Changes in life

When you've lived 75 years you have seen a lot of changes. Just in technology alone the changes I've seen are remarkable. My first cell phone was a bag phone. It probably weighed 5-6 pounds, not exactly something you would carry on your hip or in your pocket. My first Internet provider used dial-up with all the screeches and bongs when you called in. I think they only had a couple of lines at first, and when the kids got home from school you couldn't get on again until about 10:00 PM. When they added 7-8 new phone numbers you kept trying until you finally got through on one. At least it was free! When I began my pastoral ministry I used an Underwood typewriter to type out the bulletins and sermon outlines. I used a lot of White-Out those days. A few years later I bought a word processor and thought things couldn't get any better.

I still remember my first computer. When I decided to add Microsoft Office it came on (I think) 12 floppy disks. The computer tried all day to download it until it finally ran out of memory. I had to have more memory added to the computer before I could even download the program! My first computer class was on DOS, and I'm glad I don't have to remember how to use that.

Life is much easier with high speed Internet, software programs you can just download off the Internet, cell phones with more options and memory than the earlier computers. Change is often a good thing that makes life a lot better. But, not all change is positive.

During these same 75 years I've seen many changes that are not for the better. Much of society today does not know how to relate to one another. We no longer discuss differences; we shout at one another, take up weapons and fight. People are easily offended today and demand their rights even if those rights trample on the rights of others. We used to have statesmen and women elected to political offices; now we have people who are totally unqualified to hold any office making decisions that have negative impacts on the well-being of our country. Our national debt continues to skyrocket, and our politicians can't seem to spend money fast enough. Evil runs rampant in the world, and many can't even agree on what evil is or if it even exists. 

When I was a child the church was often the center of activity especially in the smaller communities in which I lived. Stores were closed on Sundays. Schools didn't schedule activities on Sundays or even Wednesday nights. Even non-Christians knew much about what the Bible taught. None of this is true today. It seems every religion is welcomed except for Christianity. Christian values and beliefs are ridiculed in almost every arena of life today. The church is looked upon as a relic of the past, and the Bible is viewed as a book of myths by many.

No, not all change is good. Unless and until we can see Christian values and beliefs become accepted once again in America we will continue to see our society decline. Nearly 20 years ago Robert Bork wrote a book called Slouching toward Gomorrah which issued a warning about the direction our nation was heading. I'm afraid we are no long slouching our way to Gomorrah; we are running full-speed towards it. The only way we can reverse this is to see revival break out in our churches.

 

Time away

 This past week my wife and I went to Panama City Beach. Our daughter stays in a condo there for a couple of months in the fall, and we often go down around our anniversary to spend time with her and to enjoy the ocean. The weather was perfect with mid-80s all week and no rain. That allowed us to spend a couple of days on the beach and a day at the pool as well as enjoying some other activities. On Sunday we enjoyed going to the church they attend while they are down there. It's a great church with incredible worship and a very solid ministry. The pastor announced they had seen 179 decisions for Christ in the previous two weeks! Many accepted Christ the Sunday we were there. Last night the church had their Trunk-and-Treat and had 7,000 people visit for treats. This is a church that is doing a lot of good things! However, in this post I want to speak to taking time away.

When I speak to pastor groups I urge them to take their vacations. When I speak to churches I urge them to insist their pastors take their vacations. In fact, I encourage them to go one step further and pass a motion in a business meeting that they will dock the pastor one week's pay for each week of vacation he or she doesn't take that year! That's how important I believe time away is.

When I began my pastoral ministry the church gave me two weeks vacation, and I never took both weeks. My stupidity cost me when I became clinically depressed and spent a year on medication and counseling. We need that time away for our own mental health not to mention the well-being of our families. After I recovered the church increased that to four weeks vacation, and you can be sure I took it.

As a judicatory minister I worked with many churches in their pastoral searches. Many of the smaller ones offered two weeks vacation to the new pastor, and if he stayed long enough they might add another week or two. I always encouraged them to start the new pastor with four weeks vacation. What does this extra two weeks cost the church. If they pay a supply pastor $200.00 it costs the church $400.00 to give the pastor the extra two weeks. If the church can't afford that it needs to close down.

Those two additional weeks sends a message the pastor and family that they are important to the church. The church cares for them. If that message isn't worth $400.00 then I would say that the church really doesn't care for their pastor, and he or she may need to seek a new place to serve that will honor them.

Of course, it doesn't matter how much time away the church allows the pastor if he or she doesn't take it. I have known too many pastors who followed my early example and would not use the vacation time they were given. This is a sign of arrogance on the part of the pastor. This is the mindset of someone who believes that if he or she isn't there, God can't do it. I know because this was my early mindset, and it is pure arrogance. Listen, the cemeteries are full of irreplaceable people! One day you will join them, and it may be sooner than you would like if you do not take time to refresh yourself, and the church will continue on as it did before under new leadership.

If you do not receive four weeks vacation from your church I want to encourage you to advocate for that. You many want to bring in someone from your denominational leadership to do that for you if you are uncomfortable doing so. While you're at it you might as well ask for a 2-3 months sabbatical after seven years. After serving in ministry for the past 40+ I can tell you that you will need it! Without it you are likely to get the 7-year itch and begin to feel that "God is calling you to another place of service." The church will find out it was much less costly to give you that sabbatical than the cost of finding and calling a new pastor.

I love pastors, and I want you to be able to serve for a long, long time. That will not happen if you do not take time for yourself and your family. Taking your vacations and a sabbatical will go a long way to keep you in ministry for the long haul.

Special Announcement

 A couple of weeks ago I mentioned here that I would soon be making a special announcement, and the time is now. I'm pleased to announce that I have accepted a call to be the Transitional Pastor of North Madison Baptist Church here in my hometown. I will begin November 1 with my first Sunday in the pulpit on November 5. This is my third church to serve as Transitional Pastor since I retired (?), and I am very excited to get started.

As a young boy involved in BYF back in the day I always looked forward to our BYF rallies which were held in the churches in our association. North Madison BC was one of those churches. Since we attended a small, rural church NMBC seemed huge to me at the time, and it was one of the churches I most looked forward to going to for our rallies.

Jump forward many years (decades) later, and I am serving as a Resource Minister for the American Baptist Churches of Indiana and Kentucky. This was one of the churches in my Area. I filled the pulpit there a number of times and worked with the church during some of their transitional times. Having lived in this area most of my life and because of my previous involvement with the church I already know many of the folks who attend there.

The church has been without a pastor for some time now and has been served by a great interim pastor and dear friend of mine who was feeling led to leave. The timing worked out great for me to step into this role, but, of course, God's timing always works great. I believe He has called me to this place for this time, and I look forward to seeing what will happen in the next several months.

There will be challenges as there is in every church. Attendance has not returned to its pre-Covid numbers. There are few youth and children. But, this church has a number of strengths as well. Those who attend are warm and friendly people with great talents. The church has the location and facilities necessary for growth. Some have already shared with me some ideas they have about new ministries they want to start. Although this church began in 1849 and has a marvelous history I firmly believe that the best days of the church are ahead. I'm honored they have invited me to be a part of that future.

If you live in the Madison, Indiana area and do not have a church home, I invite you to come worship with us. Our service begins at 10:30. We would love to have you.

Knowing God

People sit in our churches every week hearing messages about God, singing songs about or to God, and praying to God. But, how many of them really know God? I'm not talking about their salvation. I'm asking how many of them really know God. How many can describe the nature of God to another person? I'm afraid that number might be rather low.

A few weeks ago I began a focused study on the attributes of God. I already have pages of notes I've copied from various books and other resources. It has been a growing experience. The more I learn about God the more I realize there is so much more to learn. No one can ever explore the depths of God's nature, but it's important that we learn as much as we can as Christian people.

Many of the fears and doubts we have are the result of not knowing God as we should. I look back at my own life and some of the worries I've had during times when I've gone through the valleys of life, and I realize that my faith was weak because my knowledge of God wasn't what it should have been. That same lack of knowledge also results in many of us living far below what God wants for us. Jesus said that He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Many Christian people are not living an abundant life but are living lives of defeat and discouragement. Again, it comes from not knowing God as He truly is.

The lack of knowledge about God also impacts our witness to others. The apostle Paul prayed that the Christians in Rome would be filled with joy, peace and hope, and not only filled but filled to overflowing. I've often said that the reason we need to be overflowing with joy, peace and hope is so some of it can splash onto others who need that in their lives. A joyful Christian filled with peace and hope is going to be an effective witness to others who need to know Jesus Christ. Too many times my own life has not been filed with joy, peace and hope, and I believe the same could be said about many believers today.

We in ministry need to do a better job of teaching our congregations about the attributes and character of God. Too many sermons are filled with fluff meant to tickle the ears of our listeners. Many of the ones sitting in our pews need to be fed the meat of the Word. We need to help them grow deeper in their knowledge of God.

Every Christian also needs to take responsibility for their own growth in that area. I would encourage the reader to begin to do some serious study on the person and nature of God. As you learn more about Him you will find yourself growing closer to Him, and your faith will grow even more. 

When churches attack

My doctoral project was to coach six bivocational pastors for three months and write a thesis on how coaching can benefit bivocational ministers. I asked for volunteers who would benefit from the coaching experience and received several responses from interested persons. I'm happy to report that my paper has been downloaded about 3,500 times since it was written. My last book, The Art and Practice of Bivocational Ministry: A Pastor's Guide, details what was included in my thesis in a more readable format. 

One of the pastors I coached was a woman serving a small church in the northern plains. In one of our sessions I asked her what she most wished she could do in ministry. She responded that she would like to minister to people who have been hurt by the church. I laughed at her answer and explained that if she could do that she would not be in a small church very long. She would find that there were likely a large number of people even in her small community who had been hurt by a church at some time in their lives. We spent the remainder of that coaching session discussing what such a ministry might look like.

It is a sad reality that those who claim to follow Jesus Christ who taught us to love one another can be so mean-spirited and hurtful towards others. Only God knows how many have walked away from the church, and sometimes abandoned Him, because of the pain caused by persons within the church. I have heard countless stories during my ministry. I have good friends that left the church for a season because of hurtful things that were said to them from people within their own congregations. One pastor's son admitted he once contemplated suicide because of the way the church was treating his father and their family. I have known churches who had members who saw it as their spiritual gift to point out perceived mistakes others were making in their lives driving these people away from the church and God. This has to end.

Some will argue that sin must be confronted, and I would agree, but not in the manner in which such confrontation often occurs. Too often such confrontation appears to back people into a corner waving a 97-pound Scofield Reference Bible over their heads and screaming, "Turn or burn." Doesn't Jesus model for us a much better way to confront people with their sins? I think of Him speaking with the Samaritan woman at the well or with the woman caught in adultery. I'm reminded of His words to Zacchaeus, and His willingness to eat with this despised tax collector. The only time Jesus spoke harshly to those involved in sin is when He spoke to the religious leaders.

Jesus invites us to come to Him just as we are. Once we do that He will begin the transformation process we need. If you'll stop and think about it, He did the same thing with you. I'm not suggesting that there is never a time when we should challenge people about the choices they are making. Sometimes we need to be very honest with people that some choices do not honor God, but then we will be much better off letting God take over at that point. Let His Spirit begin the convicting work in their lives which will lead to transformation. One last note...don't expect overnight changes. After all, God is still working on you as well.

Bivocational ministry

 I have spent my life serving in bivocational ministries and supporting bivocational ministry. Many of my books focused on bivocational ministry. I served as a bivocational pastor of one church for 20 years. Even as a Regional Minister I also owned and managed a small business and led conferences and seminars for numerous denominations across the US and Canada. I was blessed to have an Executive Minister who supported what I did. I love bivocational ministry and those who serve in such ministries. I can truly say that bivocational ministers are my heroes.

There was a time when bivocational ministry was seen as a "less-than" ministry. After all, if God had called you into ministry that meant that you have to have an MDiv. degree and serve full-time in ministry. Really? In Baptist and Methodist life bivocational ministers were the norm until around the 1950s when ministry became professionalized. For three decades I have been advocating that we will see a major increase in the number of bivocational ministers, and it appears I was right. Many denominations are reporting their numbers of bivocational ministers are growing. Many do not have actual numbers because their church reporting forms do not provide space to identify bivocational leadership, so the reported numbers may not show what is actually happening. However, when you talk to denominational and judicatory leadership you find that those numbers are increasing.

It's not just smaller churches that are calling bivocational leadership. Mid-side churches are also calling bivocational pastors and bivocational staff. These churches are less concerned about degrees and more concerned with what individuals can do. Many are being wonderfully served by these bivocational ministers.

Too many churches call a "fully-funded" pastor and expect him or her to do all the ministry the church needs. Members of the congregation become spectators and score keepers making sure the minister makes the appropriate number of visits, attends the important meetings, and grows the church to acceptable numbers. Meanwhile, they sit in the pews waiting to "be fed" never realizing that Scripture is clear that all believers are called to do ministry. Eph. 4 teaches that God provides ministers to the church so they can equip the saints to do the work of ministry. One advantage of bivocational ministry is that people understand that the pastor cannot do it all, and more of the congregation are involved in ministry. When that happens, it's a wonderful thing that produces good results for everyone.

Long pastorates

 About 20 years ago I got to meet one of my heroes, H. B. London, Jr. H. B. had retired from pastoral ministry. He was a brother-in-lay to James Dobson and was serving as the Director of the Pastoral Ministry Department of Focus on the Family. We were both invited to serve as plenary speakers at a leadership conference. He spoke three times that week, and I spoke twice and led three workshops. One day the conference director asked if I would take H. B. to lunch. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with him and learned much from him that week.

All of his books impacted my life, but one thing he wrote in one of them impacted me the most. He said that if you are currently serving as pastor in a strong, healthy church it is because someone stayed there long enough to make it such a church. If you are not serving in such a church, perhaps God has called you there for this time to make it that kind of church. I'll never forget those words.

When I became pastor at Hebron Baptist Church in 1981 they had experienced a revolving-door pastorate. The average pastoral tenure at that time was 12 months. That was the average! Veteran pastors in the association told me I wouldn't last that long. I stayed there 20 years as their bivocational pastor. That small, country church accomplished much during that time, and part of the reason for that was that I simply hung around. You can read some of those accomplishments in some of the books I've written.

While larger churches may accept leadership from a new pastor, that is not usually the case in a smaller church. George Barna writes that the average pastor will see his or her greatest ministries between their third and eleventh year of ministry. I am convinced that in the smaller church that will be greatly impacted by the pastoral tenure of the previous pastors. It takes time to earn the trust of a church to lead it, and the shorter the previous pastoral tenures have been, the longer it will take to earn that trust. In my case, it took seven years. Looking back I realize it was in my seventh year as the pastor of that church that two members of leading families in the church shared with me personal information from their lives. In both cases, after sharing this with me, they told me they had never told another pastor about this. Both came to me in the same week. I realized later that positive things began to happen in the church after that.

Depending on whose figures you read, the average pastoral tenure today in the US is less than four years. If Barna's findings are correct, most pastors never really lead their churches. They don't stay long enough to earn the trust and the right to lead. Maybe the pastor is climbing the pastoral ladder of success, but it is so unfair to the church.

Yes, serving in a smaller church can be a challenge. Many of them have been deeply wounded in the past and may not trust pastoral leadership. It can take years to earn that trust, and these will not always be easy years. But, maybe H. B. London, Jr. was right. Maybe God has called you to this place for such a time as this. May each of us be faithful in the place where God has placed us.