Remove the pastor to allow the church to continue? Economically, the congregation just can’t afford a pastor anymore… I’m hearing this a lot as of late. I remember James Glasse writing in “Put it together in the Parish” that even the tinyest of congregations should be able to hire a full time pastor to serve the community, ideally in any number of outreach/experimental ministries. Only later on, after the congregation had grown, should a building be considered. While James Glasse book was written 45 years ago, when 10 tithing families could make such happen, today it would take more, yet, such is still well within the purview of a small congregation.

The root cause in most cases is a failure to be missional. Ie. the congregation is likely looking at the building and grounds, and ministry to themselves, rather than to the community, as far as providing for the church to continue. Rather than removing the pastor, should it not make more sense to see off the church assets, keep the pastor, and focus on community and outreach? A building a church does not make.

Of course, the problem is, folks become attached to the building, and its history. Even more so, how many would be outraged, if the church that bought the building held vastly different doctrinal beliefs? Yet, where does Jesus stand in all this? Where do we pick up our cross in this?

Along the same thought process, one might be concerned about a pastor put in that situation… no doubt there will be many nights of second guessing. What could he have done differently? Were there other solutions? Why was the congregation so inreach focused? What about the huge personal investment with the congregation? Did he have no impact? The thing is, congregations can be pretty fickle, and weird… The big thing is, where God’s word is preached, it does not return void. He may never see the results, but for sure, he made an impact. Scriptural words yes, but it doesn’t help with the heartache and second guessing of now.

I read over at Heart of a Pastor last week where he talks about the shifts involved in becoming a Missional Congregation based on a book he is reading. It seems many of the issues in churches removing the pastor are very much in the maintenance domain.

FROM:                               TO:
Maintenance                  Mission
Membership                   Discipleship
Pastor-centered           Lay-empowered
Chaplaincy (Self)         Hospitality (Others)
Focus on ourselves     Focus on the world
Settled                              Sent

My guess is, such issues develop subtlely. Perhaps when a pastor is in one place for too long a period of time? Its the old Adam’s desire to shift more and more of the burden onto the pastor, especially over time. Its the old Adam that wants his own served first. Its the old Adam that wants comfort, familiarity, and safety.A devoted pastor will do just about anything for his congregation within the bounds of scripture. He is doing his best, but he may be doing them harm, albeit totally unaware. Left unchecked for too long, years of inreach eventually will take a toll, such that all resources end up going to maintenance and sustaining efforts, rather than mission…. And then a new pastor is sent in. In short order, he realizes to fix such is going to be an intense uphill battle, and its one he may not be able to win. He can pour his heart into the congregation, only to find out at some point, he is no longer affordable, and is shown the door.

So the solution??? Nip it in the bud… I really liked what Heart of a Pastor had to say.

Are we a missional congregation or are we satisfied with the status quo?  Are we inward focused or outward focused?  Or consider this question:  If this congregation ceased to exist, would the community miss us?

I think if congregations periodically reviewed such questions, they are well on the way towards predicting problems, and heading them off at the pass. As far as congregations that are already embedded in inreach, such should serve as a wakeup call.

Granted, especially in todays climate, there are going to be events well outside the churches domain which can upset the apple cart. Ie, a factory town, should it experience massive upheaval is going to be in trouble. They may well find they end up having to move from missional to maintenance  in no time at all, especially if the town becomes 70% ghost town in a short period of time. The key I think is to keep thinking missional, and be willing to make the hard decisions early, and go forward, rather than waiting until the decision becomes a forced one later on. The other key, is always be running scenarios… how can we remain missional, if something majorly bad happens, even during the times of great church growth.

Filed under : Ecclesiology

1 Comment »

Dwight, over at Center for Renewal had a cool entry on the coffeehouse phenomena, where he noted the activity, and wished for the same at Maundy Thursday services. It got me thinking quite a bit, and rather than hog his comments, here goes a few thoughts.

The allure of the coffee house.

What the coffee house provides beyond coffee and free wifi is the following:

• A calm, and reflective environment, ideal for creative work.

• A sense of social connectivity, in an ultra non-threatening environment. No interaction is assumed, but casual interaction may occur. This human desire for connectedness, but not interaction per se is fascinating.

• Overtime, relationships may or may not build. Being that’s not really a primary goal, coffeehouses foster a very organic relationship building process. Its vastly different than the traditional restaurant that has a coffee clique crowd so to speak. I don’t know whether this is intentional by design, but it might be. Ie, the tables for 2-4, the sofas, comfy chairs, free wifi, etc, encourage folks to linger and as such purchase more $5 coffees. A restaurant on the other hand, wants to get people in and out, and at $0.50 for coffee it makes sense. (not a coffee drinker so unsure on prices, but do cherish the coffee house environment for work and meetings)

• There is much collective wisdom. If one is bold enough to ask, many will step in to help, but its often facilitated more so by location tools like brightkite/twitter than 3d. Ie, I will jump in to help anyone on twitter, offer opinions, comments, etc. I might do so in 3d, but if not directly asked, I wont.

The church is sort of there, but not quite:

• The church has collective wisdom, but few will ask.

• The church has the capability of organic relationship building, but often its forced, or worse clique driven.

• The church has a problem with the threatening aspect. Ie how many of us would pull up to an unknown church and go and crash them? (when I traveled a lot, I did this, and its cool, but its a seemingly bold thing to do, and failure is common, ie doors locked, no one around). Imagine what would happen, if churches opened their doors, physically, as well as spiritually?

• The church often forces interaction, rather than a passive; ok if you do, fine if you dont, approach at the coffee house.

• Many sanctuaries are ideal for contemplation. Back in my CCM days, egads, the amount of writing, contemplation, and I must admit naps also  occurred in the upper balcony in churches all across the US. The thing is… it would sort of be odd, to grab a laptop and hang out in the upper balcony, even if it had free wifi, also the nature of a sanctuary doesnt align itself with collaboration either.  As a traveling musician, despite a janitor, or pastor being surprised to see one or more of us sleeping in a balcony pew, knowing our travel schedule, it was seemed to be acceptable to them, albeit likely a bit weird.

• Fellowship halls, are often seriously lacking in environment, ie they foster eating together, not so much socializing. In many cases they are pretty sterile, and the existence of sofas, reading chairs, or tables for 2 or 3 is exceedingly rare.

Filed under : Ecclesiology

2 Comments »

This is  a response to Pastor Bryans blog where he talks about the negatives of church shopping, namely tradition, beliefs, style, and a lack of diversity. I’ll focus on tradition and diversity.

Tradition creates a feeling of comfort, which in and of itself is fine, but it can also lead to complacency. If one attends church A, because the primary reason is tradition, ie what one’s family has always done for generations, that can lead  to trouble. I look back to my time in Belfast many years ago. Too many times folks said they were protestant or Catholic, because their grandparents were, the theological differences between faiths played a much smaller role than tradition and politics, some did not believe at all, but still used the faith labels. It was a sad deal for sure.

Granted, if one can present Christian witness as to why one attends a church, and include family tradition, its super great. However, one should also be aware of the dangers for those who cannot present a witness of their faith. In many ways, I think upending the generational construct for the most part is a positive thing, as it may lead to further questioning and a deepening of ones faith. If the family church is on the mark, folks will return after a period of time.

As far as the lack of diversity due to church shopping being negative, I wholeheartedly agree. Often times the resulting lack of diversity from transient birds of a feather flocking together makes outreach to the community difficult as cliques began to form. Also too much homogeneity can lead to problems in discipleship. There is less challenge and less conviction outside the scope of a very narrow socio-demographic arena. Otoh, one could also attribute the potential for this to occur in a generationally focused church, unless it has a real heart for outreach and evangelism.

Years back, I remember our adult Sunday school class, a elementary teacher, a truck driver, a janitor, a college professor, and an engineer. It was cool to have such diversity and to learn from one another. And yet, when folks church shop, they often times do not seek out diversity, instead they wish to find like minded people.

Filed under : Ecclesiology

0 Comment »

The reverse seems to be the case more often than not, at least visibly so… but i wonder how many ex-pastors are out there who could serve, but one thing or another is holding them back. A friend bugged me the other day. He used to be a worship pastor at a northern metorpolitan non-denom megachurch, and through a series of events, now is located in a very different demographic. and is finding it hard to get back in the saddle again. Even apart from pastoring, just participating in a community of faith is a challenge at this time. Thus I got thinking about barriers to rentry for those who once were, but are no longer connected. I’m looking at this more from a non-denom pov, as Lutheran ecclesiastical heirarchy, whether it be the ELCA roster list, or the LCMS districts, make re-entry a more formal type thing, which in many ways has fewer barriers to some extent… although making the first steps to re-entry are likely similiar. BY the same token, I think the barrier issues can also apply to service in general, irrespective of ordination or not.

• Jesus sent out the disciples with nothing, yet today, how many feel they need to have a car and a well paying tentmaker job to pastor? Certainly, both make things easier by far… ie midnight hospital calls dont lend themselves to public transit, or even bugging a church member, but workarounds can be procured. Giving to the poor, when one is poorer than those requesting help is problematic, but a group of faith can provide a resource pool, other than the pastors pocket.
• Jesus said to let the dead bury their own, ie when he called, we are to jump, not spend years getting our personal life in order. Otoh, the call is scary enough on its own, much more so, if ones personal ducks are not in order. Granted the admonitions from Timothy should be looked at, as far as the characteristics of a leader go… but also keep in mind, the disciples did not exactly lead noble lives before they met Jesus. Thus it would be exceedingly reasonable to assume that much past baggage ended up coming along for the ride. Prior reputations, just as Paul’s prior life as Saul no doubt did raise concern amongst those he ministered too, yet God called them. There is an element of power through frality that seems to ripple through scripture.
• Familiarity may also be a barrier. Paul talks about being all things to all people… that will push anyone outside of their comfort zone and then some. Its easy to want the familiarity of a previous call, or at least some semblence of commonality, from a human point of view… but that makes the call safe, perhaps too safe, and thus Paul talking about being all things to all in service to the kingdom. Familiarity can range from location, to worship style, to demographics, and even to theology in some cases. In the ELCA we have everything from high church liturgical conservatism, or the rather far out there and liberal herchurch.org. In non-denoms, the spread is likely as wide, if not wider.
• There is also an issue of confidence, and perhaps this is the biggest deal. Once one falls off the horse, if one is slow to get back on , confidence can take a real header. I just about bought the farm some 20+ years ago in an airplane… but my boss had me back up in the air in under 24 hours. It took a year plus to get over the nightmare aspects, but I had zero trepidation about entering the cockpit, even from day one. I think if one leaves a call for any number of reasons, without a game plan in place to pick up the mantle again, confidence can take a real header… and then things can spiral down pretty fast, and the lack of confidence likely results in even more barriers being put up.

The issue then becomes how to get off center, and get rolling again. And perhaps the biggest part of that is making the first step. Fear do to any or all of the above barriers can serve to paralyze. Selective procrastination due to a lack of confidence/fear can do the same. Just as analysis paralysis can come back to bite. I think the key may be to set a goal of returning to service, with many tiny steps especially at the beginning. Something as simple and unthreatening to list all the potential churches in the area is reasonably easy to go. The next step being getting on the horn, and bugging a sr pastor a day for a bit. From there church visits, and then perhaps some level of involvement in a church or two. At that point, hopefully the barriers are significantly reduced, such that one can hear the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, and the goal goes from a man driven one to a spirit led version. The big picture seems like a lot… 20 minutes on google isnt. Think small, and let God lead to the big things.

Filed under : Ecclesiology

1 Comment »

I received an Amazon gift cert last year, and have been waiting for the right book to use it with. Normally, I pick up used narrow market theology texts for pennies on the dollar, but the WIld Goose Chase sure looks to be something well worth buying new, especially with a few other things going on.

In the past couple weeks, there has been a real mass of book reviews on the Wild Goose Chase, an amazing example of viral promotion, which I will share with author friends. Having read close to 20 reviews, I had a pretty good feel that this book would be good. Then add in the free chapter available, and the decision was made.

One super cool review was on MMI, what I found especially cool was the discussion on the theology of the text. Some very good comments were made, both pro and con… Its not a hard core theological text, and some liberties with scriptural interpreation were made, at least as alleged by one commentator, and the resulting discussion proved very fruitful. Not only as concerns the text, but also Biblical interpretation.

Yet another factor was Fr Keefe’s homily where he talked about Jesus sending out the 12, and when a call is presented, how we should respond. It tied in very much to “no longer walking away when God opens the door”, ie, when the door is opened, God will provide. The waiting game until everything is they way “we want” is not how God works, and that He provides. That really resonanted with Mark Batterson’s description of the cages we put ourselved in.

In addition, the books discussion of being dangerous for Christ was pretty applicable. Prior to my resignation, falling into a status quo modus operandi was always a concern. Stepping out, and starting online interactive ministry, is scary. Opening up small groups for recovery over a range of non-mainstream topics takes me out of my comfort zone as well. Yet God doesn’t call us to a place of safety and status quo, but to reach out to to the world. It is going to be in an interesting time for sure.

Lastly, one of the super cool things I saw in the blog carnival reviews, was that the books were always passed on to others. I actually have a fellow in mind, and if he has not yet read this… he will be getting it next. If he has, I’ll run a blog comment contest such as others have done.

Filed under : Christian Media, Ecclesiology

0 Comment »

In the past week or two, some pretty visible inidividuals have fallen from grace. I wont go into what the issues are, or who they were, as thats really a secondary concern. A bigger issue I think is that the tendency to tie in the message with the messenger… When such happens, the message gets compromised in a huge way, and secondly, it elevates leaders to a spot where they ought not to be.

First, the message, if aligned with the scriptures will stand on its own. It does not need a dynamic leader, a cool presentation, cool music etc. Certainly all of those things can be very helpful, but they really are secondary. The compromised message occurs, not by the message in and of itself, but by diminishing its relevance based upon the messengers actions.  There is a tendency to do the toss the baby out with the bathwater deal, if the messenger hoses up, and all messengers sooner or later are going to hose up. Some obviously much more than others. The message however can and should stand on its own, provided of course that it is backed with scripture.

This errant dependency has a very long history associated with it, going all the way back to Moses, and yet God used him. Saul persecuted Christians, yet God chose him to reach out… Imagine the trepidation when Paul came to preach, as his reputation no doubt long preceded him. Yet, it is God’s word which was presented,it can and does stand alone.  I think the message tie in with the messenger is human nature, likely going back to the whole original sin deal. In other words, pretty much anything which can be used to diminish God’s word will be used by the enemy. In this case though, its the recievers of the word who share the responsibility of proper discernment. Both in verifying the message does align with scripture, but also that if it does, it is of God, and the messengers actions or lack there of should have no effect on the message.

The second issue, is the proverbial sphere of perfection that seems to propagate leadership, putting them in spots where they ought not to be. A number of things are wrong with such a scenario, ranging from pride, to overconfidence in righteousness,   to the inability of one another to bear one anothers burdens,  to sheeple, who do not question and verify  the message to see whether it is true, and what it has to say.

None of this is meant to diminish Pauls admonitions to Timothy as concerns a leader. Those are all things to strive for, and errors in such are a very serious matter indeed. Yet this issue also transcends way beyond the leader to the average Joe, and that average Joe guy best be prepared to take on responsibility, and let the Holy Spirit guide him, rather than putting a ton of his trust in a fallable leader. Non of us our righteous, all of us fall short, but God is there. We need to base our faith upon His word, not upon some leader guy, no matter how eloguent, dynamic, or righteous, as a fall at some point is going to occur, and if that shakes our foundations… then maybe the leader guy didnt go such a great job afterall. Not so much his falling from grace, but from not teaching the responsibiliy of discernment and listening to the Holy Spirit. And that also applies to those new in faith… stumbling by message messenger errancy is one thing, stumbling via  hosed up or totally lacking discipleship is much worse. And for those very new in the faith, this is where the community must take on a role… discipleship is not Baptize and forget,  the community of faith must be there to uplift and disciple one another. It is a major major deal.

Filed under : Ecclesiology, Social Ministry

0 Comment »

Next week, we will be bringing the online evening prayer services known as Compline back up. We ran for a number of weeks during the spring and it was well received, but technical failures on my end, and an increasing time commitment over at CF made it near impossible to do it all.

That being said, I am working on some tech solutions, and hope to roll those out in the next day or so for beta testing. In addition, I resigned my position at CF in order to devote more time bringing this live and focusing more on small group ministry. As far as I know, no one else does an online version of Compline which is interactive, nor one that runs 5 days a week. It is a challenging schedule for sure,  but having seen the results from our earlier run, I very much saw God at work. It is a good way to end the day in corporate worship and prayer, even if it is online instead of 3D.

Be that as it may… what we designed is ecumenical in scope, and it brings liturgy to many who may never have experienced such. We did take some liberties, its not an EO, Catholic, or Lutheran service, but carries bits and pieces of each. Its not always contemporary music, some nights we use hymns, some nights we use rock and roll. It can get crazy at times, when one combines liturgical prayer, with the spontaneity of a Baptist or Assembly of God service, where folks jump in with praise Jesus or Amen, but it really is a cool type of crazy.

One of the other things, apart from the tech side, is the timing and scheduling issues… we found that if we say 9, folks show up between 9 and 10. Thus, the start time will be 9:00PM CDT for fellowship, and the service starts at 9:45PM CDT sharp… too many times we blew the start time, and folks had to bug out. I think I got a tech fix for that one too

More later as I get the bugs out…. no sense letting the cat out of the bag until I know things are going to work… but video will be attempted this week.

Filed under : Ecclesiology, Social Ministry

0 Comment »

Wow, so I am a bit fried….

Today was a bit of a zoo. Everything from a php coding issue, to metallurgy, to people management issues, to assisting with a suicide prevention. Go figure, the life of a tech dude.

And this, is why your church needs a website. It might well have saved a life this evening.

In the online world, it is rare that one ever crosses the line into 3D activities. Terroristic threts, and suicides are 2 subjects that do result in crossing that line. And this is why your church needs a website. Time is of the essence in such matters as one might expect, and 3D, not virtual intervention is key. The problem of course is connecting the two to make it possible. This is where your church enters in.

People, even the most careful individuals do leave cyber trails, and often times under pressure give other clues. They may not want to involve others in their situation, yet suicide is often times a call for help. It doesn’t matter if its for real or not. All such threats need to be followed up on if indeed possible. And no, its not always possible as sometimes, there just isn’t enough info to work with, and generally, unless its a terroristic threat and a call from the FBI, most ISP’s won’t assist.

Thus, in this case we did have information to work off of, and we found a church website, and found a pastors contact info. We no doubt ended up waking him up, but the end result, is a young person is now in a hospital rather than dieing in their bedroom, all the while his parents were asleep. (for all you parents out there, this can happen… and I can only imagine the heartache involved, had this youngster succeeded).

As a result, please do make sure your church has a website, make sure it has a contact number, as well as your pastors name. (I don’t know that posting the emergency number online is wise to avoid prank calls and such), but the main number, and an answering machine which directs folks to an after hours emergency number is certainly a viable option.

Now, some readers might think such a situation is a rarity. Sadly, online suicide threats occur somewhere in the world 24/7/365. Most webmasters and administrators are not well equipped to deal with such issues, but more and more are finding it is a critical need, as virtual communities become more and more life like.

This of course doesn’t mean that every situation will have a successful outcome. In many cases, the person is too hard to track, the net tools, dont work, or we end up chasing evidence that goes no where. And of course, there are always the situations where its someone just out for a thrill to see what a fuss can be made by crying wolf. And in other cases, the person succeeds, or in others, they never travel over the same cyber path for months if ever. Thus, there is no way to really know that such plans are effective in many cases. Yet, if one life is spared, it makes it all worthwhile.

Praise God, the youngster got to the ER, praise God, we reached the pastor, praise God, the church had a website, praise God, all the right people were at the right place at the right time.

Filed under : Ecclesiology, Social Ministry

2 Comments »

Of unity in general:…..”The Gospel is so exceedingly rich that no section of Christendom can claim a full and exhaustive grasp of its richness. One church has grasped more of it, another less. One has penetrated to the central things, while another has remained to a greater degree at peripheral points. One has grasped one side the other another side. In this respect the churches can learn from each other and help each other to arrive at a simpler, richer and deeper understanding of the Gospel (N.L.C. New Bureau Release, June 30, 1947) ….

Filed under : Ecclesiology, Giants of the Faith, Social Ministry

0 Comment »

Some nifty news releases from the ELCA Churchwide Assembly.

Book of Faith, Bible Study Initiative

Full Communion with the Moravian Church

Concern for Genocide in Darfur

Opposition of escalation of Iraq War

Support for World Hunger Appeal

Pondering Pastor blogged many of the events, his blog is a must read.

Also voting results are located at the assembly website.

I also debated whether to discuss the relatively controversial Landahl substitution concerning pastors in same gender relationships. On the one hand, its pretty newsworthy, on the other, it has the potential to be pretty polarizing. Even more so, that the news media seems to be confusing this as a change in standards, rather than interim guidance for Bishops.

Sadly though, depending upon how it comes across, it has the potential to cause significant division. This morning is going to be a tough one in some pulpits, thus prayer for our leaders and pastors is critical. No doubt much midnight oil is being burned rewritting sermons and in prayer as to what to say tomorrow.

Be encouraged and trust God

Filed under : ELCA, Ecclesiology

1 Comment »