Top ten books of 2023 1-5

Yesterday I began listing my top favorite reads for 2023. All the books I listed yesterday were books I have previously read that remain in my library. Today's list includes some of the books I read in 2023 as I began a serious study of the attributes of God. If your congregation is like many, a lot of the folks sitting in the pews do not truly understand the attributes of God. Even more, they do not understand how those attributes can affect them. I know that because, while I have mentioned some of His attributes from time to time in sermons, I've never done a series of messages on those attributes and why it's important to understand them. But, before I could do such a series I needed to study those attributes in more depth myself, and that is the reason why I've began this study. 

5.    Any study of the attributes of God would have to include the book Knowing God by J. I. Packer. This book is essential reading for someone to better understand the nature of God and His attributes. The fact that over one million copies of this book have been sold testifies to its importance for the serious student. 

4.    God the Father Almighty by Millard Erickson is another book that has been very helpful in my study. The author begins the book by explaining why it's important to study the nature and attributes of God. He then addresses some of the criticisms others make about the traditional view of God, and then he begins to discuss some of His attributes. I found the book very enlightening and well-written. 

3.    I have a great affection for Bob Russell, the former pastor of Southeast Christian Church, a megachurch in Louisville, Kentucky. This past year I re-read his book When God Builds a Church which tells the story of Southeast Christian Church. Russell comes across as one of the most humble people I've met. During his ministry there I had several opportunities to join hundreds of local pastors for luncheons the church held to share ministry ideas. In this book Russell shares 10 principles for growing a church. While most of us will never pastor a megachurch, the principles apply to any size church. I truly believe this book should be in every pastor's library.

2.    Divine Attributes by John Peckham was one of the more difficult reads with hundreds of footnotes and a little more academic language than most books I read. However, I ranked it #2 in my list because of its depth in discussing God's attributes. Peckham brings both philosophical and theological questions into the discussion which I found helpful. My only negative was that I wish he had addressed more of God's attributes than he did.

1.    Drum roll please. My number one book for 2023 is None Greater by Matthew Barrett. I love the subtitle, The Undomesticated Attributes of God!  As it says on the back cover, "For too long, Christians have domesticated God, bringing him down to our level as if he is a God who can be tamed." The author points out that God is worthy of worship because He is high and lifted up, His attributes far above mankind. I cannot recommend this book enough for anyone serious about studying the nature and attributes of God.

Here's my top ten for another year. To give you an idea of what I'm reading as I begin 2024 I am working on A Church for the 21st Century by Leith Anderson, Ignite by Nelson Searcy and Human Freedom, Divine Knowledge, and Mere Molinism by Timothy Stratton. All three are books I've read previously, but I find they are applicable to the church I currently serve, and it's helpful to have a refresher.

I hope you have a reading plan for the new year that will allow you to provide leadership to your church, your family and your community. An investment in books is an investment in yourself. The time spent reading is also an investment in your future success.

Top 10 books of 2023

Each year at this time I publish a list of my top ten favorite reads for the year. This year I read 75 books, many of them re-reads of books I have in my library that I have previously read. I choose books based on my interests, of course, and to address what is going on in my life. 2023 has been a year of transition for me as I finished one church as a Transitional Pastor and a few months later assumed the same role in another church. I have also embarked on a study of the attributes of God which may or may not become my next book. This has been a fascinating study as I have been studying His attributes at a much deeper level than I have before. In this post I will list books 6-10 and will complete the list tomorrow.

10.    Since doing this I have never had a top 10 list that did not include a book by John Maxwell, and this list is no different. Thinking for a Change is one of my re-reads. In the book Maxwell challenges the reader to begin to think differently, to focus our thinking on the things that matter most and to practice more creative thinking. If we keep thinking the same thoughts we will keep doing the same things and get the same results we've been getting. Maxwell not only provides theory but gives plenty of practical suggestions for how to think for a change. It's a really good book. 

9.    Turnaround Strategies for the Small Church is not only a re-read, but it's a book I read twice this year. The author, Ron Crandall, provides twelve key factors necessary in turning a small church around. My copy has a lot of highlights, and I've taken several pages of notes to help me remember some of the key points of the book. If you are serving in a smaller church that seems to be stuck, I highly recommend this book.

8.    The Post-Quarantine Church is another re-read for me plus another book I read twice this year. Thom Rainer does a great job of pointing out that many church leaders assumed once the Covid pandemic passed that things would return to normal only to find out that didn't happen. The two churches I served this year have not regained the numbers they had pre-Covid. Rainer suggests that the pandemic presents six challenges and opportunities that will determine the future of our churches. This small book is a quick read, but it is one that contains a lot of important information for church leaders.

7.    Another re-read this year was They Like Jesus but Not the Church by Dan Kimball. Many churches struggle to attract young people and see the ones raised in their churches leave once they get old enough to make that decision. We incorrectly assume that these young people are abandoning God, but the author points out that what they are abandoning is what they often find in our churches. He addresses six things that the younger generation consistently points out as the reasons they are leaving churches. Church leaders need to understand the thinking of the younger generations and address their concerns or we will continue to see them ignoring the church as irrelevant to their spiritual growth.

6.    Yes, this book is another re-read. Tomorrow I'll get to some books I added to my library in 2023, but I've ranked PastorPreneur by John Jackson as my sixth favorite read this year. As someone who has spent his ministry serving in bivocational roles I consider myself an entrepreneur. The author believes that the successful pastor in the 21st century will be one who combines ministry with an entrepreneurial mindset. I completely agree. In the book Jackson talks much about vision and how to communicate that vision to the congregation. My copy is heavily highlighted with a lot of notes in the margins. I really like this book. The book I read was published in 2003, and it appears an updated version was released in 2011. The updated version is the book I've given you a link to.

Tomorrow we will highlight my top five books. Remember, leaders are readers so I hope you have a stack of books to start on in 2024. I know I do!

Planning for the new year

The new year brings new opportunities for churches, families and individuals. I've always looked forward to the start of the new year because of the opportunities to learn new things, to have new experiences and to see how God will work in my life and the lives of my family. At the same time, I do not believe in merely sitting back and waiting to see what God will do. I'm convinced we have a part to play in this as well. Each of us needs to have some plan, a vision, for what we want to see happen in the new year.

For a number of years I set several goals I would work on in the coming year. Some of these would be short-term that would be achieved before the year ended. Some would be longer term that would need several years to see fulfilled. These would include goals for my family, my ministry, my finances, my own self-care and any other thing that I felt was important. I used a goal-tracking program to ensure I was making regular progress on each goal. One of the things I learned was that setting these goals allowed me to accomplish much more than if I had just sat back hoping that something good would happen that year.

Every goal was not fully achieved. Once I set a work goal of reaching a certain number of people I would serve in an area of my ministry. I came up about 10 people short of that goal. When our Executive Minister asked why I thought I didn't reach the goal, I explained that I knew that goal would stretch me, but I had still achieved more pursuing that goal than I would have without the goal. Occasionally, I would realize that a particular goal I had set was not for this time in my life, and I would stop working on it. Sometimes, God would lead me in a different direction for a certain goal. It's often been said if you want to make God laugh just tell Him your plans. I've made God laugh a few times, and He has led me in a different direction than I thought I would take.

What goals have you set for 2024? Without goals you run the risk of coming to December 2024 and look back to see that you really didn't accomplish very much, you didn't grow very much, and everything looks much like it did at the end of 2023. No one should be satisfied with that. 

Set goals and find ways to hold yourself accountable to achieve them. If you have goals for the most important things in your life you will find yourself more in control of what's happening rather than drifting around wondering what's happening.

Hulk Hogan and Jesus Christ

 Several months ago Kat Von D moved into a community in the next county from me. She is a tattoo artist who had her own TV show starting in 2007 and running for four years. After moving into the commumity she began attending a small Baptist church, a church in which I had preached numerous times as it's judicatory minister. A few weeks ago it was announced that she received Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior and was baptized in that church. While many Christians applauded her conversion to Christ, some were critical questioning whether this was all a publicity stunt or some other sham. Her responses to that criticism has convinced me that her acceptance of Christ was real. I welcome my sister-in-Christ into the family!

A few days ago I read that Hulk Hogan, the well-known professional wrestler, also was recently baptized. For years, I followed professional wrestling starting with Dick the Bruiser in Indianapolis and up to more modern times that included the Attitude Era. Judge me if you want! I'm sure that critics will show up questioning Hulk's baptism. I would suggest it's not for you to judge! This is between Hulk Hogan and God, and God alone is able to judge what is in Hulk Hogan's heart.

Rather than criticizing, perhaps we need to be asking if God is doing a new thing. Prior to her baptism, Kat von D destroyed her witchcraft books saying they no longer reflected who she wanted to be. Hogan and his wife were baptized together, and he says it was the greatest day of his life. 

I am accepting that both of these events are true examples of what God is doing, and I celebrate with both individuals. One of the things this tells us is that God wants to reach the up-and-out as well as the down-and-out. Both Kat Von D and Hulk Hogan were at the top of their fields. Both were very successful; both were wealthy, and yet, both realized that there was something, or someone, missing in their lives. This is something our churches need not forget. All people need Jesus Christ.

 

The pastor shortage Part 3

 In recent posts I've been addressing the pastor shortage that is impacting our churches. If you haven't read those, I encourage you to go back and do so. Today, I want to continue this discussion with an additional thought about pastoral leadership and its value to our churches.

In the past post I focused on some things judicatories can do to help their pastors and relieve some of the pressures of pastoral ministry. Another thing our judicatory was able to do when I was serving on our staff was to help relieve some of the financial burdens our pastors felt. We were able to do that due to a very generous grant made available to us through Lilly. We were able to pay off student debt, medical bills, and other debts our pastors had. Can you imagine the impact that had on those pastors and their families? We also sought donations from our churches into a fund to enable us to continue to support our pastors in this way. Since I've been retired for a few years and out of the loop, I don't know if this program still exists or not, but we made a major impact on the finances of our pastors through this opportunity.

Again I am emphasizing the impact a judicatory can have on the health of its pastoral leadership. When pastors feel supported and appreciated by their judicatory leadership, they are less likely to leave the ministry. But, there is another advantage here that judicatories can enjoy. You can attract better pastors to the churches in your region. When pastors see that they are going to be supported by the judicatory they are going to become more interested in serving in that region or district.

No one has influenced me more in the area of leadership than John Maxwell. In his wonderful book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,  he begins with Law 1, the Law of the Lid. The Law of the Lid says that no organization can rise any higher than the lid of its leadership. If the leader of any organization, including churches, has a leadership lid of a four, it can never rise higher than a 3 in effectiveness. The only way to raise the effectiveness of the organization is to raise the lid of its leadership.

As a lay leader in a church, do you want to improve the effectiveness of your church? The only way to do that is to raise the leadership lid of your pastor and lay leaders. As a judicatory leader, do you want to raise the effectiveness of the churches in your judicatory? The only way to do that is to raise the leadership lid of your pastors and the lay leaders in your churches. In the midst of a pastor shortage, do you want to raise the leadership lid of the pastors in your judicatory? The only way to do that is to attract the best pastors to serve in your judicatory, and the way to do is to become known as a judicatory who best serves its pastors. When you become knows as a judicatory that appreciates and supports its pastors, you will find pastors taking a second look at your open churches. As you attract better pastors and leaders to serve in your judicatory, you will find your judicatory begin to grow. Your churches become healthier, and they begin to grow. You have better leaders to serve in positions within your judicatory. It's a win for everyone!

The pastor shortage Part 2

 Yesterday, I addressed the problem of a shortage of pastors and offered some suggestions that might help. I want to continue that conversation today.

I have a lot of respect for denominational leaders. Like pastors, they have a lot of people wanting to advise and influence them. In many denominations, they spend much of their time trying to satisfy the different interests within their denomination. I have spent my ministry in the ABC-USA, the most diverse of any denomination. I know my denominational leaders walk a tightrope trying to keep all the special interest groups satisfied. While I have great respect for the diversity found in our denomination, I can sometimes get frustrated when our leadership doesn't take a stand I think they should take. At the same time, I understand why they don't. Having said all that, there is much they could probably do to help address the clergy shortage that exists within our denomination, but I have little hope they will. That brings me to our judicatories.

When I retired as an Regional Resource Minister in our region I was serving 133 churches. One of the things I tried to do was serve as an advocate for the pastor. When pastors were unfairly terminated by a church I fought for a fair severance package of at least six month salary and benefits. I didn't always win, but I usually got something for the pastor. Usually, it didn't hurt my relationship with the church, and when it did, it was normally with a very unhealthy church so I didn't really care. They had greater issues than being angry with me. I encouraged churches to be very generous with their salary and benefit packages reminding them what it will cost if they have to seek new pastoral leadership. I argued for sabbaticals after seven years for their pastors. 

I challenged every church to give their pastors four weeks vacation every year. Most wanted to offer two weeks when the pastor started, but I would remind them of how little it actually cost them to give their pastor the extra two weeks. Most of those churches paid $150.00-200.00 for a supply pastor, so that extra two weeks would cost them at the most $400.00. I then explained how much those two weeks would mean to the pastor and his or her family, and that would only cost the church $400.00. I worked very hard to make sure that the pastors and their families knew I supported them and would do anything I could to make their ministry more enjoyable. Pastors need to know their judicatory leaders support them, and, from emails I've received over the years, many do not.

I'm also convinced the best continuing education for pastors will come through their judicatories. They know their pastors and what they need. They know their churches and their needs. Parachurch ministries, and even denominations, do not know the churches and pastors as well as the judicatories. More of these training events need to be scheduled at the judicatory level. When I was serving on regional staff we offered a three-year continuing education opportunity we called "Church Alive" which was designed to bring renewal to our churches. I think we had mixed success, but at least in some churches we did see some renewal come as a result of that program.

In short, I believe that our judicatories can do much to help our pastors, and by extension, our churches, enjoy fruitful ministry. That enjoyment will result in fewer pastors wanting to leave the ministry which leads to many positive things in our churches.

The pastor shortage

When I began serving as a Regional Resource Minister in 2001 it wasn't uncommon for me to be able to give Pastor Search Teams 30-40 pastor profiles that seemed to fit their search requirements. Understand, I didn't give them that many all at once. But, that many would come back when I entered their information into our denominational profile system. That soon began to change, and by the time I retired from that position in 2019 I was fortunate to provide 5-6 profiles that might meet at least some of their requirements.

Since retiring I have served two churches, good, strong churches, as their Transitional Pastor. One took two years to find a pastor, and the other church took 2 1/2 years. I am now serving a third church in this position, and they have been without a pastor for nearly three years. I am their second Transitional Pastor. It is becoming increasingly more difficult to find a pastor for the traditional church. To find a bivocational pastor is even more difficult.

There are many reasons for this: fewer people enrolling in seminary, and of those who do enroll, many are not planning on pursuing pastoral ministry when they graduate, the current people serving in ministry are aging and retiring, the stresses of ministry drive many out of ministry into other careers (50% of seminary graduates leave the ministry within five years after graduation), some ministers are focused on serving in newly planted churches rather than in traditional churches, the lack of denominational support that exists in many denominations (this one isn't often mentioned but it bears a study of its own), and a list too long to mention in a blog post. Regardless of the reasons, most denominational leaders will admit that there is a severe shortage of pastors for churches, and this isn't likely to improve soon.

How do we solve this problem? Perhaps the first thing is to address any unrealistic expectations that some churches might have when seeking new pastoral leadership. A church of 30 people do not need a seminary trained, MDiv graduate to serve their church. They need a bivocational pastor who loves God and feels called into the ministry. When I worked in the factory every new job I had I learned through on-the-job-training. When I began as a pastor I had no experience and no education beyond high school. It was on-the-job-training which I later supplemented by attending a Bible school and pursuing more formal education (all while serving in ministry) and eventually earning an MAR and a DMin. 

Secondly, we might look at how we prepare people for ministry. For decades (perhaps longer) seminaries have primarily trained persons preparing for pastoral ministry to be research theologians. When they graduated, they really weren't equipped to do either! You'll notice when I attended seminary it was to earn an MAR which was much better preparation for pastoral ministry than the typical MDiv. (I often get into trouble for saying that, but I'm 75 years old so I don't care!) The MDiv is great preparation for those who plan to eventually earn a PhD, but it's probably an overkill for persons called to pastoral ministry.

We also need to look at what needs to be offered as continuing education. Regardless of what one studies in college and seminary, much of it will be outdated in 10 years. In fact, some of what we are taught in college is proved to be wrong within a few years when further research is done. Churches change, culture changes, and in ten years much of what we have learned in our studies needs to change as well. Just this evening I was looking at my library and realized that I needed to throw out many of my books because they are simply outdated and no longer apply to today's ministry needs. It was not a pleasant realization!

There is much more that could be said, but this is enough for this post. Look for future blog posts for further thoughts.