Category: Church Life

“THE CHURCH IS ACTING TOO MUCH LIKE A BUSINESS.”

On October 18, 2014

In Church Life, Leadership, Navarre UMC, Newsletter Articles

That is a phrase that I hear often in church circles. As I have listened to people who make the statement I usually hear a few different concerns.

The first concern usually happens when accountability is inserted into the culture of the church. When someone expects the church to hold people and groups accountable for their actions or in-actions, some do not like it and want to say the church is not a business.

A second time when this statement is heard is when the church gets so serious about its mission that it deliberately plans for growth. Some believe that ideas like leadership, strategic planning or goal setting belong in the boardroom and not in the church.

Another time when this accusation gets bandied about is when the church institutes processes or policies that people are not used to. For example policies about room use or procedures for scheduling meetings.

Another situation that could prompt someone to make a statement like the above is when church leaders begin to learn best practices from others and try to adapt the principles in their own church.

All of these complaints could be boiled down to two primary ideas: the business card is usually played when a church tries to use it resources to best of its ability or when the church gets purposeful about its mission.

People everywhere have come to expect efficiency and great customer service in every area of their lives. When they go to a department store, they expect to be treated with courtesy and get a fair price on the articles they purchase. Of course, that would not be possible if the store did not expect its employees to be courteous and knowledgeable of the items they stock. If the store did not take care to plan and create a strategy for providing its wares, the customers would nit find the items they had become accustomed to and they would shop somewhere else. If the store did not make efforts to learn from other retailers and nurture its suppliers, its customers would wind up paying much more for their items.

Retailers (and other businesses) work tirelessly to create efficient, well-managed and pleasant environments in which people could buy their stuff. Imagine that! All that work and effort to make money and provide things that will decay and fall apart.

Shouldn’t the church put at least as much effort into making sure the world sees, hears and experiences the greatest news every before heard? Of course we should! Secular businesses spend thousands of hours and millions of dollars just to make money. Church should invest all it can to ensure that people have the opportunity to hear the good news of Jesus Christ and grow in their relationship with God.

I don’t think I could say
it any better that Bill Hybels, Senior Pastor of Willow Creek Community Church. One of Hybels’ senior staff members once presented a case study to the Harvard Business School. As part of the defense of the case study, Bill was invited to come answer questions from the students. During the question and answer session a student made the remark that he didn’t think pastors should blend business practices with spiritual things. Bill took a deep breath, uttered a silent prayer and said:

“You know, I find it very interesting that you’re here in one of the best schools in the history of education, learning the very latest and greatest leadership and management disciplines so that you can graduate from here and join a secular company to help them set records manufacturing and selling widgets, soap, or software. There’s nothing wrong with that. People can benefit from using all that stuff so you might as well do your best to get it into their hands. But still, it’s only stuff. It isn’t going to transform anybody’s life in a deeply significant way. It isn’t going to change the world or determine anybody’s eternal destiny.

“What you have to understand is that some of us church leaders believe to the core of our beings that the local church is the hope of the world. We really believe that. We believe that the church is the only God-anointed agency in society that stewards the transforming message of the love of Christ. We believe that the church addresses every human being’s deepest need. We believe that the church can lead people into a whole new way of living and loving and serving, and can thereby transform society.

“You also need to realize that some of us church leaders live daily with the realization that the eternal destinies of people in our communities hang in the balance. That’s why we are so determined to get our visions right and live out our values and come up with effective strategies. We truly believe that it matters that we attain our goals . It matters that we align our staffs and leverage our resources. We believe that the success or failure of our churches directly affects people’s lives here today and for eternity. We believe this to our depths. We’d take bullets for it.”

I continued, “That’s why we make no apology for learning and applying best practice principles as God leads us in our churches. How could we do otherwise? The church is the hope of the world.” Courageous Leadership (p. 69-70)

Indeed! The church ought to learn all it can about the best practices of the best organizations on the planet and then deploy them for God’s use. Even Israel plundered the Egyptiansas they left for the promised land (Ex 12:36).

Entitlement

By admin

On April 26, 2014

In Church Life, Leadership, Navarre UMC, Observations

I have recently been thing about the whole concept of entitlement because of some reading I have been doing about the millennial generation. Having an entitlement mentality is believing that I should have certain privileges or options just because of who I am, or sometimes just because I exist in this place or time. Often times in our American culture the “privileges” become “rights.”

As much research has shown Millennials (those born between 1981 and 2004) a very entitled generation. They grew up in the era where everyone got a trophy just for showing up. But one of the things I have notices is that all of us have some level of entitlement.

People have entitlements based on a number of things:

Status in life
Income
Age (young or old)
Longevity in an organization
Amount given to an organization

This happens at many levels in church life. I have heard in 29 years of church life and they all revolve around the statement, “You should follow my advice and do things my way because I:

Have been a faithful member for X years.
Give a great deal of money to the church.
Am a charter member.
Sit on the board.
Am a member.
Am elderly
Am a future leader of the church
Am a business owner, military officer
Have an advanced degree

I could go on and on.

The problem with all of these statements is that they go completely counter to the spirit of Jesus who,

Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being.

When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

– Philippians 2:6–8 (NLT)

The focus of an entitlement attitude is what I want to happen rather than the mission God has sent us to accomplish. That kind of entitlement is found in us all.

As an individual, I have certain preferences myself. But those preferences must be subservient to the mission of the church and the methods it will take to accomplish that mission in our current cultural context. It is a sad idea but often the perceived privilege of membership trumps the mission every time.

But what if, as leaders, we could cultivate that opposite attitude. What if we were to say, “Whatever it takes for the mission”?

Honestly, there would be a lot of negative consequences, but a lot of positive ones as well. I think the world has not seen this kind of attitude in the church in a long time. But, what if it began with you and m

South Africa 4

By admin

On October 30, 2013

In Church Life, Missions, Navarre UMC

A typical day for our team begins with breakfast around 6:30 or 7:00 am depending on the schedule. We then travel to the church to divide up into teams for service projects.

We then work on the projects until noon and head to the church for lunch. The ladies of the church cook lunch and supper for us, and we have had some wonderful meals!

After lunch we either head back to the service projects or to a school for an afternoon motivational talk. We also spend time getting ready for other events or learning about other ministries.

3:00 pm means children’s ministry in the stadium – actually just a walled field where the kids and young adults of the community gather to play soccer. The first day we had about 300 kids show up. The number increased until it was too many to count but estimates went from 500 to 800. By the way, we planned for 250.

Our team did a wonderful job of telling Bible stories, helping with crafts and playing games with the kids. As you could imagine, there was a lot of improvisation going on because of the sheer numbers of the kids.

On other days we would do service projects of visit the orphanage and do activities with the kids there.

At 5 pm the kids are sent home and we walk back to the church for supper. After supper we change clothes and prepare for the evangelism services that evening. At first we were to do four services, but just prior to our leaving, Pastor Josiah asked if we could do six. I agreed and so for six straight nights we worshiped with the people of the community and preached the Word.

The services usually lasted about two hours and were full of singing, dancing and excitement. We held the services in a large tent that the pastor borrowed from another local pastor. It was set up in the “stadium” and was also used for the Children’s ministry in the afternoon.

After the services (around 8:30 or 9) we would travel back to the guesthouse and have a debriefing meeting so we could get to bed by 10:00 pm.

Boy am I tired!

South Africa 1

By admin

On October 28, 2013

In Church Life, Missions, Navarre UMC

It is now Monday afternoon on our trip to South Africa. It is hard to believe that so much has happened so far. I had expected to write an update every other day or so but this is our sixth day in country and the first chance I have had to write anything.

The days have been long, but the work is very rewarding. So far we have done a motivational talk and a devotional at one of the primary schools and begun painting three houses. We have met wonderful people and shared in great meals. We have visited a small orphanage and done Bible school lessons and activities with up to 700 kinds at one time.

We have shared in worship with the congregation of Christian Revival Ministries and Pastor Josiah. Their expressive, heart-felt worship has touched and challenged all of us. We have also experienced their worship in the evangelism services the past four nights. This was my third experience of preaching through an interpreter and the best by far. Although most people understand English, an interpreter helps them understand better by translating the message into their mother tongue.

He have had the opportunity to begin building relationships with Pastor Josiah and his wife Mary, James our driver and Brighton, a pastor and evangelist who has partnered with the Praying Pelican Mission group. We have also begun to build relationships with many of the children and adults of the church and community.

The African church is a vibrant and growing church. They are not sitting back and waiting for missionaries to come and help them out, they are doing the work of ministry and sending missionaries of their own. By the way, I discovered that there are more African missionaries in America, than there are American missionaries in Africa.

One particular ministry that I have been impressed with is a part of the Global prayer network. They have developed an easy and practical method of evangelism based on Jesus sending out the 72 disciples in Luke 10. Brighton and one of his coworkers shared the program with us during two sessions and It is a simple amazing and natural way to introduce people to Jesus Christ.

I will share more later.

About Moving

By admin

On May 2, 2011

In Church Life, Observations, Woodbine Methodist Church

This is the post I didn’t want to write. However, sometimes I need to write to see what I am thinking.

Moving is almost always a difficult thing for me. I pour so much of myself into my current appointment that it is very hard to let go, especially when there have been so many successes and milestones. Such is the case with Woodbine. At Woodbine:

I have grown a great deal as a preacher and communicator
I have learned much about leadership and administration (I still do not like administration but I can do it better)
I have built great relationships and have mentored and been mentored by people here.
I have learned to be a much better pastoral counselor.
I have learned to back away from things and not feel guilty, or should I say I am getting better at it.
I have learned to use technology more effectively (Ben would say I am not a real Jedi master until I get a Mac).
I have learned to rely on the gifts of many great lay people and I have been inspired by them as well.
I have learned what teamwork is by working with great leaders and a great staff.

These are just some of the reasons I hate leaving this place, but I have answered the call to ministry in the United Methodist Church and the appointment system is the system we use to provide pastoral leadership to our congregations.

My daughter said it best. She was having a conversation with a co-worker who just could not understand why a Methodist minister could be sent to another church when her pastor was called to her church. Charity said, “My dad is called to the ministry, and not to a particular church.” In the end that is it, I am called by God to serve God and his people wherever the Bishop sends me.

My grandfather used to constantly remind me that Baptist ministers are called and Methodist ministers are sent (implying that Methodists were sent by people and not God). One day after I had heard that over and over again I finally said, “Papa Methodists are called too, the difference is Baptists are called my the local church and Methodists are called by God.” I never heard that phrase again from him.

I am called by God with certain gifts and abilities and so is the person who will come after me in this wonderful place called Woodbine. I wonder what the future holds for each of us.

So what about the future? I will have to write about that later.