Rabu, 21 Desember 2016

It Is Not Well With My Soul

It Is Not Well With My Soul

Man looking outsideby Lance Witt
“What’s missing in the church today?” That question was posed to a well-known megachurch pastor. His one-word answer was “vision.” I couldn’t disagree more!
We are intoxicated with vision and obsessed with leadership. There’s more big talk, more big ideas, more big dreams than ever before. “Bigger and more” has been the rallying cry of the church in the last generation.
Over the last twenty-five years, vision and leadership and growth have become the topics of choice for pastors. In some ministry circles, CEOs and business entrepreneurs are quoted as frequently as the writers of Scripture. Enormous energy and resources have been thrown at helping us become more effective leaders … and for good reason.
A generation ago, pastors were equipped to exegete scripture, understand church history, and craft sermons, but were ill-equipped to provide organizational leadership to the churches they were called to pastor. As churches grew and the culture changed, pastors had to learn about the world of creating budgets, managing staff, casting vision, constructing buildings, raising money, worship programming, and managing change.
So the inundation of leadership and church growth resources met a definite need. The focus on leadership and vision filled a massive void, and we have all been the beneficiaries.
But not all of the impact has been positive. We have pushed the priority of a pastor’s interior life to the fringes. As we have sought to fill the gap with leadership resources we have inadvertently marginalized the soul-side of leadership. The result is a crisis, a crisis of spiritual health among pastors. The statistics these days on pastors are troubling and paint a bleak picture.
Pastors are leaving the ministry in record numbers. Discouragement and disillusionment are epidemic among those who lead in ministry. And many are choosing to fire themselves rather than fight any longer.
New York Times article presented a dismal report card on the state of pastors:
“Members of the clergy now suffer from obesity, hypertension, and depression at rates higher than most Americans. In the last decade, their use of antidepressants has risen, while their life expectancy has fallen. Many would change jobs if they could.”
It doesn’t sound like we are doing a very good job of modeling how to live well. We may sing “it is well with our soul”, but there isn’t much evidence to confirm it.
Burnout, scandal, depression, immorality, loneliness – they are all words commonly associated with people in ministry.
Many of my pastor friends and your pastor friends stand up Sunday after Sunday and faithfully preach the truth. They unselfishly minister to others and do the very best they can to lead their church. They feel incredible pressure to inspire their congregation, grow their churches, and impact their communities.
I have pastor friends who are constantly looking for the “secret sauce” of church growth. They are better-than-average leaders and communicators, but their churches haven’t experienced much growth. They struggle with feelings of inadequacy and live with this nagging doubt that they are failures as leaders.
They are secretly dying a slow death and many want to give up.
After decades in ministry I do understand how people get to this point.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. There is a better way forward.
We don’t need to abandon our discussion of leadership in the kingdom, but we do need to include a question that doesn’t get enough airtime. What does “spiritual” leadership look like? What does healthy leadership look like? What does a healthy team look like?
We have neglected the fact that a pastor’s greatest leadership tool is a healthy soul. Our concentration on skill and technique and strategy has not served us well. The outcome is an increasing number of men and women leading our churches who are emotionally empty and spiritually dry.
Parker Palmer said, “A leader is a person who must take special responsibility for what’s going on inside of himself or herself … lest the act of leadership create more harm than good.”
Let those words soak in. They are especially profound when you realize they were written a generation ago. We have ample evidence of Palmer’s insight. When leaders neglect their interior life they run the risk of prostituting the sacred gift of leadership. And they run the risk of being destructive instead of productive.
As pastors we regularly preach that the Christian life is “inside out”. It starts with the heart. The root determines the fruit. Life flows from the vine (internal) to the branches (external). The same is true for our ministries. True, lasting, Christ-honoring fruit starts by paying attention to our interior life. What ballast is to a boat, a healthy soul is to a leader.

The One Group You Might Forget This Christmas

The One Group You Might Forget This Christmas

by John McGee
The holiday season is upon us. As a pastor you have planned Christmas Eve services, prepared end-of-year reports, and been to more Christmas parties than you care to remember. With all of the activity involved in getting your church ready for Christmas, it can be easy to forget one group – your family.
During this season you tend to get busier just as the other members of your family are winding down at work and school. While you see endless tasks to accomplish, they see a window of opportunity to slow down, make memories, and enjoy each other. This season is an opportunity to serve your church, but don’t lose sight of the unique chance to serve and connect with your family.
Here are some things you can do to serve your family and connect with them this Christmas season.
Help get your home ready for Christmas. You have spent time and energy to get your church ready for Christmas, but have you helped get your own home ready? Make sure you have served your spouse by helping him or her set up the decorations and doing anything else you can to make your home special for the holidays.
Check local guides. Most cities will have an online collection point, usually through the local newspaper, for all types of activities you can do with your family that you might not otherwise know about.
Look at lights. Grab some hot chocolate, queue the Christmas music, and take in the sights and sounds of Christmas. We have made an annual pilgrimage to the same spot for the past ten years. At this point it’s only a little bit about the lights and a lot about the memories we have made.
Get creative. With a little planning and thought you can come up with some really fun activities. One of our family favorites is to go to the mall and split into guys and girls. Each group buys a gift, hides it in the mall, and texts the other group with clues. A few years ago the girls found a key pinned to the back of an ornament on the huge tree in the center of the mall. The key led them to a locker by the ice skating rink where they found necklaces inside.
Date your spouse. Your spouse has served you and accomplished a lot this year. This is a great time to look back over the year, celebrate your relationship, recognize the ways God has used you together, and say “thanks” for everything your spouse has done to help you.
Date your kids. Every kid has a different idea of what a fun date would be, but all of them long to connect with their parents and have their undivided attention. Think about how to connect with each one of them uniquely and get it on the calendar before it fills up.
Game or movie nights. Turn off all of the cell phones and put them in a drawer. Make an intentional effort to be present as you play games or snuggle up and simply be together as you watch movies. Have everyone write down the name of a movie they want to watch and then when you have a couple of hours pull out one and watch it together.
Help or serve someone else. Lead your family in praying for a way to serve and bless others. Opportunities abound with local city missions, but some of the best may be with people your family already knows.
Bring Advent home. As you lead your congregation through this season of anticipation of Christ’s coming, don’t forget to lead your family. There are several family guides that can be read after dinner at the table and will help focus everyone’s thoughts on why this season matters.
Shop early for gifts. Having worked retail during the holidays, I have seen that the closer to Christmas gifts are purchased the more expensive and less thoughtful they become. If it’s already too late this year, see if you can get a jump on next year. One easy way is by capturing ideas as you have them throughout the year and keeping a list for each member of the family.
Crowd source your ideas. Don’t put pressure on yourself to be a superhuman creative and relational genius. Ask others what they are doing this Christmas season to have fun, make memories, and connect with God and each other.
Leverage the last week of the year. Many pastors are very busy leading up to Christmas and may not be able to spend multiple nights a week drinking cider and making cookies with the kids. However things tend to slow down December 26th. Maybe some of your best activities and creative planning could go into the week after Christmas.
God’s church deserves a pastor’s creative leadership during the Christmas season. Your family desires and deserves the same.

Spend Less, Give More

Spend Less, Give More

family-christmas-dinnerby Ted Cunningham
Every December, we encourage our church to spend less and give more. The idea is simple. Instead of overspending and overindulging, cut back a little and focus on acts of extreme generosity.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of enjoying a lunch with Chris Hodges, the senior pastor of Church of the Highlands in Birmingham, Alabama. I had no idea that lunch would change everything about the way our church served the community.
Pastor Chris encouraged our leadership to budget less, rather than more. He said, “The Church of the Highlands budgets at 90% of the previous year’s giving.” Budget less, rather than more. So simple, yet it was a game changer for Woodland Hills.
I shared this budgeting strategy with our elders and they immediately implemented it. We had no idea how this “spend less, give more” budgeting would simplify our year-end budgeting process but more than that it increased our outreach into the community.
A few years later, and our monthly elder meetings are a blast as we seek ways to steward the excess. Should we send all of our missionaries a bonus? What if we buy gift cards for single parents? How much should we give to meet the physical needs of children in Stone and Taney counties?
Our outreach into the community and around the world increased exponentially because we decided not to be a financially “strapped” church. By giving our budget room to breathe, we freed ourselves to serve others better. Even though we budget for missions within our 90% budget, having a cushion frees us up to do even more. Here are just a few ways we minister to our congregation, community and world.
Mercy Offering – The first Sunday of every month is highly anticipated at Woodland Hills. After we take the Lord’s Supper, we take a mercy offering. This goes to meet the physical needs of our church family. Our giving goes to help families pay for rent, utility bills, gas, groceries, clothes, prescriptions and medical bills. We encourage our church members to bring us their needs (Acts 4:32).
Care for Kids – A few years ago, our church teamed up with the Silver Dollar City Foundation’s Care for Kids program to meet the physical needs of children in our community by funding benevolence in the 14 school districts in our surrounding counties. The Care for Kids program distributes funds to the counselors at area schools to immediately meet needs of children. These funds buy coats, eyeglasses, meals, shoes, and any item that a child needs to stay warm, nourished, and healthy. The first year our church committed $14,000 to Care for Kids, but because of our 90% budgeting we tripled that amount to $42,000 right before we cut the check. Every month we hear stories of children blessed by the little extra help.
Christmas Giving Tree – Every November we set up a huge tree in our church foyer. The ornaments are envelopes with the names of families in need. Inside the envelope is a list of names, ages and interests of each family member. Members of our church adopt a family off of the tree, shop with that list in hand and deliver the presents along with food right before Christmas.
Missionary Christmas Bonuses – Missionaries are often overlooked this time of year. Christmas is the perfect time to reach into your church and community, but it also a great time to reach into the world. We send all of our missionaries a financial Christmas gift each November. We encourage them to use the money to get away and enjoy a little rest and relaxation with their family. We seek to honor and prioritize the missionary’s marriage and family, so they can enjoy life and each other.
When I consider the simple ways in which we encourage generosity, I am reminded of the Apostle Paul’s words to the believers in Corinth: “And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. 3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us” 2 Corinthians 8:1-5.
Pastor, let’s encourage our congregations to spend less and give more. Let’s all participate in willing and joyful generosity to the church, community, and world.