Long Term Pastors and Vision

I am currently reading The Hidden Lives of Congregations written by Israel Galindo. He writes, "Pastors cannot even begin to formulate a vision until well into their fifth year of ministry at the church...Until a pastor has been at a congregation for at least five years, he or she does not know the congregation well enough to shape a vision."

I was the bivocational pastor of my church for seven years before I was able to lead the church in some new directions. Based on my experience and research by George Barna that shows the most effective years of a pastor's ministry doesn't occur until at least the third year, I believe Galindo is right. What has been your experience? How long did you serve at your church before the congregation recognized your leadership and begin to allow you to cast a vision for the church's ministry?

Transformation

I am writing a new book that examines how to introduce change to a small church. I know what you're thinking...change and small church in the same sentence must be an oxymoron. We all know how resistant to change small churches are, but I am convinced that many smaller churches are willing to change if the change is presented to them in the right way. My book is intended to provide a process for doing that.

If you are the pastor of a smaller church, how has your church changed since you went there? What led to the church's willingness to change? Who directed the change?

The change I am particularly interested in is the transformation from the church being primarily maintenance-minded to becoming more missional in its outlook. Many of our smaller churches are focused on survival and maintaining what they have rather than looking for ways to enter their mission field (communities) and ministering to the needs that exist there. I would be interested in knowing how many of our readers' churches are maintenance minded and how many are missional. Let me know!

Church switching from fully-funded to bivocational

I need your help. One of the churches I serve will soon be seeking a new pastor. They have just called a search committee, and the chairman called me this evening to talk about what they need to do to find a new pastor. I will meet with their search committee next week to discuss the steps our denomination recommends they take as they begin this process. During the conversation with the chair of this committee we discussed the finances of the church. He and I believe this church will need to look at bivocational ministers, but we both believe this will be difficult for some in the church because they have had a fully-funded pastor for many years. They will not understand how things have changed over the past several years, and they will see this as taking a step backwards.

Have any of you accepted the position of a bivocational minister in a church that had previously been served by a fully-funded person? If so, what kind of problems did you encounter? How did you help the church transition to being bivocational? What things did not go well, and what are some of your success stories?

This will be the scenario in many churches in the near future, and your experiences will help others when they lead their churches in this transition. Your experiences will also help judicatory leaders like myself as we serve churches that will be making these changes. Please share your stories with the rest of us. Thanks.

Coaching for ministry excellence

Bivocational ministers come from all walks of life. Some of us have been fully-funded and are now serving as bivocational either by choice or necessity. Some have been in the ministry for many years, and others entered this ministry as a second career. Some of us have professional, white collar jobs, and others wear a blue collar on our jobs. Some of us have had the opportunity to further our education while others are serving without a college or seminary education. When I began my ministry at Hebron I worked on the assembly line in a factory and had only a high school education. I worked at that factory job for another fifteen years before taking early retirement, but I did enroll in a Bible school and then earned my college degree. It wasn't until leaving the factory job that I enrolled in seminary.

One of the challenges facing leaders today is how do we provide training for our bivocational ministers who have not had the opportunity to further their education. If bivocational ministry will continue to grow, as I believe it will, we need to find ways to train those persons God is calling to this ministry. Some schools are now offering diploma and certification programs for bivocational ministers, and some seminaries now offer dual degree programs for persons planning to enter bivocational ministry. Some judicatories offer training programs such as the Church Leadership Institute I refer to in a previous blog. All these opportunities are good, but there is another component that I believe can be a helpful tool for training bivocational ministers. That component is coaching.

Many corporations now recognize the value of having professional coaches for their executives, and some offer coaching as a perk for their top executives. Many ministers would also benefit from having a coach to work with them through the challenging time of life and ministry. Some of the challenging times I'm thinking about are:

• when a minister is facing conflict in the church.
• when the minister is considering whether or not it is time to seek another place of service.
• when things are not going well at home.
• when a minister is seeking a fresh vision from God for his or her church.
• when the minister feels "stuck" and isn't sure how to regain his or her momentum.
• when the minister struggles with personal issues that challenge his or her sense of call.
• when the minister simply wants someone to bounce ideas off of without being afraid that those ideas will be ridiculed.
• when the minister needs some affirmation.

I've had the opportunity to serve as a coach for a number of bivocational ministers, and each of them have said that it was a growing time in their lives and ministries. One of the positive things about coaching is that we always work from your agenda. The person being coached always determines what we will address at each session so we are always working on the things that matter most to you. We normally set up six sessions to begin with and then review to see if more are needed. Because of my commitment to bivocational ministry I keep my rates very low for bivocational ministers, much lower than if you were to use an executive coach. If you would like to discuss whether or not coaching could help you move forward in life and ministry, please respond to this post, and I will get back to you.

Memorial Day

Many of us will spend this day at cook-outs and other activities with our families thankful that we have a day off from work, but how many of us will spend even a moment thinking about the freedoms we enjoy and who paid a price so we could continue to enjoy those freedoms? We may have our problems in the US today, but we have so much to be thankful for, and we continue to enjoy freedoms that many people throughout the world do not have. We stand to lose those freedoms if we forget that there are people in the world who are determined to take them from us.

I listen to the rhetoric from many politicians condemning the war on terror, and they are so far removed from reality that it is frightening they have been elected to represent the best interests of this nation. There are people determined to not only destroy the American way of life; they are committed to killing us. We can either fight them in their countries or in ours. I prefer to take the battle to them and not let them bring it to us.

As one who spent time in the Navy during another unpopular war (Vietnam) I want to thank the military personnel who are working hard to protect this nation from terrorists. I appreciate the sacrifices you are making, and I want you to know that I pray for you regularly. I also want to thank every veteran who has served in our armed forces for serving your country and protecting our freedoms. You are remembered and appreciated. God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.

Reassignment

Last night I attended a dinner for a pastor who is retiring, or as he prefers to call it, accepting reassignment. The sanctuary was filled to honor this man and his wife who had served this church for the past ten years. Speakers from some of his earlier ministries were there to talk about the impact his ministry had on their lives. It was a fitting way to celebrate a very productive ministry. Following a brief trip he and his wife have planned, he will begin serving as an interim pastor for churches seeking pastors and will open a pastoral counseling office to continue to use the gifts God has given him.

Retirement is not a biblical term, but I think each of us must prepare for those times when God reassigns us to different ministry tasks. My friend will enjoy being away from the daily pressures of the pastorate, but will still be able to share his ministry gifts and experiences with the body of Christ. Too many ministers leave their pastorates at the age of 62 or 65 and feel they have done their job and they're finished. I remember meeting one retired minister when I was in Bible school who spent most weekends traveling. He said that he had spent every Sunday in church for 40 years and didn't feel like he had to be there now. What a shame! He was an obviously gifted individual who still had much to share with the church, but he retired and quit.

Some reading this blog may be approaching retirement age, and some weeks retirement may be looking real good. I would encourage you to not quit when you start drawing your retirement checks but ask God what the next phase of your ministry is. Ask for reassignment. I expect God will have a new task already prepared for you.

Surgery

I did not pass the kidney stone, so Monday morning I had surgery to remove it. The doctor blasted the stone with a laser, and I spent the afternoon passing fragments. After surgery he told my wife that he doubted I would have been able to pass the stone due to its size so it was probably good that we went ahead with the procedure.

I still have some discomfort due to a stent they insert following this procedure. Next week I go back to have the stent removed which I understand is not always a pleasant experience. All because of a piece of sand.

If there is a spiritual lesson in this it is that the small things in life can sometimes create the largest problems for us. In ministry sometimes we are tempted to overlook the smaller problems while we focus on what we believe to be the bigger issues. However, sometimes those smaller problems hang around and become larger when they are ignored. Suddenly, we are confronted with a big problem and wonder where that came from. We find that the small problem we had been ignoring is now a much larger issue that is not so easily resolved. Don't shy away from the small issues that confront your ministry. Find ways to resolve them while they are still small. You'll find that it much easier to do it that way, and you'll be able to return to your normal life and ministry much sooner.