ChurchWhisperers.Org

Is There Hope For The Congregational Church?

My impression is that increasing numbers of pastors of evangelical churches today (2011) have “just about had it” with congregationalism, that form of church government which invests every member with the right to speak up, vote and get involved in decision-making processes.  Pastors – not just those who lack patience, but those who want their churches to become effective missions to their communities – are “beyond frustrated” with the downsides of congregationalism, and, in my view, they should be. 

Churches are supposed to be storming “the gates of hell” (Matthew 16:18), not guarding the keys to the coffee supplies.  Pastors are supposed to be training ministers for ministry (Ephesians 4:11,12), not entertaining the critics of the minister.  Churches should be adapting themselves to “win as many as possible” (I Corinthians 9:19-23), not falling all over themselves to lose as few as possible.  With all the great books that pastors are reading and conferences they are attending, the gap between the contrasting visions for the church held by pastors and church attendees seems to be growing.  One of the results is old-fashioned “pastoral frustration,” but another is an abandonment of congregationalism (viewed as the disease responsible for diverse and serious symptoms).

I remember chatting about this half-seriously as a young pastor.  My pastor friends and I loved doing ministry but trying to lead, govern and manage our congregational churches was driving us crazy - we all wanted to go to a mythical “Camp Burnout” for pastors.   Our frustrations were also driving us to the fantasy that all our troubles would be over if we were leading chapels instead of churches.  This frustration probably has something to do with the growth of the Calvary Chapel movement as well as the movement of some of our best “lay people” into churches without voting memberships where a few self-perpetuating elders (church board members who re-up or replace each other without any input from the flock) “run the show.”

I don’t blame these folks for their frustration, especially where it is fueled, not just by elitism or impatience, but by a strong desire to be a part of missional churches – churches that are truly doing something to expand the kingdom of God.  The problem I have with this movement (and I think that it really is a movement) is that, like a lot of pastors and other leaders in the Evangelical Free Church, I still believe in congregationalism.  I believe in it not so much because I believe that the priesthood of the believer demands it (I’ve never understood that argument) but because, in my reading of the New Testament, the people, the flock, did seem to have a say in what their churches did  - as in Acts 1:23ff, Acts 6:5, etc.  If we still had Apostles (Ephesians 4:11)  - and Evangelical Free folk generally believe that we don’t – I would be fine with the appointing of leaders by Apostolic decree, as in Acts 14:23 or Titus 1:5.  In the absence of Apostles, I have to concede that the congregation – the local body of adult believers – should have a say at least in who their leaders are going to be. Having them vote on a few other things as well, like the purchasing of land, the building of buildings, the approving of an annual budget or the implementation of major new policies, just seems “right” to me - and I know that people will vote with their feet if they don’t get to vote with their hands or pens.

So here’s the burning question: is it possible to have congregationalism that works (and “works” should be defined in terms of kingdom expansion success, not just congregational happiness)? For the sake of getting a discussion started, I believe that there’s hope for the congregational church if:

1. We teach Biblical leadership and followership.  In the church polity (government style) of the New Testament, the leaders lead and the followers follow.  This is just common sense.  Leaders put many hours (and hopefully much prayer) into their leadership proposals.  Followers should give the benefit of the doubt, appreciate the work done by their leaders and, unless they have strong reasons to speak up or vote “no,” they should follow.  Hebrews 13:7 & 17 and I Thessalonians 5:12 tell us to respect, emulate, follow, obey and submit to our leaders.  Churches need to be taught this with patience as well as with the expectation that “this is the way we’re going to do it here.” Vast numbers of American Christians assume that because we’re Americans, our leaders should be suspected, mistrusted, spoken against and opposed! This is far from what is taught in the Bible!  Pastors need to dare to teach what Scripture really says about this and allow those whose “bent” is to defy God-given authority to go elsewhere.

2. We repudiate parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order. Parliamentary procedure (as found in Robert’s Rules…) is fine for American government, the Lions club or the Rotary.  In my view it has no place in the church of Jesus Christ.  Robert’s Rules allow for the church’s official (we believe “God-given”) leaders to be publicly opposed by the followers, their proposals turned on their heads at business meetings, without any forethought at all. Robert’s Rules allows the newest member of the congregation to make proposals at meetings which are then voted on by the members without the legitimate leaders being able to veto them.  From the standpoint of many Americans who are new to the church, this is the way it should be.  From the viewpoint of Biblical leadership and followership, this is beyond absurd.  In Scripture, followers who do such things are burned up, struck down, swallowed up by the ground or turned into lepers!  It’s time for us pastors to teach the truth about these matters and to call for the “banishment” of parliamentary procedure from our churches.

3. We turn business meetings into occasions for formalizing and celebrating God-instigated forward progress. Good, careful leadership involves the conveying of information by leaders, careful listening to the responses generated, the willingness to re-think proposals after listening, convincing ever-widening concentric circles of “influencers,” even the solicitation of opinions from those who are likely to be against the proposal (because they’re against most proposals).  If leadership is done right, the “yes” vote has been decided well in advance of the formal business meeting.  This good leadership allows our official meetings to be occasions for last minute answers to legitimate questions and for votes that are celebratory, not controversial, in nature.  Most people in most churches rejoice when their leaders stop relying on the followers to try to lead at business meetings and start practicing careful, bold, united leadership.  Everybody wins when the meeting becomes a celebration.

4. We courageously confront bullies.  I’m so grateful for Tim Addington (“High Impact Church Boards,” “Leading From the Sandbox”) and other authors for emphasizing the need for courage for all church board members.  Bullies, controlling people, folks who love being “big fish in small ponds” love democracy (congregationalism in its worst form) because it allows them to drive the bus from the back seat, to make “scenes” at business meetings, to reach up and pull the break cord (like on old-time trains) and to get their way for the worst possible reasons.  Some of these folks need to be stood up to, rebuked, warned, maybe even removed from their churches. Leaders who think they’re being “gracious” by letting these people “run wild” are practicing neither grace nor responsible leadership (where the shepherds protect well-behaved sheep from biting sheep).

5. We demonstrate real competence as pastors and boards.  Pastors desperately need to become proficient at leadership because every church needs an effective “leadership relationship.”  That is, every church needs to have a pastor/leader who is competent at leadership and whom it will allow to competently lead them.  Next, all pastors need to teach (or find somebody who can teach) their church board members how to be effective in their roles. Most church board members are wonderful people who have no idea how to be church board members because no one has taught them.  In many cases eight board members have eight different ideas about what the board’s role should be.  If you don’t agree with the books that I love to use for this purpose (the aforementioned “High Impact Church Boards” and Larry Osborne’s “Sticky Teams”) find a book or books or curriculum that you agree with and teach it until senior pastor and board are functioning like a strong, bold, careful, united, effective leadership team. Most people will give their leaders lots of latitude to lead, they will follow with joy, if (a big “if”) and when their leaders demonstrate competence.  If you want to escape from the morass of congregational mistrust, this is the most important way out: you’ll get all the leadership traction you need by demonstrating both concern and competence.

6. We demonstrate that it’s about God’s kingdom and God’s glory. While trying to lead boldly we must continue to demonstrate real humility (which shouldn’t be so hard since we’re so fallible!) and meekness.  When you mess up, apologize.  Tell your people constantly that Jesus Christ is the head over everything for the church (Ephesians 1:22,23) and that you’re trying to be good leaders by becoming good followers of Christ.  There is only one king in the kingdom we are building.  To lead well, we need meekness (the willingness to not get our own way) as much as we need boldness (the courage to point to the right way). People will not surrender their right to lead from the floor of business meetings if they fear the foolishness of those who want to lead them.  But most will gladly surrender that right (or so they thought it was) to leaders whom they love and trust, for good reason.

I think there’s hope for the congregational church.  Do you?

"Playing Twenty Questions"

Elsewhere on this site (“Gaining Restoration Authority) I’ve written about the value of conducting listening sessions at the beginning of a change-oriented interim pastorate.  We have found this to be so valuable that we (Donna and I) would do this in any new pastorate that we would undertake, interim or long-term, no matter what the condition of the church. Here are a few thoughts on what we do and why, followed by a sample list of questions (though you’ll want to write your own).

• We do this with couples (or families) as much as possible, instead of with groups, because the “bonding” aspect of the experience is vastly superior in two-on-two sessions.  I think that the quality of the information gleaned is also inversely proportional to the size of the group.   Obviously, this wouldn’t work in a larger church, unless the sessions were considered “representative” instead of exhaustive, or the visits were confined to the leaders (which would give a skewed result).
• Go to homes as much as you can.  We will meet folks at restaurants if we have to, but you get to know people much better if you go to their homes.  We tell folks that they don’t have to feed us; just let us come over for a couple hours (and you do need at least a couple of hours) and we will be grateful.  In people’s homes you see what they’ve made (including their children), remodeled, collected and cherished.  You meet the dogs, cats, lizards and goldfish and get a tour of the family photos on the walls. 
• I let people see the questions ahead of time so they’re not so frightened.  If you just tell people you want to come to their house and ask them questions they’ll think they’re going to be interrogated.  We even have people who’ve had us over first tell the rest of the church that it “wasn’t so bad!” 
• I change the questions with every new church, both because I keep changing my mind about which are the most important questions and because each church is different.  There are some questions which I need not ask repeatedly (especially the one about knowing what your church’s mission and vision are) because I know the answer before I ask. 
• We always tell folks that it’s okay to not answer some of the questions.  Pleading ignorance is fine. 
• I deliberately skip some of the questions with folks whom I know are new to the church and aren’t going to have good answers. 
• After about three months, I carefully compile the gleanings from these sessions and present the results to the leaders first and the entire congregation eventually, usually in connection with the proposal of a “revitalization plan.”  Showing folks what their peers have said is so much more powerful than simply making your own observations. You do not present complete gleanings of course, because some folks say shocking things, which would be immediately recognizable as coming from them when presented to the congregation.  I have used a number of instruments for gauging the health of a church but feel that this method is far more accurate and complete than any other.  I highly recommend taking the time to do this right.  
• With that said, here’s the list as I used it last, with a few suggestions for alternative questions at the end. If you want more, consult Lyle Schaller’s great book, “The Interventionist” which is teeming with great questions to ask. The bold and italicized notes have been added by way of explanation.

                      PASTOR BRIAN’S (20 questions) LISTENING SESSIONS

Dear Friends:  Here are the questions Donna and I would like to come to your homes to talk to you about.  (You don’t have to write down any answers.)  As you can see, there’s nothing scary or terribly personal here.  We want to get to know you as people and we want to gain a good understanding of the health of the church.  We’ve found that asking these questions is an invaluable part of getting to know the churches we are seeking to help.  Can we get together?  Call us at ____________________ or find Brian at church. 

Name of individual or family: _________________________ Date:_______

1. Where are you from & how did you get to this area?

2. When/how did you come to know Christ?

3. When/how did you come to this church?

4. What services or groups do you attend? 

5. Do you have a ministry at this church?

6. What do you like best about this church?

7. How does this church need to change?

8. What do you think this church does best?

9. If you could do any ministry in the church, what would it be?  This is not to sign people up but to help uncover their “ministry passions” or maybe even a God-given church vision.

10. Do you know what your spiritual gifts are?  (Or “How you are most effective at serving God?”)

11. At what stage would you place this church?  (I show folks a “church life-cycle” bell curve, to which I’ve added numbers so that I can objectify this process a bit and tell the congregation quite accurately what they think about their church.)

12. Which of the “interim congregation developmental tasks” do you feel we need to work on? (On Brian’s “9 redevelopment tasks” chart found elsewhere on this site)

13. Are there any of the interim characters that you identify with? (This is a reference to the interim characters, like “Harry Hopeless” found elsewhere on this site.)

14. Are any of the issues or emotions from Brian’s chart things that you see in our church at this time?   (This also comes from a handout, on issues and emotions during the interim time.  Found on this site.)

15. Do you have any “big dreams” for your church? (something you’d LOVE to see happen here) (This helps me get to know the people I’m talking to and also tells me if this church has a common, God-given vision.  It can be downright exciting to find out that it does!)

16. How hard was it for you to get friends and get involved when you came to the church?

17. What do you understand to be the purpose or mission of your church?  (What’s it for?)

18. Are you aware of a vision that your leaders have for your church’s future?  (What do they want it to become?)

19. Who are the people you most respect/admire at _____________Church? (This can be very helpful in identifying future leaders, “power brokers,” and current leaders who are not actually respected.)

20. What does this church do on an annual basis that you really look forward to?  (This question is for uncovering values and traditions that I’m apt to get in trouble for not knowing about.  It does the new pastor NO GOOD AT ALL to ask people to identify their church’s traditions or sacred cows - which the new pastor better not slaughter - as very few people are conscious of these.)

MORE POSSIBILITIES (though I wouldn’t try to do more than 20 total):

• Is there anything else you’d like to tell me, while you have my undivided attention? (Ask this last, when people are now comfortable with you.  It can be very educational!)
•  Would you be interested in being part of a leadership training group?  If so, what time of day, day of the week, etc.? 
• If you were going to attend half-day seminars to equip you for the Christian life and Christian ministry, what would be the best time slot, Saturday mornings, Saturday afternoons or Sunday afternoons? 
• How does change typically happen in this church?  Where do change initiatives usually begin, and how smoothly does the process go?  Tell me what happened the last time your leaders proposed a change… 
• How do people handle their conflicts with each other in this church? 
• How do people handle their complaints against their leaders in this church? 
• Who is in the driver’s seat in the church van?  (This is my expanded version of the “car” illustration.  In the ideal situation, Vision is in the driver’s seat, Relationships are in the front passenger seat, Programs and Policies are in the car, but in the back seats, where they belong.  In my new, expanded version, the car becomes a minivan with room for two more passengers: traditions and fears.  In my opinion, traditions and fears should be in the “way back” seats of the van. Not everyone would want to tackle this question, but some would.)

One more note: We always invite people to give me a call if they think of something a week or two after the visit that they wish they had said.  Lots of people – like me – process things slowly.  People love being known and heard.

 

 

 

 

"In Defense Of Playing Defense"

(or “What the Packers are teaching me about redevelopment pastoring”)

Okay, I might as well admit it.  I’m the guy (or one of the guys) who’s always talking about playing offense, not defense, in the ministry of the church. “I love playing offense,” some of you have heard me say, “I don’t like playing defense, and I hate punting.”  I’m not really talking about football, of course – though I will in a minute – I’m talking about being proactive instead of reactive, acting on instead of being acted on, advance planning instead of “winging it” and teaching the whole Bible instead of teaching the topic that corresponds to last week’s crisis.  I’m talking about doing more discipling and less counseling, more pre-marital counseling and less marriage counseling, more leadership and less management, having a program (as a leadership team) instead of reacting to the “program” that some folks in the pew have for us.

I’m also talking about regular days off, vacations and retreat days instead of emergency stays at “Camp Burnout” and training anyone and everyone in our churches for ministry instead of scolding them for their bumbling missteps.  That’s not all. I’m also talking about having a deliberate strategy for evangelism, a comprehensive ministry plan, putting fear in the heart of our Enemy instead of being gripped by fear ourselves, and, in general, storming the gates of hell – as in Matthew 16:18 – instead of cringing behind the gates of the Museum of Christianity (which pretty well describes too many churches). 

I still believe in this stuff.  All of it, as a matter of fact.  Give me half a chance and I’ll preach, teach, write or do seminars on it.  But I have to admit that my circumstances and “my” Packers have been opening my eyes to the other side of the story.  The Packers won the Superbowl – and a few other games this past season – with their defense, not their offense.  Their offense is pretty impressive too, and you can guess that that’s where my main interest lies (sorry, defensive players).  But in games like the Superbowl, when their offense was stymied by a very impressive Steeler defense, it was the turnovers turned into points-off-turnovers that saved the day.

Pastors who are not so driven, Type-A, task-oriented, group-oriented and long-term oriented as I am have known the value of playing defense for a long time.  It takes guys like me a little longer to catch on.  I’ve also discovered that I don’t have to give up my overall “offensive strategy” in order to play some good defense; great defense can be built into a “storm the gates of hell,” offensive strategy.

Here’s what I mean.  The redevelopment pastor rolls into town and starts teaching the board about the importance of standing together as one, keeping confidences and leading carefully but boldly. “Leaders should lead and followers should follow, and in that order,” they hear me say, over and over.  Some folks get it right away.  One good teaching session on these topics and they’re good to go, onward, upward and forward. 

Others however, don’t catch on so quickly.  They usually give their assent to such concepts, but in their hearts they don’t understand and neither do they cooperate.  They “leak” sensitive information out of board meetings and equivocate when cornered by church bullies. Proactive (and, let’s face it, impatient) guys like me can get frustrated and cranky at that point, or we can catch on to the fact that we are being given an opportunity to play some good defense, a “teachable moment” some would call it. We have been praying and praying that God would really, dramatically change the church.  At times like this we need to open our eyes and see that God is giving us a great opportunity to help make that happen. 

In most cases these slower learners are not “bad” people who need to be driven out of their roles, they’re just good people who take a little longer before they “get it.” After some gentle confrontation and instruction many of them become terrific team players.  A “defensive moment” has been turned into “points off turnovers;” God be praised!  I am learning to view these “tests” as God-given opportunities to teach the board (or staff, or both) in a way that really “sticks” – that is, at a far deeper learning level than they had reached after reading a book or hearing me teach from an outline.

Here’s another example.  I teach backwards and forwards about the effort and courage it takes to guard the unity of a church.  “God has given authority to church leaders which He expects them to use to deal with deviant behavior from good people and impossible behavior from impossible people.” The preceding is almost a mantra on my lips. “Some churches are virtually junk churches,” I shock leaders by adding, “because the leaders will not stand up to bullies and control freaks who won’t allow the church to move forward.”  Again, most good people in most churches will agree (at least after recovering from the shock), theoretically at least.  The “rub” comes when I expect leaders to start acting like we really believe these things.  I’m learning that the old bully or melodramatic suicide threatener (for there’s more than one way to control a church) can be my teaching partner at such times.  His or her attempt to reign in the newly deviant behavior of the church’s leaders (I mean that they actually start leading and expecting folks to follow!) becomes my opportunity (though never a pleasant one) to help the leaders to practice what I’d been preaching. Bingo!  Points off turnover again.

I could cite more examples, but I’m guessing that you get the point.  God’s plan for the transformation of His churches is not neat, clean, classroom cognition. It’s messy.  It’s more like potty training than classroom education.  But if playing defense is what it takes to really change a church, I’m all for it and I’m working on my attitude.  So while I’d love to win with nothing but offense, in the real world, playing defense matters too. 

"Heaven Help My Church" by Brian Thorstad

My guess is that some of you reading these words today feel just like the title; you have been crying out to God to come down and rescue a church which you dearly love. I would like to be the instrument of God today to give you some hope for the healing of your church. 

First of all, you need to know where I’m coming from and that, at least to a degree, I “feel your pain.”  I haven’t always been a redevelopment pastor.  I’ve been a Sunday school teacher (almost all ages), a children’s church helper and teacher, a youth group helper and leader, a bus-ministry worker and driver, a volunteer janitor, a worship leader, a deacon and an elder.  I’ve been a church planting pastor, a solo pastor (the only pastor of a small church), an associate pastor and a senior pastor with associate pastors of my own. 

I’ve been in churches that needed to be closed, a church where the pastor was asked to leave, a church where the pastor was dismissed, a church where a “vote of confidence” (which led to a church split) was taken on a pastor, a church where a pastor turned himself into an intimidating dictator and a church where a pastor became (probably) clinically depressed and was acting way out of character. 

As a redevelopment interim pastor I’ve ministered to a congregation after a twenty-year beloved pastor had departed, leaving many of the folks in tears and, in another, where a pastor was persuaded to leave after eight or nine (depending on who was telling the story) stormy, miserable weeks! I hope this doesn’t sound boastful; I just want you to know that I’ve been through some “stuff” and am able to speak with some authority on the subject of how “heaven” (God, actually) wants to help your church.

This article isn’t going to be the whole “cure” by any means; I’d just like to give you a few basic truths that you can hang onto in the midst of some difficult, distressing times. 

• First and foremost, be assured that, if you are a group of people who have repented and trusted Christ as your Savior from sin, God REALLY loves your church, at least in the sense of loving the people in your church.  If they are born again, they are part of the glorious body of Christ for which Jesus died.  (The entire Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians is my proof text for this statement, especially 5:25-33.)  God’s love for the church is not just some abstract, theological truth; it is as real and emotional as the love you have for your children.  This love extends to all God’s children and includes you, as well as the people on the other side of the conflict some of you are in right now.
• Second, more than likely, Christ also loves your individual congregation and wants to make it vibrant, holy, powerful, glorifying to Himself and closer to Himself than it has ever been.  Jesus Himself wrote some serious and some seriously encouraging words to the seven churches of Revelation 1-3. Look at how this passage ends:

“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline.  So be earnest, and repent.  Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.  To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”  Revelation 3:19-22

These words were not written to sinners in need of salvation; these words were written to real local churches with strengths and weaknesses, just like yours. Yes, there are local churches that (I believe) Christ wants disbanded because they have become a total disgrace to His name – take a look at the language of Revelation 2:5 about “remov[ing] your lampstand.” But for the most part, our Lord wants His churches revived, not removed and He who wants them revived has “all power” (Acts 1:8) available to work with you and make this happen.

• The third truth for you to hang on to is that this really does happen.  There are vibrant, joyful, powerful churches in America (and I imagine in the rest of the world) which were, at one time, almost dead, and written off as hopeless by some. There are writers and leaders in America who think that most churches are pretty much worthless and ought to be put on the scrap heap within thirty years of their founding.  As a redevelopment pastor I beg to differ;  I believe that old, inwardly-focused, troubled, divided, churches can live again.  It will not happen without some serious prayer, hard work and often, courageous confrontation of problems and problem people; but it can and does happen.  I also think that God sometimes shows off His sovereignty (reminds us of who’s boss) by pouring out His blessings upon churches (the ones on the “wrong side” of the church split) which some of us think should be experiencing His curses! 
• Fourth, God cares about you and your feelings even if your behavior could stand some improvement and God cares about your “opponents” and their feelings even if their behavior could stand some improvement. As His dearly loved child, God wants your heart rejoicing (Philippians 4:4), your soul resting (Matthew 11:28-30) and your life abundant (John 10:10).  Your feelings are real and matter to God, even though He might be grieved by some of your behaviors – and you’re probably not as innocent as you think you are. 

The same truth applies to the folks who are on the other side of the conflict you’re in. Your situation is probably not nearly as black and white as you think it is.  Good people do some really bad things while certain that they’re doing really good things – see my three articles at this site on this subject.  You just might be one of them.  If you are, God isn’t going to kick you out of His family or refuse to ever bless you again. 

On the other hand, don’t be surprised when God doesn’t kick those “on the other side” out of His family and refuse to bless them again.  Fortunately, God is a more gracious Father to His foolish children than most of His children are gracious siblings to each other. The sooner you give up your black/white, good-guy/bad-guy, hero/villain thinking, the sooner God can use you to improve your situation.

Let’s go one step further: a desire to see your opponents punished – by God or men - is not of God.  If your opponents are Christians, their sin has been paid for by Christ on the cross, right? God will chasten (not punish) His own as He sees fit (look at Revelation 3:19 again), but this is His job, not ours. This does not eliminate the need for church discipline, but church discipline is for wrong behavior, not for being on the “wrong side.”

• Finally, it’s so important for you to know that, whatever happens, God will give you the grace to do right, glorify Him and pillow your head at night with a clean conscience, whatever anybody else does. Pray with faith that God will give you the wisdom to know the right thing to do (as in James 1:5) and then hang on to the promises of Philippians 4:13, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” and Isaiah 41:10, “So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

When it comes right down to it, there are not a lot of things in this life that we can control.  Fortunately, our own behavior is one thing we can control.  “Grace” means – among other wonderful things - that all the commands of the New Testament are promises to be claimed. By God’s grace - unmerited, Spirit-given help as well as unmerited favor - I can do right, and so can you.

Please look back at the four truths above that you can hang on to, even while crying out “Heaven help our church!” Is there a promise here which you need to cling to right now? Have you gained some understanding of some other folks in your church which can help you to face them and love them?  Is there some behavior you need to repent of? Face the truth, be brave and, as Winston Churchill said, “bugger on.”  “Heaven” really does want to help your church and the God of heaven wants to use you in the process.

"Enjoying The Ride"

(How you can survive the pastoral transition at your church)

Brian Thorstad

Psychologists today tell us that stress is an inside job, more of a function of the individual human personality than an inevitable reaction to circumstances.  You could almost say that we make our own stress.  Two people are strapped into the same roller coaster. One is having a “scream” in the good sense of the word; every twist and turn brings spasms of delight.  The person next to him or her is suffering miserably with every horrifying surprise. “God, if I live through this, I’ll never get in one of these things again!”  Two people are watching a football game: One is rejoicing with every amazing pass and every almost-immaculate reception.  The other groans in agony with the failure of the defense to put pressure on the quarterback and “smother” the wide receivers.  Stress is an inside job.

Personally, I find flights on big commercial aircraft to be a whole lot of fun.  I’m probably the only 50 something guy on the plane to be having a blast and pressing his forehead to the window so he doesn’t miss a single sight as the world passes below.  On the other hand, my only flight in a light plane was really scary.  I felt like I was hanging on to the back of a mosquito. I tried to have fun, but I was pretty stressed, because stress is an inside job. 

So how are you doing with the “ride” of the pastor transition at your church?  Are you terrified, or enjoying yourself? The following are a few observations from I Corinthians three and four that may help you turn a terrifying journey on an untested roller-coaster into an enjoyable ride – or at least a less scary ride.  ‘ready?

First, a bit of context.  The Apostle Paul had founded the church at Corinth.  He served as what we would call its “pastor” for about eighteen months.  The Corinthians may not have known it, but it must have been amazing to have Paul as their teaching pastor, for he knew more Christian theology than anybody on the planet.  Paul was followed in this role by - and I don’t mean this in a negative way - the silver-tongued orator, Apollos.  Apollos was a Bible (Old Testament) scholar and a wonderful speaker.  Paul, by comparison, described himself as someone whose bodily presence (“stage presence”) was “weak.” In other words, he probably wasn’t much to look at nor was he a spell-binding speaker, he just dished out truth and more truth and more truth.  It’s likely that the Apostle Peter – probably the consummate story-telling preacher (as a former fisherman!) – had also spoken at Corinth.  It’s even possible that some of the Corinthian Christians had visited the Holy Land during the earthly ministry of Jesus and had heard the Master Himself; no one had ever spoken like Him!

As Paul writes to the Corinthians he is angry with them because of their childish disunity  (the overall subject of chapter 1:10 - chapter 4). The Corinthian believers – who were old enough in their faith to know better – were dividing themselves up over which of their teachers they deemed to be the best. Each was saying that they were followers of (1:12 & 3:4) their favorite preacher.  Paul is horrified; all Christians should be followers (read “fans”) of Christ alone, of course. Something (immaturity, carnality) is fundamentally wrong with church members who choose sides during or after pastoral transitions! But in the process of correcting them for their divisions, Paul shares (in 3:6-17) three metaphors which illustrate the relationship between God Himself, His churches and the teachers God uses to bring His churches to maturity. There is much to be learned from this wonderful passage but I’m going to confine my comments to pointing out a few truths which can help us to “enjoy the ride” - instead of being miserable – as God moves His teachers in and out of our churches.

From Paul’s first metaphor, the church as a field (3:6-9a):

(1) God’s teaching, church-leading servants are “nothing,” at least in comparison to God (vs. 7).  I’m not attacking somebody’s self-esteem here; this is what the passage bluntly says. Paul and Apollos are only “servants,” compared, in fact, to migrant workers, who never seem to get a lot of acclaim in any culture.  (A bit south of us here in central Wisconsin, migrant workers live in old trailers and what look like barracks.) Paul wasn’t suggesting that church leaders should be treated with disrespect - see I Thessalonians 5:12,13 - but rather that the credit for the growth (of any kind) of any church, be given to God alone (vss. 6 & 7).

(2) The servants of God – whether they know it or not – are “one” in that they are a part of the same process and working for the same boss. The vital thing is the one purpose (vs. 8), the spiritual and numerical growth of the church/crop for the glory of God.

(3) It is the sovereign (He’s a king!) God who moves these servants in and out of the field as He sees fit (vs. 5).  There is much mystery here, of course.  Even if the Pastor leaves “in a huff” or is chased out of town by “huffing and puffing” board members, ultimately, it is God Himself who moves His servants from one field to another.  Does He use the foolishness of men to do so?  I’m afraid so, but ultimately, the providence of God (God’s benevolent meddling in our lives for our good and His glory) is responsible for these sometimes dramatic and often controversial changes.  Do you have the faith to believe this, and enjoy the ride?  Can you trust God, even when you don’t trust the church board?  (Your own personal answer to this question is “key.”)

(4) These field-worker servants of God will be rewarded properly by God for their work (see 3:8, 12-15 and 4:5).  We don’t need to worry too much about the injustices done to our former pastors (though this doesn’t excuse them); the unheralded and unrewarded laborer will be properly compensated by God Himself (see 4:5) when the rewards are handed out.  It is not your job to mete out justice upon the church leaders whom you believe did wrong.

From Paul’s second metaphor, the church as a building (3:9b-15):

(5) In the sovereign providence of God, His workers are moved in and out of the leadership of His churches for the sake of their special giftedness.  Some are builders who begin with the foundation laid by others.  Paul knew he was a foundation layer.  (I tried that ministry - we call it church planting today - and failed.  Today I’ve found my niche as a remodeler of churches.)  When we’re having a house or other building built, we’re not likely to cry or get angry when the plumbers finish their work and the electricians arrive, or when the electricians finish their work and the finish carpenters arrive. I’m not suggesting there’s no place for grieving over a pastor whom we miss; I am saying (with Paul), that our grief can be tempered by the realization that God is the wise general contractor who moves differing pastor/sub-contractors in and out of His churches because special times in the life of a church call for special gifts. Part of the task of any pastor-search committee is to determine what kind of field-worker/sub-contractor their church needs next.  Has God moved your pastor on to another building site because his work at your church was finished? Can this truth help you to enjoy the ride you’re on at your church?

From Paul’s third metaphor, the church as a temple (3:16-17):

(6) The field/building/temple that we field-hand/sub-contractor/temple priests are working on is holy because it belongs to God and because it is indwelt by the Spirit of God.  Those of us who destroy temples (churches) with our ineptitude or sin will be severely dealt with by God.  No church-destroying  preacher (or board member or generic church member) will get away with his negligence. God will destroy those who destroy His “temples” and He will reward all faithful workers perfectly with their motives (see 4:5) taken into consideration.

I often encourage Christians to “get out of the driver’s seat” of their lives and let God take over. We should all be like the little child who enthusiastically jumps into the car with mom or dad without even needing to know where the car is headed.  Can you trust God enough to relax, roll down the windows, feel the wind in your face and enjoy the ride? Can these six principles from I Corinthians help you to trust the One who is fully in charge of growing His church?  Can you pray the following prayer with the many Christians who have prayed it before you?

“God, you have every right, and my permission, to re-arrange my life and my church, at any time, in order to fulfill Your plan, for Your glory.”

Interim Pastor-Proof Your Church

I love the work that God has led me to do: the work of a redevelopment or strategic interim pastor.  God uses us to help churches get healthier, and that is our joy.  But I also feel, at times, that I’m swatting mosquitoes when I (or somebody) ought to be draining the swamp.  Far too many churches need someone to help them get things turned around after the long-term pastor has moved on.

 

It does not have to be this way.  I don’t want to put too much pressure on long-term pastors – let me know if you think I’m being unfair – but there are some things that long-term pastors can do, so that when it’s time for them to move on, they’re not leaving a mess behind.  Here’s what I mean:

 

1. Become a real, pro-active leader.  In my second pastorate, my one board member – a great guy who meant no insult by his words - said one day in frustration, “What we need around here is some leadership!”  I remember thinking, “I wonder what he means by that?”  Soon I began a “quest” to get good at leadership. It took me a long time, but by the grace of God, I think I’m a pretty good leader today.

 

Leadership is a big subject.  I’m not going to try to make anybody into a leader with this article.  I do want to make a plea for pastors to work at becoming good leaders because most of the interim pastorates we walk into are churches which are in dire need of strong leadership: personal problems have not been addressed, there is no unifying vision and there is no strategic plan for ministry. If God has called you to be a solo or senior pastor, He’s called you to leadership; He will enable you to do it successfully.   I believe that leadership can be learned. While it may not come easily for all of us, we can all become reasonably good at it through hard work.  There are innumerable books to read, classes to take, seminars to attend.  However it works for you to learn a new skill, if you haven’t become a “pretty good” leader, become one now. 

Here are a couple of thoughts just to make sure you know what I’m talking about.

 

* A leader is dissatisfied with the status quo, like Martin Luther nailing ninety-five theses to the church door, or Martin Luther King, Jr. leading a freedom march. Unless your church has a vibrant, powerful ministry, your job is to be dissatisfied.  That’s where leadership begins.

 

* A leader has a vision.  He’s not just grumpy; he’s a grump with a vision. Okay, I know, some of you don’t believe in “the vision thing.”  I think you do, you just don’t know it.  What do you want your church to look like in two years?  If a TV station did a story on your incredible church two or three years from now, what would they be filming and saying? (I bet you can do this, no matter what you’ve said in the past about “vision.”)  I’ve had numerous church members tell me (regarding their church’s leaders), “I don’t know what their vision is, but I’d sure like to know.  We’re all waiting for them to tell us.”

 

* A leader has a plan.  I’m not against “lay” board members coming to meetings with great ideas (offering leadership), but for the most part, they shouldn’t have to.  Their brains are engaged in their own jobs; your job is to have your brain engaged in this one.  Leadership of your church isn’t their job, though they will try to do it if you don’t.  John Kaiser’s great little book, “Winning on Purpose,” says that we win at this game when everybody knows and plays their position:  The congregation’s role is ministry; the staff’s role (lay and professional) is management, the board’s role is governance, the senior pastor’s role is leadership. (Don’t miss Paul Borden’s companion volume, “Direct Hit” and his great illustration of the pastor as the tribal chief up in the top of the trees.)

 

* A leader has priorities. We all mean well, but I’m afraid that Stanley Hauerwas was right when he said that many pastors are “a quivering mass of availability.”  I am, to at least some degree, a shepherd by spiritual gift.  Like most of you, I get strokes from caring for individuals.  I’ve also enjoyed writing Sunday School curricula, involvement in the community, playing in and leading worship bands, writing for church newsletters, fixing broken things in the church building and a lot of other things that I don’t spend much time doing anymore.  The reason is simple: If I’m going to be used by God to significantly change churches, I have to focus on (1) preaching and teaching (2) prayer (3) leadership (4) equipping and (5) “remedial” administration.

 

In my current interim pastorate, we’ve just now radically changed our board meeting agendas so we can work on “the big rocks” (mission, vision, guiding principles, policies, strategy) in every single meeting.  The only way this will be possible is for the whole board to be willing to forgo all kinds of good things we could do together (just like in my own personal ministry) so we can do the best things. 

 

* A leader takes responsibility.  In my long, long-term pastorate (13 years), I was rather frustrated after the first couple of years.  I was committed to our church becoming effective at evangelism, and we weren’t.  I decided to “give it a couple more years.”  Then I decided to give it a couple more years.  Then I decided to give it a couple more years.  I think you get the idea.  When I finally resigned, God had used me to do lots of good ministry there and to change the church in many good ways.  I’m still happy about that.  But we still weren’t effective in evangelism and that was not acceptable to me (most people weren’t bothered by this).  To a certain extent, my resignation was a case of firing myself.  I wasn’t beating up on myself for my “miserable failure,” nor was I blaming anybody else; it just wasn’t acceptable that we weren’t winning the lost.  I took responsibility and resigned and it was one of the best leadership moves I’ve ever made.  “If I can’t get this army moving,” I thought, “maybe somebody else can” (and he did).

 

2. Teach the other players.  Returning to the metaphor from John Kaiser’s “Winning On Purpose,” the senior or solo pastor of the smaller church must function as a player-coach.  While we do our own personal ministry (which we probably love doing) we must also teach the other players - the congregation, the board and the staff – how to play their positions.

 

I wasn’t born yesterday, so yes, I know that there are some “players” who don’t want to learn their positions.  Most commonly, everybody wants to lead. There are staff members who want to lead, board members who want to lead and congregational members who want to lead.

 

For the most part though, I think that the players are willing to play their roles – and play them well – if someone teaches them this pattern and teaches them how to play their positions.  Warning: you may need a fresh start in a new location to be able to assertively (not aggressively) re-train the players.  But don’t write your “team” off as hopeless until you’ve at least tried.

 

Here’s one last reality check on this subject: More than likely, the only person around who can teach the players is you, the solo or senior pastor (with the help of some good books).  You have a lot of teaching (and coaching) to do.  Are you willing to carve the time out of personal ministry to train and coach the players?

 

3. Become enough of an administrator. Most of us don’t like administration/management.  We’d rather be doing just about anything else.  In the larger church, we can hire staff members to do management.  In the extremely demanding role of the solo pastor of the smaller church (or the senior pastor who has only a fun, disorganized youth pastor and a part time secretary), the senior pastor has to be at least somewhat of an administrator and here’s why:

 

To as great an extent as possible, you want to mobilize great people to lead and staff ministries and you want to train them to succeed at what God has called them to do.  Right? So how much do you have to manage?  You have to manage enough so that the great people you’ve mobilized and trained aren’t frustrated.  Are they?  Then “buckle down” and get things organized.  The alternative is to see your best volunteers quitting, or going to other churches, where they can do ministry in an atmosphere that’s not chaotic.

 

4. Become a real grownup.  I don’t mean a “grownup” in the bad sense of somebody who’s no fun, somebody with no sense of humor.   Please don’t become that kind of grownup.  I mean the kind of grownup who has the “emotional intelligence” thing down pat.  Let me be very specific.

 

* No using the pulpit like a psychiatrist’s couch.  If you need help, get it from somebody who’s not going to be shaken by your honesty.  Churches are hurt by pastors who confess their failures overly much in the pulpit, weep over their past hurts, whine about departed church members and take swipes at their own family members (or anybody else, for that matter).  Forget the trendy talk about “being vulnerable.”  Too many shepherds – in the name of being vulnerable or honest – hurt the sheep.

 

* No whining to church members about how you’re being treated by the board or others in your church.  This is so hurtful!  If you need somebody to tell your troubles to, find a fellow pastor or a denominational leader.  Confiding in church members will divide your church.  Do you love your church?  Then don’t divide it.  Solomon wisely gave the baby (I Kings three) to the woman who loved it enough to prefer it be given to the other woman, rather than divided in half.  If you really love your church, you will not do anything to divide it, even if it means leaving it in the hands of some board members you don’t like.  The church members you confide in will find it very hard to be loyal and happy members while you are still there and will likely find it impossible to stay in the church if you should leave. You have gotten them on your side and against the church.  If this is what you want, it sounds suspiciously like malice, not love.

 

* If you say you’re leaving, leave quickly and quietly.  If the board knows you’re “looking,” be discreet and positive until the day you announce your resignation.  Don’t tell the congregation you’re leaving “sometime,” and then leave it ambiguous while waiting to be begged to stay.  Neither is this the time to be taking “shots across the bow” at leaders or others you feel were unkind to you.  Tell them in private and keep your tongue carefully tied in public.  Be a “grownup” as you leave and you will be very happy about it for the rest of your life.

 

5. Leave before you have to. I believe there’s a fine art to pastors knowing when to pack up their books and move on.  Please see the great article at this site by John Herman, “Long Pastorates, An Alternative View.” A “right-length pastorate” according to Herman, means staying as long as you are effective, and no longer.  A denominational leader friend says he took his position hoping to convince pastors to stay longer only to find – to his surprise – that he was seeking to convince some pastors to leave sooner.  He quoted an old army officer friend who said that the good thing about the army moving you around is that it gives you a chance to “learn from your mistakes, cut your losses and get a fresh start.”  A fresh start is a wonderful thing; believe me; I’ve been there.

 

We all know that churches that grow “big and strong” usually do so during the long pastorate of a faithful leader.  It’s easy to conclude from this that we ought to stay a long time or even a lifetime.  Too many pastors have – on the basis of only this much information – decided they will stay in their positions until retirement. This can be a real curse for a church with a pastor whose leadership isn’t working.  Please put the good of the church ahead of your own desire for stability and comfort. If you resign on good terms, you can always return to the area after you’ve retired and be received with honor.  This is so much better than the alternative.

 

Returning to my story of my “firing” of myself, it’s much better to fire yourself than to have somebody else do it.  Returning to the metaphor of the prostitute’s babies, it’s better to have one living, whole, baby than two dead, half-babies.  Unless we’re talking about heresy, staying and fighting is hardly ever honoring to God.

 

While I love what I’m doing, I don’t want to come to your church.  I’d love to be forced back into long-term pastoring because there are no hurting pastor-less churches.  I’m not holding my breath expecting this to happen any time soon, but I pray that you are helped by these words to “interim-pastor-proof” your church.

 

When Good People Do Bad Things, Part Three

(Note: This is the third of three articles on the subject of "When Good People Do Bad Things.") 

A wise individual once said that “Renewing your church is like remodeling your house…”  If you’ve ever remodeled or attempted to remodel a house you can guess what’s coming…  “Renewing your church is like remodeling your house: it will take more time, cost more money, create more stress and make a bigger mess than you could ever have imagined, but in the end, it’s worth it.”  Having done a bit of home remodeling and been deeply involved in the renewing of several churches, I can testify to the truth of this statement.

One of the hard, messy aspects of renewing a church is coming to grips with the bad behavior of good people, including ourselves. Churches aren’t devastated by the Devil alone, he must have assistance from the inside.  Churches can only be left in need of remodeling by way of the bad behavior of, usually, good people.  This is a hard truth to face but we’ve been wrestling with it honestly in this series of articles.  We’ve seen that good people sometimes do bad things because: (1) they are deliberately defiant, (2) they are self-reliant and weak, (3) they are guilty of envy, selfish ambition, rivalry, jealousy or pride, (4) they stoop to cowardice, compromise or worldliness, (5) they are ignorant or immature.  This brings us to a sixth reason why good people sometimes do bad things.

(6) Sometimes good people do bad things because they confuse unity with uniformity.  In one sense of the term, church unity is an unassailable reality:  “…in Christ, we who are many form one body…” (f/Romans 12:5). But to work out that unity in actual practice we must, as the Apostle Paul commanded in Ephesians 4:3, “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” So on the one hand, our unity is absolutely unbreakable; in another sense, it’s as fragile as our feelings on a bad day.

But our unity, which is to be celebrated, embraced and preserved, isn’t uniformity.  The New Testament idea of unity is organic and spiritual and it includes and allows for diversity.  We are one family, but think of how diverse your extended family is.  We are one body, but think of how diverse your body parts are from each other (while sharing the same DNA).  God’s intention has always been to create, in His masterpiece, the Church, something the world tries to create but cannot succeed at producing: diversity within unity; unity within diversity. We are to be all kinds of human beings divided by many things but united spiritually in one body and acting in sacrificial love for each other, for God’s glory.  While we are to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace, we are not commanded to enforce a phony, external, imposed uniformity.  Ironically, our attempts to create unity through uniformity destroy our unity!  Here are three areas in which well-meaning but mistaken Christians do this:

· Some try to create uniformity on moral issues.  Romans 14:1 through 15:7 is the Bible’s most complete text on this subject. The key words are at the beginning and end of the passage:

“Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters.  One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.  The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him…Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.” Romans 14:1-3, 15:7

In between these key verses Paul talks about what we eat, what we drink and the holy days we observe.  Nowhere does he try to bring Christians into uniformity of practice on any of these issues. He doesn’t even tell us his opinions on these subjects.  Always the goal is to bring Christians to unity in spite of their diversity.  If you’re in or have been in a church which has tried to produce uniformity – through restrictive covenants, written or unwritten lists of rules, shaming, etc. - instead of grappling with the timeless principles of this passage for preserving unity, maybe it’s time to “dig in” to this important and neglected passage and “dig out” the God-ordained way of handling our differences.

· Some try to create uniformity on doctrinal issues.  This is not a simple matter because Scripture does emphasize the need for uniformity on the most basic doctrines of the faith.  The challenge we have faced for 2,000 years is knowing which doctrines are “fundamental” to our faith and must be adhered to and which are more peripheral and negotiable.  This is a big subject which evokes strong feelings in many but consider two passages from II Timothy as a guideline for a balanced perspective. 

“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you – guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” II Timothy 1:13,14

By a “pattern of sound teaching,” Paul seems to be alluding to a catechism, a standardized course of instruction which Timothy had heard Paul teach repeatedly which was to be guarded like a treasure and passed on to the next generation without being contaminated.  There are truths which we cannot stray from without endangering the gospel itself.

On the other hand, look at this warning (and there are several similar statements in Paul’s letters to church leaders):

“…Warn them before God against quarrelling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen… Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know that they produce quarrels.” F/II Timothy 2:14, 23

History bears this out; Thorough teaching of the clear and foundational teachings of the faith produces unity; undue attention to our less vital beliefs or even “stupid arguments” (Paul’s term!) damages our unity in our zeal to create doctrinal uniformity.

· Some try to create uniformity on issues of judgment. Good and spiritual people are going to disagree when facing decisions which are not “cut and dried” Biblically or morally.  Many have a hard time accepting this, believing that two spiritually “in tune” people can’t possibly disagree on who to hire, when to fire or any other subject.  This view is the source of the insistence, found in many church constitutions, that church boards can’t decide anything without complete unanimity. 

In my opinion, this position assumes a level of guidance from the Holy Spirit that the Bible does not promise and leads to needless dogmatism and strife.  “God has shown me that we must hire this man now.”  “Oh yeah?  The Spirit’s telling me that we should do no such thing!” I once admonished a fellow church leader to “Please stop acting like you’re Moses, just descended from Mount Sinai, every time you have a proposal.”

Consider the famous disagreement between the Apostle Paul and his friend and former mentor Barnabas over their young co-worker – and cousin to Barnabas - John Mark (Acts 15:36-40).  Barnabas wanted to bring John Mark along on what we call their “second missionary journey.”  Paul, citing Mark’s return “home to Mama” from their first journey, didn’t want to bring the slacker along.  The dispute resulted in Paul and Barnabas going their separate ways. The text says absolutely nothing about which of the two leaders was “right.”  God continued to bless both of them and John Mark ended up reconciled to Paul (Colossians 4:10) and writing the book of the Bible that bears his name.

In my opinion, the “split,” though probably uncomfortable for all, resulted in the multiplication of the work and perhaps, the best possible outcome for Mark: Paul’s rejection of him was an unpleasant but necessary lesson (Paul was the “bad cop”); Barnabas’ acceptance of him was the encouragement to return to God’s service (Barnabas was the “good cop”).

Here’s a final reason why good people sometimes do bad things:

(7) Sometimes good people do bad things because they are reacting to other people doing bad things.  Biblical examples of this are legion: consider David almost murdering the fool Nabal or Peter whacking the ear off of a soldier who was only doing his duty.  In his rashness, Peter was responsible for damage which Jesus had to repair, a scenario repeated every day (Jesus having to repair our damage!).

In our churches this is all too common.  A good person does a bad thing, followed by a reaction from another person doing a bad thing, followed by another…and another…and another. We hear about the blowup and ask, “Whose fault was this?”  “How did this happen?” It’s eerily similar to our marriage problems and playground scuffles: “He hit me first!”

In our sinful humanness, we want to blame the other guy and we’d love to blame one person: the one with the black hat (we’re wearing white ones). But life isn’t this simple.

In accident investigation it’s called convergence. When an airliner crashes and kills hundreds, the investigation usually finds a convergence of causes, not just one villain.  There is almost always human error, converging with bad weather and mechanical malfunction – sometimes something as simple as a burned out “idiot light.” It’s the same way in our churches; there is seldom one culprit who caused the disaster.

The Biblical principle is simple and tough and wonderful.  With the resource of the Holy Spirit – see Galatians 5:22,23 – none of us have to react.  The Christian life as depicted in the New Testament is wondrously proactive; never reactive.  We have the power to do right, no matter what anybody else is doing.  Every command of the New Testament is a promise because of the grace of God and the Spirit of God. We are each responsible for doing right.  I teach “no excuses Christianity,” do “no excuses marriage counseling” and “no excuses church conflict resolution.”  Thank God that He has given you the power to do right instead of excuses for doing wrong!

This means that if Fred and Ethyl and Pastor Smith and Deacon Jones all sin against you, they’re responsible before God for their sin.  But you don’t have to react.  Christian psychologist Dan Greene says that “You can’t control what others do to you or what others do to others, but you can control what you do to others.”

In this series of three articles we’ve considered seven reasons why good people do bad things. That’s a lot of reasons and represents a lot of human failure. It’s not pleasant to face the sheer enormity of our failure is it?  The good news is that every real Christian has been justified – pronounced eternally innocent in God’s court of law – is completely accepted and dearly loved by God.  Christians who “mess up” and help create the convergence which leads to the “crash” of a local church are still loved, still forgiven and in many cases, still grow up to become truly Godly people.

If you are a good person (a Christian) who has done bad things, humbly accept your forgiveness – for without the grace of God we will never do anything but make messes - get up, dust yourself off and get back into worshipping, growing and serving in a church full of forgiven but foolish people. 

When Good People Do Bad Things, Part Two

 

Note: Elsewhere on this website is an article called, “When Good People Do Bad Things.”  The following is part two (to be followed by a part three).

 

I was in the sixth grade and it was my eleventh birthday, November 22, 1963.  As we were ending our physical education class, the next roomful of kids came pouring into the tiny, elementary school gym/lunchroom/auditorium, everyone shouting at the same time about the President of the United States being shot.  It was a long, strange day.  I received a six transistor radio as a gift, but all I could get was news about the assassination; no “Top 40” music at all.  Before falling asleep I actually cried over the “brokenness of the world,” though I wouldn’t learn that term for many years.

 

Nine years later I was a twenty year old, zealous, hungry, new Christian.  I had found out that “bad people do bad things” because of sin and I had also learned that born-again Christians were people who had received the love of God Himself into their hearts and shared that love with each other.  I walked into a real, evangelical Christian church for the first time and absolutely fell in love with the place.  I remember thinking: “Wow!  These people love God, they love the Bible, they love each other. This is what it’s supposed to be like in a real church!”

 

About a year later, now a busy and joyful worker in this congregation, I found myself in a business meeting that “blew my mind.”  Men and women who, I thought, loved their pastor like I did, were standing up and making accusations against this man of God who had become like a second father to me.  Within a few weeks the church had split, right down the middle.  Bad people doing bad things I could understand; good people doing bad things was harder to handle.

 

That was a long time ago.  In the ensuing years I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to know about good people doing bad things to each other.  In the first article in this series we explored three reasons why good people do bad things.  The following are three more.  My prayer is that you are helped in understanding all of us and you are helped in forgiving and reconciling with brothers and sisters who have done wrong.

 

(4) Sometimes good people do bad things out of cowardice, compromise or worldliness.  In Galatians two the Apostle Paul tells a sad little story about his friend, the Apostle Peter.  In the early, early church, almost everyone was a Jewish Christian.  These folks had a hard time adjusting to the idea that Gentiles (non-Jews) could put their faith in Jesus and be justified – pronounced eternally innocent - by God, without coming through the “vestibule” of the Law of Moses.  By the grace of God – see Acts 10 and 11 - Peter was actually one of the first to understand the new way in which God was dealing with mankind. 

 

During a visit to the dynamic, ethnically mixed church at Antioch, Peter – understanding his new freedom from the law - mingled freely with the Gentiles who were coming to Christ.  But when some legalists - Jews who thought that there was no salvation apart from circumcision and law keeping – came from the “mother church” at Jerusalem, Peter, in fear of them, wimped out and compromised by separating himself from the Gentile Christians, sending the whole Antioch church into confusion about the true nature of the gospel!  He virtually was denying the faith with his cowardice.

 

It was about this same time that Paul and his friend Barnabas were sent out by the same church – Antioch in Syria (Acts 13) – to proclaim the gospel and start churches.  With them as their “helper” was a younger man named John Mark, a relative (some say a cousin) of Barnabas.  This was the same man who would later write the Gospel that bears his name.

On the island of Cyprus the threesome immediately ran into some tough, strange, scary, occultic opposition, which Paul met head-on with great courage.  From Cyprus the missionaries sailed to what is now the nation of Turkey and headed north into the highlands of the Roman Province of Pamphylia.  Many scholars believe that they headed inland and up to higher ground because Paul had contracted a disease, possibly malaria, which left him with a permanent vision problem, his “thorn in the flesh” of II Corinthians 12:7.

 

Apparently, Satanic opposition and sickness were not what John Mark had in mind when he had signed-on with the missionaries.  He went home.  All the way home to Jerusalem where it is believed by some that his mother, a “woman of means” owned the house with the “large, upper room” where the Last Supper was held and the church was born.  In other words, to put it bluntly, Mark went home to mama.

 

We could go on and on of course with stories like these, from the Bible and our own experiences.  I could tell you about my cowardice, compromise and worldliness and maybe you could tell me about yours.  My point is that we all do these things at one time or another on our rough and tumble path to spiritual maturity.  Good people – like Peter, Mark and the rest of us - do these things.  We fail to share our faith when we have wonderful opportunities to do so. We marry or divorce for the wrong reasons.  We “go with” the wrong side in church splits. We side against our church’s leaders when they are justly and lovingly disciplining a family member of ours.  We get mad at leaders and change churches because we are admonished in love regarding our sin.  Even we pastors get mad and change churches when we probably shouldn’t.  God in His grace doesn’t let go of us, however.  He works with us (and on us). He forgives, restores and many of us wobbling, wandering saints end up as pillars in churches. Since God doesn’t give up on us, maybe we should be a little slower at giving up on each other.

 

(5)Sometimes good people do bad things because they are ignorant or immature.  The recipients of the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians thought they had a really “cool” church.  They bragged about it.  They had lots of spiritual gifts in their church, with signs and wonders in abundance.  As Greeks, some of them had a lot of highly valued knowledge.  They also would have told you that they had lots of love, thinking that their toleration of church members living in sinful sexual relationships was a sign of their open-minded acceptance of diversity.

 

Paul the Apostle who had started this church (I’m not sure he wanted to admit it) had to sit down and tell them that they were babies in Christ: carnal, immature, proud and loveless.  In their childishness they had compared preacher with preacher, talking about which was the most gifted and knowledgeable, even thinking they were capable of judging which preacher was accomplishing the most for eternity. (As I write I’m blushing to remember the conversations around the coffee shop tables back in my Bible college and seminary days.)

 

Getting back to the Corinthians, in their evaluation of their leaders and teachers they were looking no deeper than the level of the flesh.  They were no more able to discern between the godly man and the ungodly man than the ungodly man himself.

 

To make matters worse, the Corinthians were clearly responsible for their own immaturity.  They had learned the truth without letting it change their lives.  They had sought the gifts of the Spirit but had never submitted to the moment by moment control of the Spirit and the transforming work of the Spirit which would have brought them to maturity.  They were good people (see I Corinthians 1:1-9) doing bad things because of their ignorance and immaturity.

 

The Corinthians are not that much different from the rest of us are they? Thank God if you haven’t succumbed to some of the more blatant types of carnality that characterized the Corinthians – neither have I – but I’ve done plenty of foolish and childish things, some of them while parking in the pastor’s parking space! Just like you and the Corinthians, I have some precious memories and I also have some really embarrassing memories. God is the only real hero of church history and His kingdom marches on in spite of – to paraphrase Martin Luther - “the stumbling service of His saints.”

 

As you shake your head over the behavior of some of your so-called brothers and sisters in Christ, remember what God can do.  Aren’t you glad that God is so forgiving?  Aren’t you amazed at His ability to grow “babes in arms” into truly mature, godly Christians? 

"When Good People Do Bad Things, Part Two"

 

 

Note: Elsewhere on this website is an article called, “When Good People Do Bad Things.”  The following is part two (to be followed by a part three).

 

I was in the sixth grade and it was my eleventh birthday, November 22, 1963.  As we were ending our physical education class, the next roomful of kids came pouring into the tiny, elementary school gym/lunchroom/auditorium, everyone shouting at the same time about the President of the United States being shot.  It was a long, strange day.  I received a six transistor radio as a gift, but all I could get was news about the assassination; no “Top 40” music at all.  Before falling asleep I actually cried over the “brokenness of the world,” though I wouldn’t learn that term for many years.

 

Nine years later I was a twenty year old, zealous, hungry, new Christian.  I had found out that “bad people do bad things” because of sin and I had also learned that born-again Christians were people who had received the love of God Himself into their hearts and shared that love with each other.  I walked into a real, evangelical Christian church for the first time and absolutely fell in love with the place.  I remember thinking: “Wow!  These people love God, they love the Bible, they love each other. This is what it’s supposed to be like in a real church!”

 

About a year later, now a busy and joyful worker in this congregation, I found myself in a business meeting that “blew my mind.”  Men and women who, I thought, loved their pastor like I did, were standing up and making accusations against this man of God who had become like a second father to me.  Within a few weeks the church had split, right down the middle.  Bad people doing bad things I could understand; good people doing bad things was harder to handle.

 

That was a long time ago.  In the ensuing years I’ve learned more than I ever wanted to know about good people doing bad things to each other.  In the first article in this series we explored three reasons why good people do bad things.  The following are three more.  My prayer is that you are helped in understanding all of us and you are helped in forgiving and reconciling with brothers and sisters who have done wrong.

 

4. Sometimes good people do bad things out of cowardice, compromise or worldliness.  In Galatians two the Apostle Paul tells a sad little story about his friend, the Apostle Peter.  In the early, early church, almost everyone was a Jewish Christian.  These folks had a hard time adjusting to the idea that Gentiles (non-Jews) could put their faith in Jesus and be justified – pronounced eternally innocent - by God, without coming through the “vestibule” of the Law of Moses.  By the grace of God – see Acts 10 and 11 - Peter was actually one of the first to understand the new way in which God was dealing with mankind. 

 

During a visit to the dynamic, ethnically mixed church at Antioch, Peter – understanding his new freedom from the law - mingled freely with the Gentiles who were coming to Christ.  But when some legalists - Jews who thought that there was no salvation apart from circumcision and law keeping – came from the “mother church” at Jerusalem, Peter, in fear of them, wimped out and compromised by separating himself from the Gentile Christians, sending the whole Antioch church into confusion about the true nature of the gospel!  He virtually was denying the faith with his cowardice.

 

It was about this same time that Paul and his friend Barnabas were sent out by the same church – Antioch in Syria (Acts 13) – to proclaim the gospel and start churches.  With them as their “helper” was a younger man named John Mark, a relative (some say a cousin) of Barnabas.  This was the same man who would later write the Gospel that bears his name.

On the island of Cyprus the threesome immediately ran into some tough, strange, scary, occultic opposition, which Paul met head-on with great courage.  From Cyprus the missionaries sailed to what is now the nation of Turkey and headed north into the highlands of the Roman Province of Pamphylia.  Many scholars believe that they headed inland and up to higher ground because Paul had contracted a disease, possibly malaria, which left him with a permanent vision problem, his “thorn in the flesh” of II Corinthians 12:7.

 

Apparently, Satanic opposition and sickness were not what John Mark had in mind when he had signed-on with the missionaries.  He went home.  All the way home to Jerusalem where it is believed by some that his mother, a “woman of means” owned the house with the “large, upper room” where the Last Supper was held and the church was born.  In other words, to put it bluntly, Mark went home to mama.

 

We could go on and on of course with stories like these, from the Bible and our own experiences.  I could tell you about my cowardice, compromise and worldliness and maybe you could tell me about yours.  My point is that we all do these things at one time or another on our rough and tumble path to spiritual maturity.  Good people – like Peter, Mark and the rest of us - do these things.  We fail to share our faith when we have wonderful opportunities to do so. We marry or divorce for the wrong reasons.  We “go with” the wrong side in church splits. We side against our church’s leaders when they are justly and lovingly disciplining a family member of ours.  We get mad at leaders and change churches because we are admonished in love regarding our sin.  Even we pastors get mad and change churches when we probably shouldn’t.  God in His grace doesn’t let go of us, however.  He works with us (and on us). He forgives, restores and many of us wobbling, wandering saints end up as pillars in churches. Since God doesn’t give up on us, maybe we should be a little slower at giving up on each other.

 

5. Sometimes good people do bad things because they are ignorant or immature.  The recipients of the first Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians thought they had a really “cool” church.  They bragged about it.  They had lots of spiritual gifts in their church, with signs and wonders in abundance.  As Greeks, some of them had a lot of highly valued knowledge.  They also would have told you that they had lots of love, thinking that their toleration of church members living in sinful sexual relationships was a sign of their open-minded acceptance of diversity.

 

Paul the Apostle who had started this church (I’m not sure he wanted to admit it) had to sit down and tell them that they were babies in Christ: carnal, immature, proud and loveless.  In their childishness they had compared preacher with preacher, talking about which was the most gifted and knowledgeable, even thinking they were capable of judging which preacher was accomplishing the most for eternity. (As I write I’m blushing to remember the conversations around the coffee shop tables back in my Bible college and seminary days.)

 

Getting back to the Corinthians, in their evaluation of their leaders and teachers they were looking no deeper than the level of the flesh.  They were no more able to discern between the godly man and the ungodly man than the ungodly man himself.

 

To make matters worse, the Corinthians were clearly responsible for their own immaturity.  They had learned the truth without letting it change their lives.  They had sought the gifts of the Spirit but had never submitted to the moment by moment control of the Spirit and the transforming work of the Spirit which would have brought them to maturity.  They were good people (see I Corinthians 1:1-9) doing bad things because of their ignorance and immaturity.

 

The Corinthians are not that much different from the rest of us are they? Thank God if you haven’t succumbed to some of the more blatant types of carnality that characterized the Corinthians – neither have I – but I’ve done plenty of foolish and childish things, some of them while parking in the pastor’s parking space! Just like you and the Corinthians, I have some precious memories and I also have some really embarrassing memories. God is the only real hero of church history and His kingdom marches on in spite of – to paraphrase Martin Luther - “the stumbling service of His saints.”

 

As you shake your head over the behavior of some of your so-called brothers and sisters in Christ, remember what God can do.  Aren’t you glad that God is so forgiving?  Aren’t you amazed at His ability to grow “babes in arms” into truly mature, godly Christians? 

When Good People Do Bad Things

Over the past few years, several television networks have broadcast reality shows with names like, “When good pets go bad,” “When animals attack,” or “When nice dogs bite.”  The common denominator in these shows is the perplexing problem of seeing normally docile, loveable animals turn mean and ugly. 

 

In my work as a redevelopment pastor I’ve encountered a somewhat similar situation in churches: troubled, perplexed, confused, discouraged Christians who have witnessed some really disturbing behavior from brothers and sisters whom they had thought were really good people.  I’ve seen believers quit serving, quit growing or even “quit the church” altogether because of their confusion and discouragement.  I’m also happy to say that I’ve seen believers and churches come to grips with the devastation they’ve experienced and move onward and upward for God’s glory.   I’ve found that understanding why good people do bad things can really help.  The following are three reasons. More will follow in subsequent articles:

 

(1) Sometimes good people do bad things because they are deliberately defiant.  In the book of I Corinthians we find the apostle Paul writing to a church that was full of good people (see 1:2-9), some of whom were doing very bad things.  The worst thing he mentioned was in chapter five verse one, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.” That this man was a bona-fide part of the Corinthian church is evident from the fact that Paul commands in verse two that he be “put out of your fellowship” and in verse thirteen, “Expel the wicked man from among you.”

 

This begs the question of whether or not this man actually was “a good person.” In the New Testament a “good person” is one who has been regenerated (or born again) and made (II Corinthians 5:21) “the righteousness of God.” In I Corinthians chapter six, verses nine through eleven, Paul implies that, should this man not repent of what he was doing, he will be demonstrating that he was not a real, genuine, justified believer, which would make him a bad person doing bad things, not a good person doing bad things.

 

But it is possible that he was a real believer because while the believer is justified (pronounced eternally innocent in God’s court of law) and regenerated (made into a new person at the very center of his being), he is still saddled with the power of sin within him and therefore capable of doing some really bad things. I’m sorry to say that a Christian who is not filled with, empowered by, walking in, or in step with the Spirit (I think all these terms mean the same thing) is capable of just about anything that the unbeliever is capable of, though not on an ongoing basis.

 

Our response to the deliberately defiant believer (or professing believer) should begin with humility, because however “spiritual” we may be, look or feel on a good day, we are all capable of doing vile things.  This truth ought to drive us to our knees exclaiming “it could have been me,” where we re-present our bodies to God, because we so desperately need the Spirit of God to control and empower us.

 

Our response should also be one of outrage – Paul “breathes” it in I Corinthians five and six – because our professing brother has brought disgrace to the name of Christ.  Paraphrasing J.I. Packer, God is jealous for His name so we must be zealous for His name. It is right, not self-righteous, for us to be upset about anything that gives a “black eye” to the name of Christ.

 

Finally, our response toward the deliberately defiant professing brother should be one of compassionate action.  Sooner or later, this person is going to suffer for his sin and we are no more worthy of God’s love than he is.  Following the command of Galatians six, verse one, we need to join other caring Christians and “get in the face” of this person to try to rescue him from his sin.  What we must not be is weak, passive or defeatist in the face of such sin.  The spirit of the “church discipline” found in the Bible demands that we confront destructive behavior in the church with the same “calm, assertive” behavior with which Cesar Milan (the Dog Whisperer) confronts the most aggressive canine: “No dog needs to be ‘put down;’ no dog is too much for me to handle; any dog can be rehabilitated.” If Cesar will put himself at risk to “redeem” dogs, surely we must put ourselves at risk for the sake of people!  Here’s a second reason why good people do bad things:

 

(2) Sometimes good people do bad things because they are self-reliant and weak.  This may sound surprising.  You would expect me to write “self-reliant and strong.”  But the Christian is a creature who is weak when he is self-reliant and strong when he has a desperate dependence upon God. As the proverb puts it “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18).  Wisdom dictates that we live in the spirit of the great old hymns, “I need thee every hour” and “Spirit of God, descend upon my heart.” 

 

On a plaque in a cabin where I enjoy monthly retreat days is a great prayer: “Dear Lord, So far today I’ve done alright.  I haven’t gossiped, lost my temper, been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over-indulgent.  I’m thankful for that.  But in a few minutes God, I’m going to get out of bed. And from then on, I’m going to need a lot more help.  Amen.” It’s funny, but it’s also theologically “right on.”

 

The brother or sister I’m describing now is not deliberately defiant of God’s authority like our friend above (1); this person is deceived by his own heart (Jeremiah 17:9), means well and does wrong, like Peter on the night of Jesus’ arrest and trials, denying Jesus three times, or like Paul’s description in Romans seven of himself at his worst, doing the very things he abhors. 

 

If we can forgive Peter and Paul for their failures – and most of us are pretty good at forgiving ourselves for our own – we can and must forgive the brother or sister (or even the pastor) in our church, who in a time of foolish, self-reliance, did or said something really stupid.

 

Since I’ve raised the subject, let me be frank about pastors.  We are human.  We ought to be the most godly of men but this is not always the case.  Pastors can get seriously depressed.  Pastors can get sinfully entrenched in power struggles and “slide into” sinful, reactive behaviors while thinking they’re “on the battlefield for the Lord.”  I know.  I’ve been there.  I wish I could go back and get a “do-over” on a resignation I did.  While totally convinced that I was doing it well, I can see now that in my “weak, self-reliance” I hurt some people with some foolish and unnecessary words. 

 

Ten years ago I led a completely independent church to join a fellowship of churches, in part, because I believe that pastors can get into some pretty sinful behavior without even knowing it.  Accountability to a church board isn’t always enough.  Sometimes we need a firm and loving voice from a church leader from outside our church to pull us back from the brink of disastrously carnal behavior.

 

Here’s a third reason why good people do bad things:

(3) Sometimes good people do bad things because of envy, selfish ambition, rivalry, jealousy or pride.  I find this truth to be rather shocking.  It’s an ugly truth to face.  As the Apostle Paul writes to the Christians at Philippi, he speaks about people in Rome, probably pastors, who are preaching Christ with some of the worst possible motives: envy, rivalry, selfish ambition and even the malicious desire to hurt Paul while he was in chains.  I think this means that some of these men were “ramping up” their ministries with Paul in jail, with the idea that they could take over the position of influence he had held.  Others may have hoped that Paul’s case would turn out worse for him because of the increased attention that was being paid to these “ladder climbing” preachers in Rome.

 

Here’s the awful truth as I’ve seen it: The best of us are capable of doing the best of all possible deeds, with the worst possible motives.  As if that isn’t bad enough, the best of us are also capable of doing the worst of all possible deeds, with the worst possible motives. 

 

From chapter two, verses three and four of the same letter, the Apostle’s pleas reveal more evil motives with which good people can take action, in the church: “selfish ambition” (the joy of being “a big fish in a small pond”), “vain conceit” (a desire to show off) and looking “only to your own interests” (“this is my Sunday School room” or “this is my slice of the budget”).

 

Even though he is writing to a vibrant church of which he has the fondest memories (1:3-8), Paul returns to the subject of bad behavior among the Philippians for a third time in chapter four, verses one through three.  Two extraordinary ladies in this church, fellow workers with Paul who had “contended at his side” in the work of the gospel were “on the outs” with each other. No issue is mentioned by Paul.  No sin committed by either of them is referenced.  Neither is a heretic.  It looks like a simple case of rivalry, an old-fashioned ugly, petty, power struggle. Somebody Paul calls his “loyal yokefellow” is urged to help these - apparently in some ways great - ladies to work it out. In contemporary language, Paul calls for mediation and pleads for all involved to demonstrate to all the sweet-reasonableness (a more literal translation of the word “gentleness” in verse five) of Christ.

 

Where have you seen yourself in this article?  If there are behaviors you need to repent of you can do so with joy, knowing that God will joyfully forgive, cleanse and grant you a fresh start.  Perhaps God wants you to respond to defiant, self-reliant (and weak) or carnal brothers and sisters around you with more humility.  Perhaps it’s time to forgive.  Perhaps God is nudging you to confront a brother in the loving spirit of Galatians six, verse one.  Aren’t you glad that God has forgiven you?  Aren’t you glad that He has promised the grace which turns every command of the New Testament into a promise?  Are you glad that, in His way and time, He can turn misbehaving Christians into real pillars in their churches

Joy In The Journey

(Unexpected fringe benefits for the interim pastor or “Guys, have your wife read this!”)

 

“Ohhhhh yukkkkk!  That sounds awful!  That’s the last thing I’d want to do!  Oh man, you can have that ministry!”  Those words were the actual reaction of a fellow pastor upon hearing the basics of my strategic interim pastor ministry description: “I move around the country and go to troubled churches that don’t have pastors, helping them change during difficult times.”

 

I’m always kind of shocked to get this kind of response, even though I’ve experienced it many times.  I love my work. It’s a joy.  God has used us far more powerfully than we had imagined He would when we began this adventure six years ago.  I suppose most pastors don’t really have any need to have their misconception corrected; the more pastors who think interim pastoring is awful, the easier it will remain for those of us who do it to stay busy.  But for those of you who are genuinely considering this way of being a pastor or who are sensing a call of God to “hit the interim trail,” I want to offer some perspective. 

Yes, there are some difficult things about being a strategic interim pastor: saying goodbye again and again, learning dozens (or hundreds) of new names, the physical task of moving most or all of your earthly possessions, the harder task (I think) of transferring your “infrastructure” (my term for changing addresses, utilities, banks, internet connections, doctors, dentists, automobile licenses, etc.), trying to lead troubled, grieving, or divided churches through a process of change, seeking to overcome the disrespect with which some greet the interim pastor, etc.  Of course these challenges await the interim pastor, over and over again.  They are the warp and woof of the job description. They require everything we have along with total dependence upon God, again and again.  When your current congregation has been revived and refreshed and the saints have learned how to work out their difficulties with grace, it’s time to move on to the next mess!

You probably know all that already.  What you may not be aware of are the fringe benefits.  These were mostly surprises for me.  I’ve learned that God loves to surprise us with such delights and I’ve also learned to enjoy the surprises more than the benefits I’d counted on.  So here are some of the unexpected blessings we’ve received along the way:

 

* Incredible people.  Each interim pastorate has given us the privilege of meeting some of God’s “choice” servants: saintly saints, colorful characters (inside and outside of the church), people who, for some reason, “adopt us” and love us far beyond what we deserve.  We have experienced lavish hospitality, heard amazing salvation testimonies and powerful stories of God’s grace in the tough lives of now-tender people.  For some reason, some of God’s most delightful children think of us as “missionaries who’ve sacrificed a lot” – though we don’t see it that way at all.  In every town we get to know a few people who become friends for life.  We are blessed and changed by every one of them.

* A post-graduate education.  I don’t mean any disrespect for long-term pastoring; I learned a lot in that role as well.  But there’s something about the ever-changing landscape of interim pastoring that intensifies the transformational experience of being a pastor.  You can’t get stale doing this.  You are challenged constantly by diverse individuals, doctrines, sub-cultures and problems.  Every town is different and every church is different.  In each town I meet pastor colleagues, church board members and some of those characters I mentioned above, who introduce me to new authors, new music and new methods that enrich my life. Each church is an intense new post-graduate course.

* Sights worth seeing. Each stop along our winding trail has enabled us to enjoy a cornucopia of attractions and wonders we would never have seen had we “stayed home.” We believe in taking full advantage of our days off: we leave the house for the whole day and try to go see something we haven’t seen before.  Our time in Benson, Arizona enabled us to see: free rodeos, the sights, sounds and tastes of Tucson, multiple mountain ranges, Tombstone and Bisbee, the Chiricahua National Monument.  Living in Kingman, Arizona allowed us to get to the Grand Canyon twice, the Hoover Dam (many times), mining ghost towns and more.  Hastings, Minnesota put us in proximity to “The Great River Road” up and down both sides of the Mississippi and the museums, parks and restaurants of the Twin Cities.  Here in Waushara County, Wisconsin, we’re situated on a beautiful little lake in a pine woods full of deer.  We’re in the “Christmas Tree Capital of the World” and our rented house has four boats.  I could go on and on but I bet you get the picture.

* Fresh starts.  Before I resigned from my long, long-term pastorate and began interim pastoring, I was encouraged with an observation I heard regarding the military: “A benefit of being in the army is that when you get re-assigned it gives you the chance to cut your losses, learn from your mistakes and get a fresh start.”  Most of us know that most churches need long pastorates from godly, committed, long-term pastors.  But there’s also a place for those of us whose mission is short-term (in the metaphor of I Corinthians 3:10-15 we would be remodelers) and we have the blessing of getting multiple fresh starts.  This allows “finishers” like me – those who like to finish a task as opposed to “processors” who don’t care whether they complete a task or not – to finish the interim process, and in doing it again and again, get better and better at it.

 

* Finally, I have to say a word about flexibility.  By temperament I know I could easily get set it my ways.  I’m reaching the age where this is a greater and greater temptation.  The type of ministry I’m doing simply won’t allow for inflexibility.  I (“we,” actually) have to flex – or break and I appreciate the challenge.

 

Is this a hard ministry?  In some respects, yes, of course.  But any kind of pastoring (I concluded a few years ago) is hard.  And as with any kind of pastoral ministry, there is joy in the journey; there are fringe benefits and delightful surprises from our delightful God.