Your church does not have money problems

In early 1981 I sent a resume to Hebron Baptist Church, a church in our area that was seeking a pastor. Before I was contacted by the church a person called and introduced himself as the Area Minister for our region. The church had asked him to interview me before the pulpit committee did. The interview went well, and he recommended the church interview me. A few months later I was the pastor of that church where I served for the next 20 years.

During the interview he explained that the church had numerous problems one of which was financial. However, he quickly pointed out that people in the church had money. They just weren't giving much of it to the church.

I soon discovered the reason why. There just wasn't much happening at the church. There was no real reason to give money because there wasn't much to spend it on. Besides, there was a question if the church would even remain open much longer. There's no reason to give money to something that's about to close.

Like many small churches, they had money problems because the church lacked any sense of vision for ministry and many of the people had not been taught how to be stewards of their possessions. Financial problems are never the real issue in a small church; they are merely the symptoms of larger problems. Often, these larger problems are the lack of a vision and the lack of sound stewardship training.

There's not space here to talk about specifics, but within a couple of years we began some projects that required special giving on the part of our people. We began small, but each time we succeeded in raising the money needed for the project. At the same time, we saw an increase in our regular giving. Sometimes we even amazed ourselves with the money that came in.

The projects got bigger and bigger, and we were always able to fully fund them. Our regular giving continued to climb as well plus we soon raised our mission support to the denomination from the ten percent we had been giving to 15 percent. Since our mission giving was tied in percentage-wise to our regular giving, our mission giving continued to climb as well.

About a year before I resigned as their pastor we began building a new fellowship hall for the church. I challenged the church to fund the building themselves and not borrow the money. I believed if God was truly behind our vision for this new addition to the church that He would provide the money. Several months later the building was complete and was debt-free. That small congregation raised an enormous sum of money for its size in two years and built a debt-free fellowship hall. To make it even sweeter, that year it also gave more money to missions than ever before.

Small churches are often quick to point out their limited resources, but the reality is that most of them have far more than they realize. However, to tap into those resources requires vision and solid stewardship training. It's OK to begin with small challenges. As you see them achieved you will be setting the foundation for bigger ones later, and you will be amazed to see what God will do!

Healthy churches need to change

Most of us are familiar with the saying that "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Unfortunately, that is not always good advice today. A better statement might be "If it isn't broke, break it. It's going to be obsolete soon anyway." Things continue to change so rapidly these days that many of the things you are doing today that make you successful will actually harm you in the future.

Many healthy organizations struggle with such change. Many of them took years (maybe decades) to enjoy the health they now have. It's frightening for a healthy organization to think of changing what seems to be working so well. This is especially true for healthy churches. Churches don't enjoy change very much anyway, so why begin changing things in a healthy church that is currently enjoying good ministry?

It's an honest question. For years I've known that healthy churches need to experience regular change, but I've always struggled to give an adequate answer to those who asked why. I was greatly helped this week as I read Less Is More Leadership: 8 Secrets to How to Lead & Still Have a Life by H. Dale Burke. He explains that healthy churches need to change because

• our world is constantly changing.
• our mission is yet to be accomplished.
• our people are constantly changing.
• every new generation is a new challenge.
• change is easier when you are healthy, not unhealthy.
• Scripture gives us our functions, but not our forms.
• flexibility should be the norm if we value people over programs.
• creativity should also flow from the children of the Creator.
• the church is a body, a living organism, and a body must change to grow.
• every church or ministry has a natural life cycle and will eventually die unless it is "reborn" from within.

Each of these are valid points. The one that resonated most with me was the last one about the life cycle of churches. This is an illustration that I often use in various presentation. A church will go through a normal life cycle of birth-growth-maturity-decline-death. Although it cannot reverse that cycle, it can begin new life cycles and see it's ministry "reborn" from within. New life cycles can begin at any time, but if a church waits until it is well down the decline side of the cycle it become much more difficult. By this time a church is often so concerned about its survival that it is reluctant to do anything that might threaten that survival. Change will be strongly resisted in most churches well down the decline side.

The growth phase is the best place to begin new life cycles because the church is the healthiest at this place. It feels less threatening to take risks and attempt new ministries. The leaders of healthy churches should be regularly identifying new ministry opportunities that will bring new life cycles for the church. Not only does this bring new life into the church, it takes ministry to new people and continues to advance the Kingdom of God.

Successful conference

Last night I returned from leading a conference for Transformation Ministries in Orange County, CA. Held in Dana Point, the weather was perfect and the conference was excellent. This was the Mustard Seed Conference that TM holds each year for smaller churches within their network. About 60 people attended including staff from TM and pastors and spouses.

This was a dynamic group of church leaders who are adamant that when healthy leaders lead healthy churches they will enjoy a much more effective ministry in their communities. The energy was high throughout the two-day event.

One of the things I enjoyed about this conference was that TM did not pack sessions and meetings into every moment. The first day of the conference didn't begin until after lunch. They scheduled a harbor tour for anyone interested that morning. Of course, I jumped at it. During the 1 1/2 hour tour we managed to see a whale, a pod of porpoises, and several sea lions. For an old farm boy from Indiana that is not something I get to see everyday! And to enjoy 80 degree weather in February was just icing on the cake!

The seminar they asked me to lead was "The Healthy Small Church." This is the most requested seminar I lead, and it fit in perfectly with what they wanted to do in this conference. Many of the pastors told me throughout the conference that the topics I was addressing was exactly what they were experiencing in their churches. Some pastors were bivocational and they appreciated the encouragement and affirmation I give to bivocational ministers. One admitted to me that he sometimes struggled with negative feelings about being bivocational, and he was especially grateful for the positive comments I made regarding bivocational ministry.

I have several of these events scheduled throughout 2016 for various denominations and organizations. My next speaking event will be to deliver a keynote address at an upcoming conference on bivocational ministry at Earlham College in Indiana. If your church, association, judicatory, or denominational group would be interested in having one of my seminars I would be more than glad to discuss the possibility with you. I still have several open dates on my calendar for this year.

I have several seminars I have done for various church groups in addition to the one I did for TM. They would include

• Transforming the Small Church From Maintenance-Minded to Missional
• Bivocational Ministry in the 21st Century
• Time Management for Church Leaders
• Church Hospitality: How to Turn First-Time Guests Into Members of Your Church

I've also developed specific seminars to meet the special needs of some of the organizations that have invited me to speak. I may be able to address some issue that is important to your church leaders. Just give me a call, and we can discuss how we might partner together.

I want to thank Transformation Ministries for their hospitality and their invitation to spend some time with their church leaders. I had an awesome time!

Get the best sound system you can

When I began my pastoral ministry in 1981 the little church had a terrible sound system. There were about half-dozen microphones sitting on a ledge behind the pulpit area. Only one worked, sometimes. Of course, this was before cordless mics were easily available so I always felt I had a rat's tail following me around that I had to handle. To make matters worse, occasionally a trucker's CB radio would come blasting out of our sound system even though the church was a good mile off the highway. There's few things worse than asking the question, "What would you say to God today?" than to have a trucker shout out "Hey, good buddy." Actually, there could be many worse things, but fortunately they didn't happen.

We eventually purchased some new microphones, but that only solved part of our problems. Things improved greatly when we decided to have a professional sound company install new equipment in the church. They ran new wires (we found out the wires someone in the church had ran were wrong) and pointed out the system that was best for our facility. Surprisingly, it wasn't really that expensive. In fact, it was probably less costly than if we had continued to try to fix it piece by piece ourselves.

My voice carries well in a small church auditorium, and I seldom need a sound system to be heard by most people. However, having a quality sound system lets me not have to worry about being heard and ensure that everyone can easily hear me. Over the years I've had many senior saints express their thanks that they could hear and understand everything I said and their frustration that wasn't always the case with other speakers. If a person can't hear what's going on eventually they will just stop coming to church.

Smaller churches often want to do it yourself when it comes to their sound systems. That's probably a mistake unless you have someone trained in how to put together the right system for your situation. You run the risk of getting the wrong equipment, setting it up incorrectly, and having the expense of having to do it over again. At the very least, get an estimate of what the right system would cost. That won't cost anything, and you might find it much less expensive than you thought.

The other aspect of a quality sound system is having people who know how to operate it. I've been amazed at churches with very good systems that have no one who really knows how to run it properly. Or, they have one person who does know but no one to fill in when he or she isn't there. I know I'm in trouble when I go to a new church, ask for the speaker's mic, and no one is sure where it is. I'm in worse trouble when the person who gives me the mic tells me the regular sound guy isn't there, and he's going to do the best he can.

If you're going to invest in a good sound system, invest in training several people in how to properly use it. Any system is only as good as the ones who operate it.

Along with this, the church's sound system is not a toy to be used by anyone who wants to use it. I advise keeping the system unavailable to those who have not been trained in how to use it. You don't want people coming in during the week playing music on the church's sound system, or changing the settings on the mics and volume. I've seen sound people spend 10-15 minutes trying to get everything back where it needs to be to function properly. Lock it up if you have to protect the church's investment.

Good sound systems are not cheap, but they don't have to be so expensive your church can't have one. Get the best system you can afford, train people how to properly use it, and it will be add much to your church's worship experience.

Don't give up the ship

Thousands of people have given me advice over the years. Some of it was very good, and some of it was rather poor. But, there are two pieces of advice I've remembered that have served me well.

In 1967 I enlisted in the US Navy and was sent to Great Lakes for Boot Camp. The first week there was mostly filling out forms, taking tests, and becoming prepared for the real training that would begin the next week. Another boot about half-way through his training was in charge of us that first week. I hated him. He was constantly yelling and asking us to do things I thought was stupid. It was a miserable week.

On the last night before we would cross the highway to where we would meet our Company Commander and begin training in earnest he called us all to the front of the barracks. He admitted he had been hard on us and assured us that we hadn't seen anything yet! He asked if we had questions about what our training would entail and tried to answer everyone's questions as best he could. He almost seemed human! His last comment to us was, "Just remember, the Navy will never ask you to do anything that is impossible to do. It may be difficult, but it will be doable." I reminded myself of that throughout my tour and beyond.

About ten years later I was being ordained as a deacon in our church. The final part of the service was the "Laying on of Hands." As I knelt in the front of the church all the ordained people in attendance formed a line and one-by-one came by to offer words of encouragement and/or a prayer. I have no idea what anyone said to me except for the last person in line. One of our deacons was from Scotland and as he leaned in to whisper in my ear all he said in his rich accent was "Don't give up the ship."

Ministry is often difficult and frustrating. I cannot tell you how many times in my 34 years of ministry I have thought back to that first week of boot camp and reminded myself that God also will not ask us to do the impossible. Difficult, yes. Challenging, yes. Impossible, no. "With God all things are possible."

There have also been many times when I've been tempted to leave it all and just walk away from the ministry. But, how can anyone walk away from God's call on their lives? This is who I am. This is what God has gifted me to do. I can't give up the ship.

It's funny that two people whose names I long ago forgot has had such an impact on my life through just one sentence each. In His wisdom God branded those words onto my spirit to encourage and strengthen me for the task He would give me.

Perhaps they will encourage and strengthen you today.

Ministry success is more than nickels and noses

The message all around us is that bigger is better. When I owned a heating and air conditioning business I received at least one invitation each week to a seminar to teach me how to grow our business. As a pastor I got invitations to events that would tell me how to grow our church. There is certainly nothing wrong with growth, but ministry success cannot be measured by counting nickels and noses.

In my book The Bivocational Pastor: Two Jobs, One Ministry, I point out that such a definition of success will discourage most bivocational pastors. For many of us, significant growth in numbers may not happen for reasons beyond our control. Unfortunately, I have met too many bivocational ministers who have accepted some common myths about successful ministries. The ones I list in the book are from Ron Klassen and John Kessler's excellent book
No Little Places: The Untapped Potential of the Small-Town Church.

1. To be successful, my ministry must be big.
2. To be significant, my ministry must be in a big place.
3. One measure of the significance of my ministry is how much recognition I receive for it.
4. Career advancements are signs of a significant ministry.

Not only do such beliefs discourage a small church pastor, they are not biblical. I won't take the time to quote the better definitions of success I share in the book, but basically they have to do with understanding God's plan for our lives and seeking to fulfill that plan.

When Joshua was commissioned to lead the Israelites into the Promised Land God told him that if he would observe the laws of God he would have success. His success, and ours, has to do with our relationship with God. 

Man always wants to judge based on outward appearances so seeing regular increases in the number of people in our services and in our budgets would appear to be a measure of success. Again, I am not discounting healthy growth. But, God judges the heart. He is looking for people who are committed to knowing and doing His will for their lives. 

2 Chronicles 16:9 tells us "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him." There can be no greater measure of success than to enjoy God's favor on one's life and ministry.

There is a risk here that must be addressed. After reading this some people might become passive in ministry. Every person who enters the ministry should want his or her ministry to make a difference in the lives of others. We want to touch people's lives in significant ways. There is nothing wrong with developing a vision of what success in your ministry can look like and then develop a strategy for how you can achieve that. Just be sure your vision is appropriate for your church and your gifts. More importantly, be sure your vision is aligned with God's vision for your ministry. It is when those two visions are in alignment that you will experience maximum success.

Celebrate what's right with the church

It is so easy to be negative towards the church. Both those inside and outside the church can find many things wrong with the church. No doubt, it is not a perfect institution, but we sometimes forget that there is much good that we can say about the church. There are many things the church is doing right to celebrate.

A few years ago Elmer Towns wrote a book called What's Right with the Church: A Manifesto of Hope. I don't know, but I imagine it did not sell as well as many of his books. For some reason, people don't seem to enjoy the good and positive as much as they do the negative. I found the book to be a positive reminder that churches are doing many things right.

Every Sunday across our nation, and world, churches are faithfully proclaiming the Word of God. Yes, I know some churches have strayed from the Gospel, but we are focusing on the positive today. Pastors stand behind pulpits every Sunday preaching the Gospel, inviting unsaved people to a relationship with Christ, and challenging people to align their lives with the Scriptures. As a result of their faithful preaching people are finding new life in Christ. Marriages are being restored. Addicts are finding healing. People are growing as disciples of Jesus Christ. People who have lost hope are finding renewed hope in Christ.

A few years ago I joined with a group of Christians from various churches to spend a day in eastern Kentucky helping to winterize houses. Each of these churches were from the same association and each of them were small, bivocational churches. Alone, they were rather limited in what they could do, but when a few people from each church came together they could accomplish a lot. Five truck load of workers went down to this community, bought the materials, and helped prepare several homes for the winter. These churches have returned to that area many times since to minister to the people there. They do so not expecting anything in return. It's not like they think these people will start attending their church (they live four hours away) or that they can pay for what these churches doing. They do so because some of the folks had a burden to minister to this community. Such unselfish service happens in thousands of churches every week.

Churches are working together on justice issues. Whether it was the civil rights issues of the 1960s to poverty and other issues today, churches often lead the way to addressing injustice. When one thinks of prison reform one can't help but think of Chuck Colson, a person who became a Christian after going to prison for his role in Watergate. Upon his release he dedicated his life to prison reform and rallied many churches to work with him in that effort. Who is feeding the hungry in America today? It is often the churches and other faith-based groups. Christian organizations started many of the hospitals to serve the poor and sick. Churches and Christian organizations founded many universities, colleges, orphanages, and homes for unwed mothers to give people opportunities they may not have had otherwise.

In recent years the education system in America has experienced problems. Test scores continue to go down in some school systems, and numerous schools are racked with violence, drugs, and a system that is broken. This is not to say that there are not other school systems doing an excellent job with excellent teachers and administrators. Numerous churches are stepping in to provide a quality education to children who might not otherwise receive it. Their teachers are often way underpaid compared to the public schools, but they view their work as a ministry and are willing to accept less pay for the opportunity to serve. I understand that some are critical of these church-based schools and feel they take money from the public schools, but instead of getting into a fight over who deserves what money let's celebrate the fact that many of the children in these church-run schools are getting a quality education in a safe environment.

There's not space to list all the positive things occurring in churches today, but these should be enough to remind ourselves that there are many good things happening in the church today. Let's celebrate what is right with the church.