fell down during her run. The second skier was confident she would win until she also fell. The other person took the gold. When the silver medalist was told the other person was a faster skier she responded, "No. She just got up faster than I did."

Victory in life comes to those who get up quickly when they get knocked down. It's easy to have a pity party when life knocks you down, but that doesn't gain a person anything. Few people want to come to your pity party, but when you get back up and continue to live life to the fullest, people will cheer.

Three things have helped me when I've been knocked down. One, is the promise I mentioned earlier. I know God will never abandon me. The second thing is the church. Some people today think the church is irrelevant, but I have found in my seven decades of life that it is one of the most relevant things I've ever known. The third is my wife of almost 58 years. She has been my greatest cheerleader.

I would love to tell you how God can help when life knocks you down. Contact me.

Confronting things that never occurred to us before

Few people in churches enjoy change. I once read that a woman upset over some changes that occurred in her church approached her pastor and said, “Reverend, if God were alive today, He would turn over in His grave at the changes in this church!”  While I doubt this actually happened, it does reflect the attitude of some within the church regarding change.

What makes change even more difficult today is the speed at which change is happening and the types of changes that are required. In his insightful book Positively Irritating John Ritner writes, "In The Age of the Unthinkable, Joshua Cooper Ramo explains that we are now in an age of discontinuous and nonlinear social change that is moving at a staggering speed. We have departed from the idea that 'our world can be reduced to simple models [and] that the real dynamics of the world make prediction nearly impossible and demand a different way of thinking.' He argues that when we experience cultural stability, it is merely 'a passing phase, as a pause in a system of incredible - and unmappable - dynamism.' In fact, he suggests, 'much of what we have to confront will be things that have never occurred to us before.'"

Ritner points to the Covid-19 pandemic as a good example of this. All of a sudden, churches could not gather for worship, and pastors became televangelists overnight. Either churches took their worship services online, or those services did not happen. Many churches, especially smaller ones, had never given any consideration to airing their services online. In fact, many of them didn't have an online presence of any kind.

Such rapid changes occurring in our world today require a different way of thinking for church leaders. The old models of pastoral ministry still being taught in many seminaries simply will not suffice. Today's pastors must think more like entrepreneurs. Dave Ramsey coined a term for the title of his book Entreleadership. An entreleader is a person who combines both entrepreneurial thinking and sound leadership practices as he or she leads their team. Entrepreneurs are bold risk takers when facing new challenges; leaders are people who do not let their ambitions and enthusiasm run away with them. When one combines these two qualities they are prepared to face the new challenges that present themselves.

However, as many a pastor will point out, the congregation must allow the pastor to be an entreleader. I've seen many congregations want to micromanage everything the pastor does. They hold him or her accountable for results, but they do not give him or her the freedom to lead. It's like telling the pastor to push down on the gas pedal while they are standing on the brake and then complaining the car isn't going anywhere.

I've been a Baptist my entire ministry. Baptists are congregationalists. In other words, the congregation makes the major decisions of the church. This is often done in a monthly business meeting after committees have discussed a particular issue, sometimes for months before presenting their recommendations to the congregation. By then, the need to respond quickly to new challenges or opportunities have long since passed. 

I will make a bold proposal, at least in the eyes of some readers. Do away with your monthly business meetings and trust the leaders in the church to make the right decisions. If you have selected a pastor because you believe he or she has been called by God to be the pastor of your church why can you not trust him or her to provide the leadership necessary? If you have selected lay leaders to lead your church why can you not trust them to work with the pastor to provide that leadership? You will find no place in the Scriptures where any decision was made by a church business meeting. You will find where decisions were made by the apostles and leaders of the churches that they then passed on to the churches. Let me be very blunt...if you do not trust your pastor and lay leaders to provide leadership, you have the wrong people in those positions or there is something wrong with you.

Change is not going to slow down. In fact, I believe it will continue to increase. Pastors today face challenges I never had to face in my pastoral ministry, and this will continue. Churches ten years from now, if the Lord tarries, will face even greater challenges, and pastors and congregations need to be equipped to be ready to face those challenges if we are to successfully impact our communities for the Kingdom of God.

Is Your Church Ready?

 A few months ago I self-published an eBook titled Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the 21st Century? People no longer leave your church service to return to homes surrounded by a white picket fence planning to sip sweet tea and watch fluffy clouds pass overhead. Many of these homes are struggling with issues that threaten their very survival. They want to hear a word from God about these issues, but they dare not admit to anyone they are struggling. Unfortunately, too many churches avoid discussing the issues that threaten many families today, so these families decide that God has nothing to say about these issues and there is nothing that can be done.

The book addresses sexuality issues, gender-identification issues, addictions, racial divisions, violence, suicide and many other issues common in the 21st century. God does have something to say about each of these challenges. There is much that the church can do to help families deal with these issues but only if we are willing to come alongside those that are struggling and help them walk through their struggles.

Such ministry can get messy. We prefer to reach people without significant issues in their lives, but that does not describe many who need Christ. Their lives are messy, and ministry to them can get messy as well. We may have to deal with some major ugliness in order to point them to Christ. I am convinced that is the ministry to which God is calling His church to perform.

Naturally, I would like you to buy the book. It's available through Amazon. You will find within its covers not only appropriate ministry suggestions for the various issues addressed, you will also find a wealth of information about each of the issues. I tried to pull together research and various studies on many of these issues to provide the reader with up-to-date information to better understand the problems faced by persons within their congregation.

Every generation faces new ministry challenges. This generation is no different. If we are to successfully present Christ to our current generation we must understand it and the issues it is facing. I believe this book can help you do that.

Adaptive challenges

 I am currently re-reading Canoeing the Mountains by Tod Bilsinger. He tells the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition that set out to discover the Northwest Passage to the Pacific Ocean. At the time everyone knew there had to be a water route that would lead people to the ocean. The expedition traveled by canoe and raft until they realized that what everyone knew to be true wasn't. They came to that realization when they came to the Rocky Mountains! They soon discovered that their canoes were useless and they had to find new ways to continue their journey.

Bolsinger compares this discovery to the challenges facing today's church. Everything we have done in the past has brought us where we are today, but it will not take us where we need to be in the future. Much of what we knew to be true of the church in the past is no longer valid today. Many are finding their seminary education did not prepare them for ministry in the 21st century. We are not facing technological challenges today that can be solved by tweaking our systems. We are dealing with adaptive challenges that are more systemic in nature that cannot be solved with past knowledge. The author writes

"Adaptive challenges are never solved through a quick fix. If talking, trying or tricks work, they would have worked already. They are only going to be solved through new insight into the context, the values and the systemic issues at play in the congregation and within the leaders themselves. In other words, before we can solve any problem, we need to learn to see new possibilities. And, ironically, because the solution will be an adaptation of the core values, identity and theology of the congregation itself, seeing those possibilities depends on first seeing ourselves and our congregations as we really are."

This will become quite an adventure for those congregations who want to thrive moving forward. New ways of thinking will be demanded that may be challenging to many in our congregations. "We've never done it that way before," will be repeated in many church business meetings. Like Lewis and Clark, we will have to admit that what we've done in the past will no longer allow us to move ahead in the future, and we will be challenged to find new solutions to current challenges.

Lewis and Clark had few choices when they came to the Rocky Mountains. They could stop their expedition and give up. They could continue to carry their canoes through the mountains insisting those canoes brought them this far and would somehow take them the rest of the way. Or they could admit they had to find new solutions to address the current issue of getting through the mountains.

The mountains, the challenges, today's church faces is just as real as those mountains were to Lewis and Clark. I'm afraid many churches will hold onto their canoes and fail to make it over the mountains. What will your church do?

The Messiness of Ministry

 A few decades ago ministry was fairly cut-and-dried. Our family moved a few times when I was growing up, and everywhere we moved we attended a Baptist church very similar to the one we left. The Sunday school material was the same, many of them used the same hymnbooks, the order of the service was nearly identical, most of the people dressed alike and thought alike. People knew what to expect from their minister. Other than the architecture of the church most of them were nearly duplicates of the previous churches we attended. That is not the case today!

Many people are not concerned with the name on the church they begin attending when they move. In fact, they may attend more than one church for the various programs and ministries they offer. Look out into many congregations and you're apt to see people from various walks of life and with many different life experiences. Some will hold to some very strong opinions that are markedly different from those traditionally held by members of your congregation. It's likely that some have come from different denominational backgrounds with traditions and polities that are different from yours. All of these things mean that ministry is much messier today than it was in earlier times.

A Baptist pastor called me a few years ago asking my opinion on an issue that existed in his church. A couple from a non-Baptist background had been attending services there and had become quite involved in the life of the church. They wanted to become members of the church, but the church required baptism by immersion to become a member. Both had been sprinkled according to their former church's teaching, and because their conversion and baptism had been so meaningful to them, they did not want to be re-baptized. Because the church limited the number of things non-members could do, they were unable to use many of their gifts in the church. The pastor was sure the church would lose this couple soon if the problem wasn't resolved.

In a book I recently read a pastor wrote about a trans person who began attending the church. He wanted to know this person better and so he invited the individual home for dinner. The person replied he would be bringing his wife. At dinner they discussed how they had been married for years and had raised their children when he began to suffer from gender dysphoria. It was decided that he would make the transition to female, but because they were Christians who did not believe in divorce and very much in love with one another they had remained married.

When I was still serving in regional ministry a church began seeking a new pastor. When I met with the search team they said the church needed a pastor who could develop a strong youth group in the church. A few months later they called an individual to serve as their pastor. Several months later I was eating lunch in the community when a member of that former search team approached my table. I asked how the pastor was doing, and specifically if he was able to build a youth group in that church. She said he had been very successful in growing a youth group, but now the older members complained that he spent all his time with the youth, and because he was ignoring them they had quit supporting the church financially.

These are just three examples of how challenging ministry has become in the 21st century. Entire books could be written with stories like these. Unfortunately, this not apt to change soon, if ever. We are called to meet people where they are, and this is where many of them are today. Ministry is messy today because people's lives are messy. Those of us in ministry need to pray for wisdom and courage as we continue to serve. We also need to encourage people that no one's life is too messy for God to change. Perhaps it is in the messiness of our time that we will find the greatest receptivity to God's message of grace.

Great Roundtable Event

 This past weekend I had the privilege of leading a Roundtable discussion with a group of pastors from the South Central Ohio Nazarene District. Nearly 30 people were in attendance as we looked at two of the issues facing the church as we continue into the 21st century.

The issues we addressed were from my latest book Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? During the morning session we discussed how the church can best minister to persons struggling financially. Every church wants to help those seeking assistance, but we must make sure we are actually helping the individual and not creating dependency and other problems for them. After lunch our topic was "The Church and Gender Dysphoria." This is a growing problem in today's culture and likely will continue to be for some time. Many pastors are not familiar with the issue and how to best address it. 

Following the second presentation there were several questions about the topic, and then the questions began to become more general regarding church ministry in the smaller church. It was a great time with some wonderful leaders in the area churches, and I appreciate them inviting me to be with them again.

I think many of us in pastoral ministry would prefer to avoid the issues discussed in the book. They are often messy and create confusion, pain and even misunderstandings within congregations. But if we are to minister to our current age we must be willing to address the issues that people today are dealing with. We cannot hide out in our theological ivory towers and pretend that difficult things do not exist. Christ didn't and neither can we.

The book is available through amazon.com for Kindle devices for $6.95. I would recommend this book for any church leader who wants to be better prepared for doing ministry in today's world.

I want to again thank the South Central Ohio Nazarene District for allowing me to spend the day with them. I especially want to thank their District Superintendent, Trevor Johnston, for inviting back for a second time to be with his pastors. Trevor and his staff and pastors are doing great things for the Kingdom of God in their district, and it's always a pleasure to work with such individuals.

What challenges will your church face in the next 10 years?

 

Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? is the title of my latest book. In it I explore some of the challenges the church will face in the next few years. Some of these are not new, but they are issues the church has often ignored or not understood. Others are newer and reflect the culture changes we see happening around us. Just because your church has not faced these challenges yet does not mean that it won't in the future, and it's entirely possible that some of these challenges are before you today in your congregation, and you are not aware of them. This Kindle book can be ordered through Amazon and only costs $6.95.

I've now been involved in pastoral and denominational ministry for 41 years. Currently, I serve as a Transitional Pastor for a church seeking pastoral leadership. I continue to be amazed at the changes that have occurred in ministry over the past four decades. Many of the challenges I discuss in the book were not issues when I began my pastoral ministry. At least, they did not present themselves as they do today.

How can a church minister to a family dealing with chronic poverty issues? Is there a way to help them without making them dependent upon others? How well does the church understand gender dysphoria, and how will you minister to the person and/or the family struggling with this situation? What can the church say to the ongoing racial divisions that exist in this country and within the church as well? Are there people in your congregation dealing with mental illnesses? Are you sure? What about their family members? The same question can be asked about persons suffering from addictions, and these addictions do not have to be to controlled substances. Perhaps they are dealing with addictions to social media or technology. Suicide is a growing problem in many communities. Is your church ready to minister to persons seeking to end their lives or the family members of those who already have?

These are just some of the issues I address in the book. These are the types of challenges that make ministry today so difficult, but they are the challenges people today are facing. If we are to be true to our calling we cannot ignore them.

If this book sounds like it might be helpful to your ministry, I invite you to check it out at Amazon.com. There is a sample preview available to help you decide if it might be a wise investment in your ministry.

The opportunities and challenges of a new year

 As we approach a new year many of us wonder what it will bring. This past year has brought increased inflation, a growing divide between Americans, a new strain of Covid, a Federal government with some of the lowest approval ratings in modern times, new threats coming from Russia and China, a rising distrust of the media and our political leaders, and a rejection of the church and traditional biblical teachings from many Americans. Since no one has a crystal ball or is able to predict with any certainty of what the future holds, I guess we'll have to wait and see what transpires in the coming year. But, there are some things we can know with certainty.

First, God is already there. While we may not understand why He allows some things to happen, we can be certain that nothing that will occur will catch Him by surprise. He remains the omnipotent, omniscience God. Whatever the future holds, we can trust Him. Our God is sovereign over all.

The second thing we can know with certainty is that the church has a role to play in the events that will take place. Our role is to continue to speak God's truth to a world that wants to reject that truth. Our role is to offer hope to a world that will find hope in no other place. Our role is to invite people to become part of God's family. Our message may not be a popular one in the time in which we live, but we are called to faithfully proclaim it regardless of its popularity.

A third thing we can be assured of is that people are going to be looking for something to believe in as this world continues to implode all around us. This is the opportunity. As we are inundated with lies from the media and our political leaders, people are going to be seeking truth. As some churches abandon the biblical teachings of Scriptures, people are going to want to hear a clear message of hope and salvation. This is not a time to be timid. God has called the church to such as time as this, a time to speak boldly about the the Kingdom of God and to invite people to enter that Kingdom.

I am not a prophet, but I can see people growing weary of the pain and confusion of living in a world that offers them no real hope of a better life. The church has been given such a message to proclaim. We sometimes hear that the time of the church has ended. Don't you believe it! Our time is now! This is the time for the church to step up and be the church God has called it to be. Many are ready to hear a clear message of salvation. Preach it! Let 2022 be a year when many will come to Christ through the faithful ministry of your church.

Ministry today

 In 1981 I was called to be the pastor of a small, rural church. For several years I functioned much like the pastors I had growing up. Our challenges were about the same as the churches in which I was raised. My sermons were probably very similar to those I had heard growing up. In time I began addressing some of the social issues that my pastors would have avoided, and when 9/11 occurred I realized ministry, like the rest of life, would be forever changed. However, at the time I could not have realized how much it would change because at the time I doubt that many of us understood how much our world would change. Today's churches must be able to speak to issues previous generations never faced. Failing to do that makes us irrelevant to the culture in which we live.

A few months ago I published an eBook that addresses some of those issues. In Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade? I focus on some of the challenges today's church must address if it is to reach our generation. Some of these are not new, racism, poverty, mental illness, for example. While these are not new, they are issues much of the church has largely ignored. Other issues I write about in the book are newer challenges for the church such as gender dysphoria, sexual issues, the rising number of suicides, the growing violence in our society, and several others. In the book I try to help the reader understand why it's important for the church to understand each issue and suggest ways to address them in a positive, biblical manner.

These issues are tearing families apart and causing untold damage to individuals. Society presents its worldview to each of these topics; the church must present a biblical worldview to them as well. Yet, studies find that many churches never speak to any of them. We often act as if these issues don't exist. Even thinking about preaching on many of them makes pastors uncomfortable. The worldview of our culture is being heard. Do not the people in our congregations and communities deserve to hear what the Bible has to say about each of them even if it makes us uncomfortable?

The problem with publishing an eBook is it can get lost in the tens of thousands of such books published every year. This book is finding an audience because it is helping pastors and individual Christians understand how to speak to these difficult issues. You can order it for your Kindle device for only $6.95.

The impossible ministry

 Several years ago while serving as a regional minister for our denomination we found ourselves in a financial pinch. The economy was down, many of our churches were struggling financially and were contributing less to the denomination. As our staff retired they were not being replaced. Those of us who continued to serve were given the responsibilities of those who had retired. As this began, I had less than 90 churches in my area, but this grew to over 130. The geographical area I covered doubled causing me to spend a lot more time on the road. As this began, a member of our personal committee told me that I had been given an impossible task but to do the best I could and not get discouraged when I couldn't do everything I had done before.

I think about this as I read about the numbers of pastors who are frustrated with ministry and thinking about leaving. Ministry was already tough in our postmodern world, and the challenges of Covid made it even more difficult. One young pastor told me he had just gone to his first church when Covid happened, and nothing in his training had prepared him for all the decisions that needed to be made. That would be true even for those of us who have been in ministry for a number of years, but I'm sure it was even more challenging for him.

Ministry is difficult, and in many ways, impossible. Every pastor faces expectations that can never be met. Most of us do not get into trouble for not meeting the requirements of our job description. We get into trouble when we fail to meet the expectations of the people in our congregations. As I've told many pastor gatherings, in a church of 50 people there will be 50 different unwritten job descriptions, and in many of our churches there might be 51 because we'll have at least one person somewhat schizophrenic! It is impossible to meet everyone's expectations. So what do we do?

First, we have to remember that we are called by God to do His work. While the church's expectations are not to be ignored, our first responsibility is to the task God has given us. We may not be able to do that if we are running around like a stray dog at a whistler's convention trying to satisfy everyone's expectations.

Secondly, we have to work as much as possible within the areas of our giftedness. Notice I said as much as possible. I know the areas in which God has gifted me, and I am much more effective as long as I work within those areas. However, there are times when I must step outside those areas to handle necessary tasks. I try to minimize that as much as possible, but every pastor will find times when it necessary.

Thirdly, we have to stay true to our priorities. Some churches still expect pastors to ignore their family needs to be available to them 24/7/365. We need to be very clear about our priorities and make sure everyone else is clear as to what they are.

Finally, we must realize that everything does not depend on us. The cemeteries are full of indispensable people, and somehow life went on even when they were gone. This is God's work. We partner with Him for the time He gives us with our particular ministry. Horizontally or vertically, one day we will leave our current ministry, and if the Lord tarries another will take our place. While we are there we are simply called to do the best we can do with the Lord's help.

That period of denominational ministry was often impossible. There were times of frustration when it seemed overwhelming, but one can only do what one can do. When I retired from that ministry I did so feeling good about what had been accomplished. New people were called in to continue the work, and they have done very well. God is working with them just as He did with me, and good things are happening.

Don't let ministry beat you up. Stay faithful to the work God has given you. Do the best you can do and leave the rest to Him. One day you'll be rewarded when you hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant...."

Adaptive leadership in the church

 Church leaders are asking why the changes they are attempting to make are not actually producing results. One reason is that we are trying to make things happen that are not going to happen. A church consultant shared something online this week that goes along with what I've been writing about for some time. We have been lying to ourselves saying that people will come back to the church. We said that when our young people started leaving the church. We said it when Covid kept people from attending the services in person. At least then we could point to the numbers of people who began watching online, but many churches now report they are seeing those numbers decrease, and it's not because these folks have returned to the live service. Some have learned they can get by very well without attending church very often, if at all. Most of them will not come back. We can keep trying to make changes in the hope that people will return to the church, but the likelihood is that they won't. 

The second reason our change efforts are failing is that we continue to make technical changes when adaptive changes are required. We make technical changes when we try to tweak a system we already have with things we already know. We might change the times of our worship service, change our committees into teams, change the music in our services, change the format of our services, make changes in the way we present our sermons, etc. In other words, we do what we already know what to do but we dress it up a little different. Technical solutions are fine if our problems are technical in nature, but the challenges I'm referring to are not technical. As you may have already learned, you can do all these things and nothing has really changed in the church.

If we want to respond to the challenges facing today's church we have to adapt to the reality of today's culture. We have to be willing to go on an adventure we had not planned on taking and find new ways to be the church in a new world.

Let me give you an example from outside the church. Last year our state banned public gatherings for about 3 months or so due to Covid. Even when that was lifted limited numbers of people were permitted to gather. When I resumed having auctions it was not uncommon for there to be no more than 20 people attending. That is not good for an auction! A friend of mine told me he was making a shift to doing his auction online. At first I was not interested in doing that. I love auction day. There is an excitement associated with auctions that I felt was not possible online. But, the people were not coming back. Prices were lower than they should be which wasn't good for me or my sellers. Something had to change.

I could have made technical changes. I could have changed my auction day from Tuesday to Thursday to see if people would come back. I could have increased my advertising or held special promotions. However, none of those would have made a difference. So, I adapted to the new reality and began conducting my auctions online. I signed up with an online company and had to learn their program. I had to learn new ways of presenting the items I have for sale at auction. I had to convince some sellers that online auctions were a good way to sell their items. I had to learn new marketing methods and how to effectively ship those items that were not purchased locally. The truth is we are still learning. The adaptive changes I made worked, and this year we will do more auctions than we've done the previous three years combined and new people from across the country sign up for every auction. It has been very successful.

Churches can beat their heads against the wall trying to get the people back who have left or we can accept the fact that most of them are not coming back and renew our focus on fulfilling the Great Commission in our communities. We can become worshiping, praying communities reaching into our neighborhoods to offer healing and hope to those who have been broken by life.

What will this look like? I don't know. What will the adaptive changes we need to make look like? I don't know. I don't believe anyone knows. Let's not wait until someone finds out and offers us a conference. I don't think there is time for that. Instead, let's take risks, let's trust God and launch out seeking to be on mission with Him. No doubt there will be some failures on the way doing that, but it's better than trying to do the same things that haven't been effective in decades.

The joy of pastoring a church

 As I've shared many times in this blog, for 20 years I had the privilege of serving as the bivocational pastor of a great little, rural church. After a few years serving there I was driving out to the church praying when it hit me that God had given me that community to pastor. I was not there just for that congregation but for the community around it. It was my parish, and I was overwhelmed with gratitude that God trusted me with such a responsibility.

My working title for my first book was The Joy of Bivocational Ministry. The publisher changed it to The Tentmaking Pastor: The Joy of Bivocational Ministry. As you can see, I convinced them to at least leave my title in as the sub-title. Some asked me how there could be joy in serving as a bivocational pastor with all the responsibilities I had to juggle. There was joy in that role, and those 20 years were some of the most fulfilling years of my life. I wrote the book so others could hear of that joy and, hopefully, find that same joy in their own ministries.

During my 40 years in ministry I've met many pastors who felt no joy in ministry. After leaving that church for denominational ministry I found many pastors struggling with the challenges of ministry. Their initial excitement and sense of calling had been lost years earlier in the midst of church fights, changes in the culture, lack of volunteers, lack of financial support, and the pressures often found in pastoral work. More than a few were just trying to hold on until they could retire, and some gave up before reaching retirement to take other work.

I've faced my challenges in pastoral ministry, both as a pastor and as a denominational minister, but I have never done anything as rewarding and satisfying as the ministry. People have disappointed me at times, but God has never disappointed me. On the other side of that coin, there have also been people who have blessed me beyond measure. What could be more exciting than to see a person give their life to Christ? What greater privilege could anyone have than to baptize someone into the faith? There are few things in this world that can bring greater joy than to hear someone say that my ministry had touched their lives.

I want to encourage every minister reading this blog to fall in love again with the calling God has placed on your life. There are some challenging times ahead for the church, and I believe that pastors are going to find themselves dealing with issues they have not been trained to address. It's going to require courage and boldness to ride out the tidal waves that the church is facing, but God called you to this role because He knew you could do it.

Love your calling. Love your people, even the difficult ones. If you're struggling as a minister, rediscover the joy your first felt when you began. Don't focus on the difficult circumstances. Keep your eyes looking above when your strength lies and allow Him to empower you for the challenges you face. Thank God every day for the ministry He has given you.

There will come a day when my ministry will end. I do not look forward to that day. If I had my life to live over again, I would not hesitate to return to pastoral ministry. There is no greater calling a person can commit his or her life to. If you are struggling to believe that right now, I encourage you to begin to ask God to help you find that same joy in your ministry.

How will your church choose to minister?

 My latest book is titled Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade?. It addresses some of the cultural issues that the church is facing. Many churches have tried to ignore some of these but to continue to do that is to abandon a lot of hurting people. Most of these are not new challenges, but they are ones a lot of churches are not prepared to address. It's tempting to think that only those persons outside the church are dealing with these issues, but that it not the case. The truth is that many within our churches are dealing with the same challenges. I wrote this book to help church leaders and their churches be better informed about how to serve those in our congregations and communities.

How will your church minister to the individual who may be dealing with gender dysphoria? While this is not a new issue, it is one that seems to be increasing as we continue into the 21st century. How much do you know about the difficulties people face when they believe they were born the wrong gender? While many in our society today encourage those persons to live into the gender they prefer, is this the best solution for them physically, emotionally and spiritually? How do you minister to the other family members? The book provides a chapter to help provide an overview of what science, and more importantly, the Scriptures say about this challenge. You will also find some helpful resources there to further your understanding.

How will your church minister to the person considering suicide as a way to end their pain? More people think about suicide than you may realize, and it is a growing problem among young people. Do you know the signs of someone who is thinking about ending his or her life? How do you minister to the family of someone who has taken his or her life or the loved ones who live each day in fear that the person will? Again, I think this book will help you find some answers and point you to more helpful resources.

Despite what our culture says about same-sex marriage and relationships, what does the Bible teach? Just as importantly, how does the church share that information in a way that is helpful. For too long the church has been seen as hostile towards people in same-sex relationships. Many people today believe the Bible teaches that we are to hate those in such relationships, but that is not what it teaches at all. All persons, regardless of the choices they have made in life, are created in the image of God and deserve to be treated with respect. This book tries to remind us that the Bible teaches us to always speak the truth in love.

If your church is like most, you want to help those who come to you with financial needs. But, how much of that money actually helps them? Are we enabling bad behavior and/or bad choices? Are we helping people remain dependent upon others? How can the church provide help in a way that respects the dignity of the person and helps them become financially wise?

Other chapters focus on different challenges the church currently faces and will likely face even more in the future. If we want to be relevant to the needs of this generation, as well as future ones, we must learn how to best respond to these various challenges. My prayer is that this latest book will provide church leaders with some of the tools they will need to do that. It's only available for your Kindle devices from Amazon.

Is Your Church for Ministry in the Coming Decade?

 It's hardly a secret that many people are facing new challenges and attacks today that threaten to destroy individuals and families. However, if you walk into many churches you never hear anything about these issues. It seems that many churches are willing to keep talking about the same things they've talked about for decades while ignoring the real pain many in their congregations and communities are facing. One of the reasons many have rejected the church is because they believe it is irrelevant to their lives, and much of that irrelevancy comes from the fact that we refuse to address the issues  people in the 21st century face.  This is why I've published my latest book Is Your Church Ready for Ministry in the Coming Decade?

I've written this book to help church leaders have the information and tools they need to address some of the issues people in their congregations and communities are facing. Some of these issues include racism, poverty, violence, addictions, suicide, sexual and gender confusion among others. While these may not be new to the 21st century, they remain subjects many churches seem to avoid, and they are issues that are tearing people's lives apart.

For the past year I've tried to find a publisher for this book. When I wrote my previous books it was relatively easy to find a publisher. If you had good content and a timely subject, someone would be eager to publish it. Today, it seems that without a large social media presence it's hard to find a publisher or even an agent to look at a book. I finally decided to release the book as a eBook on Kindle. Not only can I go ahead and make the book available, I can keep the cost of the book down making it more affordable. It seemed like a win for everyone!

Ministry today is much different than it was when I began my pastoral ministry 40 years ago, and I am convinced it will be even more different, and difficult, in the years to come. So many people are overwhelmed by the challenges they face, and they do not know where to turn for answers. The answers are found in God and His Word, but they will never know that if the church doesn't speak up. My prayer is that this book will help the church find its voice.

Don't let your present circumstances limit your future

Sometimes the greatest truths are found in the simplest words. Recently, I came across a sentence that reflects this. "Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start."

As I read these words I immediately thought how they applied to every aspect of life. Whether you are talking about your personal life, your family, your business, your career, your church, your future, these words apply.

So often we hear people downplay any hope for a better life because of their past or their present circumstance. They repeat to every one they know all the reasons why their lives can never be better than it is right now. They may point to a lack of education, a lack of opportunity, a poor upbringing, a string of broken relationships and a host of other reasons why they are stuck in life with no hope of ever improving their situation.

Churches do the same thing. As a denominational leader I heard every excuse why a church was stuck and unable to move forward. I heard about previous pastors who did not serve the church well. I heard about controllers in the church that held the church captive for years. I heard about explosive business meetings. I heard about generational issues that focused on music and worship styles. I heard every excuse in the book and some that probably weren't included in any book.

These are all just excuses that ignore the power of God to change your circumstances so you can go further than you've ever gone before. Read the quote again: "Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start." Yes, some of us have to start further back than others because of our present circumstances, but that doesn't prevent us from accomplishing great things. We simply have to choose to rise above those circumstances and do the things that will take us where we want to go.

No matter how broken you may be, God wants you well. Businesses have risen from the ashes of bankruptcy to become strong and successful. Individuals have come out of dire circumstances to become leaders in their communities. Families have overcome tremendous challenges to become healthy and whole. Churches have conquered everything the enemy could throw at it to become mighty for the Kingdom of God. The transformations in every case came when people made the decision to refuse to allow their present circumstances to determine their futures.  

The importance of youth ministry today

 I grew up when youth ministry in our church was known as BYF, Baptist Youth Fellowship. We went on hay rides, played games, had Bible sword drills and once a month joined the other churches in our association for a large youth gathering in one of our larger churches. It was fun and a good chance to learn about God and what the Bible teaches. Youth ministry today is much more serious. Not that there's not opportunities for fun and building relationships with other young people, but the challenges young people face today require much more from the youth leaders than what the youth leaders of my generation faced.

Recently, I had the opportunity to listen in to a ZOOM meeting where a global study of teens was shared. This study focused on 13-19 year-olds in twenty countries to better understand their religious beliefs and their challenges. Of the young people in the study, 43% were Christian, 23% were from other faiths, and 34% professed no religion with 20% of them committed to atheism or agnosticism. However. when a list of criteria was presented that would determine how many of the Christians were committed to the faith, that 43% dropped to only 7%.

Some of the interesting findings in the report noted that 52% of all the teens believe that all religions teach equally valid truths. Conservative Christians believe that only faith in Jesus Christ leads to salvation, but 53% of the Christian teens in the study believed that all faiths lead one to God.

When the study focused on issues the teens struggled with they found there were many. One in five teens feel sexually attracted to someone from the same gender in the previous few months. One in four admitted to having suicidal thoughts in the previous three months, and this included one in three teens from the US. The top factors that led to the suicidal thoughts were gender confusion, online bullying, same-sex attraction and depression. The study found that girls struggled more with these issues than the boys.

Only 53% of US teens believe that gender is determined at birth reflecting the trend we are seeing in our culture. Same-sex marriage is also growing in acceptance among teens with girls much more likely to say that marriage does not need to be exclusively between a man and woman. It was also found that a small percentage of teens view marriage as a lifetime commitment between two people.

While there were other interesting findings in the study, I will only mention two more, one negative and one positive. The negative one is that only one in 12 teens will talk to their pastor or study a religious text to find answers about the meaning of life. This indicates a real distrust that many teens have towards their religious leaders, which I sense reflects more on those of us in leadership than it does on the teens. We have not earned their trust.

The positive finding I'll mention is that 41% of the teens who do not attend church say they would if asked and another third reported they might attend a church if asked.

I doubt that the youth leaders I had growing up ever faced any of these challenges. Today, I would expect that all youth leaders do if they are listening to their teens. Many of our churches need to take a serious look at their youth ministries and ask if they are equipped to respond to their young people who are facing some of these challenges and questions. The decisions our young people make in their teens will impact the rest of their lives, and we need to do everything we can to help them make the best decisions.

Remembering that God is in charge

 This past year has been a struggle for nearly everyone. We knew there was a world-wide pandemic that was costing millions of lives, but we also kept hearing conflicting messages on how to address it. Do we wear masks, or are they not effective? Should we stay three feet apart, six feet apart or stay home completely? In what ways can it be transmitted? We've seen tens of thousands of people put out of work as businesses shut down, and many of those businesses will never reopen. Today, as things have opened up a little we find that we have shortages on many of the things we've come to expect. Supermarkets cannot keep their shelves stocked. Car manufacturers cannot get the components they need to build cars fast enough. Stimulus packages are passed by Congress to supposedly to assist people struggling financially, but much of the money in these packages are not going to individuals but to pet projects of members of Congress.

Of course, Covid is not the only problem facing us. In some parts of the country protesters continue to wreck havoc in major cities. Police are resigning in mass due to budget cuts and their sense of not being appreciated for the work they do. Mass shootings continue to occur in some of the major cities. We have a crisis at the border as people continue to enter the country illegally. Fuel prices are rising at a rate faster than anyone expected which is driving up the cost of many products we use every day.

I could continue, but I've painted a dark enough picture of what's happening in our nation. Those elected to positions of leadership are powerless to do anything about these problems, and in fact, caused some of them. But, we are not a nation without hope.

The thing we must remind ourselves is that God continues to be in charge. One might ask if He is in charge why are so many bad things occurring in our world and nation. That would be a fair question, and the answer is that He is working out His purposes in all these things. Perhaps His purpose is to show us what a world looks like that has turned its back on Him, and America has certainly done that over the past decades. Maybe He has allowed all these things to cause us to repent and turn back to Him.

As painful as these past months have been, as believers we can trust that God remains firmly in control of our world. 2 Chronicles 7: 14 tells the church that our responsibility is to pray, seek God's face and repent of our sins, and then He will heal our land. Believe me, our government is powerless to fix our problems. Technology cannot solve it nor can science. Only God can bring healing to our land, and the church can begin to set that healing into motion by following the passage above.

At church yesterday our special music reminded us that we need Jesus every hour. That reminder is always timely, but it seemed especially so in light of the challenges we now face. We need Him to turn this nation around, and we need to be reminded every day that God remains in charge of all that is happening.

The challenge for denominations Part 2

 In my previous post on this topic I addressed the challenge denominations face in developing relationships with their smaller churches. If they fail to develop and maintain such relationships they will continue to see these churches leave the denomination or continue to remain members but without any active involvement in denominational life.

Today I want to address another common issue I often heard as a regional denominational leader. That is the issue of Scriptural integrity. As denominations face a variety of social challenges in today's society they create policy statements regarding these social issues that many of their churches feel are unbiblical. These issues range from same-sex marriage to homosexual relationships to gender dysphoria issues to women in ministry to abortion and a host of other social justice and public policies. Some denominations make clear policy statements regarding these issues while others seem to want to straddle the fence on them. Still others have an endless stream of study groups assigned to study the issue and report back at a later date. The fence straddlers and the study groups are often more frustrating to the churches than the denominations that make a clear statement of where they stand on these issues.

I have long believed that denominations need to state clear beliefs on these various social issues so their churches know where they stand. Quit straddling the fence trying to appease everyone. That satisfied nobody. Clearly say what you believe and then churches can decide whether to remain or leave. This avoids the problem of a slow death by attrition, and it avoids the problem of churches dividing because members tire of the uncertainty of supporting a denomination they aren't sure believes what they believe.

How many study groups does it take to decide where a denomination stands on a particular issue? How many years do such study groups need to take to issue a statement to the wider denomination? I have sometimes wondered if such study groups were created and given a time line to report back that was sufficient to allow certain denominational leaders to retire before the report was finalized. Yes, you can call me cynical if you want.

Some denominations have taken a public stand on these issues, and their churches know that stand. They are then free to decide whether to remain in that denomination or not. While I may or may not agree with the stands these denominational always take, I appreciate their willingness to state what they believe. At least they have the courage of their convictions, and I appreciate that in anyone and in any organization. It should be noted that many of the denominations that have taken more progressive (liberal) stands are experiencing decline in membership due to the membership declines in their churches. Those denominations that have taken more conservative stands regarding these social issues are the denominations that continue to grow in size and influence.

The denominations that seem to want to satisfy everyone by not stating a clear position on many of the social issues are also in decline. Personally, I think that is as it should be. Just like most people enjoy hot coffee and hot tea or iced coffee and iced tea but do not like either to be lukewarm, people do not like lukewarm theological beliefs either. Like the Lord told the church at Laodicea, "So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. (Rev. 3: 16)"

Most Christians want to belong to a church that believes something and stands for something. They seek churches that have theological integrity, and if a church lacks that they will leave it and seek one that does. Many churches feel the same way about the denomination to which they belong. If they believe that denomination abandons its theological beliefs, they will leave that denomination for one that holds to the beliefs they share or become independent.

As we move further into the 21st century it becomes more imperative that denominations take a firm stand on what it believes about the various social and theological challenges it faces. Your churches deserve that. We are facing a turbulent future and without a sound theological foundation we are going to be buffeted by the winds of dozens of social issues.