For the handful of you who have asked if I will ever start posting a sermon podcast or who want to be up to date on our adventure here in Bangor or miss falling asleep to the dulcet tones of my voice.
The first chunk of the sermon is an announcement fest. The actual sermon starts at about 24 min.
Wednesday, September 16, 2015
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
In Defence of Meetings
There is a growing trend in organizational leadership circles to poo poo meetings. People say things like "if you are meeting your not working" and there is a concerted push to get rid of as many meetings as possible.
This may be valid in the business world (I wouldn't know) but I want to push back on that idea when it comes to local church ministry. I want to defend meetings. Yes some meetings are unnecessary. Yes some meetings are pointless and poorly run. And certainly many meetings are allowed to run too long. There is a craft to leading great meetings and all leaders should be working to develop those skills. This is not a defence of mediocre meetings but it is an attempt to show why I think that meetings are absolutely pivotal to local church leadership.
Leadership In Community
I'm going to assume you are up to speed on the importance of community in the local church. I believe that the theological imperative toward community extends to leadership as well. Leadership in community is not leadership by committee. In fact you can do leadership in community without ever having a vote and with one person ultimately making all the decisions. What leadership in community does call for is a group of spiritually mature, missionally engaged people who are in relationship with each other speaking into and discerning the direction of the church together. Leadership in community requires a group of people to get together to do that work. People getting together to work is a meeting.
Mushy Bottom Lines
In church world our mission is crystal clear but bottom line is mushy. It doesn't show up on a profit and loss sheet and even those things that can be counted (conversions, baptisms, volunteerism, small group involvement, etc) need to be qualified and evaluated pastorally. Our mission is Spirit empowered life transformation but what that looks like in each instance is as unique as the stories of the individuals God has allowed us to impact. Stories are best told face to face and in church world our best chance of getting a person's story clear is in a group as we each share what we have observed in that persons life. Cold statistics and utilitarian tracking programs can augment but never replace the pastoral telling of stories as a way to track how we are really doing as a church. Those stories are best told in meetings.
Ministry Is People
For local church leaders it's closer to the truth to say "if you're not meeting you're not working." Of course there needs to be private time for sermon prep, program planning, prayer, and such but a significant amount of a church leaders time should be spent with other people wether it's in large meetings like weekend services, smaller meetings with specific ministry teams and classes, or one-on-one spiritual guidance, mentoring, or pastoral care. Ministry is people. Yes Jesus often retreated to a quiet place to pray but an overwhelming majority of Jesus' time recorded in the gospels is spent in what could very fairly be defined as meetings. If you are going to minister to and with people you are going to need to be physically present in the same room with them much of the time. That's a meeting.
Leadership Is Lonely
Or at least it really can be. Here I'm talking specifically about meeting with the senior leaders (staff or elders) in your church. In a healthy church culture there is something life giving about getting into room with people who are (at least close to) as invested in the ministry you lead together as you are: something that reminds you that you are not alone, that there are a bunch of people who get it, that there are some folks who have your back, and that while you may carry this ministry the most you certainly don't carry it alone. Emails, texts, tweets, and even phone calls are ultimately just a bandaid. The true antidote to loneliness is being together. Intentionally being together is a meeting.
My hope is that rather then jump on the 'meetings are bad' bandwagon church leaders will instead embrace the art of leading engaging, purposeful, productive meetings and see those meetings not as a precursor to or distraction from ministry but as a key part of ministry itself.
This may be valid in the business world (I wouldn't know) but I want to push back on that idea when it comes to local church ministry. I want to defend meetings. Yes some meetings are unnecessary. Yes some meetings are pointless and poorly run. And certainly many meetings are allowed to run too long. There is a craft to leading great meetings and all leaders should be working to develop those skills. This is not a defence of mediocre meetings but it is an attempt to show why I think that meetings are absolutely pivotal to local church leadership.
Leadership In Community
I'm going to assume you are up to speed on the importance of community in the local church. I believe that the theological imperative toward community extends to leadership as well. Leadership in community is not leadership by committee. In fact you can do leadership in community without ever having a vote and with one person ultimately making all the decisions. What leadership in community does call for is a group of spiritually mature, missionally engaged people who are in relationship with each other speaking into and discerning the direction of the church together. Leadership in community requires a group of people to get together to do that work. People getting together to work is a meeting.
Mushy Bottom Lines
In church world our mission is crystal clear but bottom line is mushy. It doesn't show up on a profit and loss sheet and even those things that can be counted (conversions, baptisms, volunteerism, small group involvement, etc) need to be qualified and evaluated pastorally. Our mission is Spirit empowered life transformation but what that looks like in each instance is as unique as the stories of the individuals God has allowed us to impact. Stories are best told face to face and in church world our best chance of getting a person's story clear is in a group as we each share what we have observed in that persons life. Cold statistics and utilitarian tracking programs can augment but never replace the pastoral telling of stories as a way to track how we are really doing as a church. Those stories are best told in meetings.
Ministry Is People
For local church leaders it's closer to the truth to say "if you're not meeting you're not working." Of course there needs to be private time for sermon prep, program planning, prayer, and such but a significant amount of a church leaders time should be spent with other people wether it's in large meetings like weekend services, smaller meetings with specific ministry teams and classes, or one-on-one spiritual guidance, mentoring, or pastoral care. Ministry is people. Yes Jesus often retreated to a quiet place to pray but an overwhelming majority of Jesus' time recorded in the gospels is spent in what could very fairly be defined as meetings. If you are going to minister to and with people you are going to need to be physically present in the same room with them much of the time. That's a meeting.
Leadership Is Lonely
Or at least it really can be. Here I'm talking specifically about meeting with the senior leaders (staff or elders) in your church. In a healthy church culture there is something life giving about getting into room with people who are (at least close to) as invested in the ministry you lead together as you are: something that reminds you that you are not alone, that there are a bunch of people who get it, that there are some folks who have your back, and that while you may carry this ministry the most you certainly don't carry it alone. Emails, texts, tweets, and even phone calls are ultimately just a bandaid. The true antidote to loneliness is being together. Intentionally being together is a meeting.
My hope is that rather then jump on the 'meetings are bad' bandwagon church leaders will instead embrace the art of leading engaging, purposeful, productive meetings and see those meetings not as a precursor to or distraction from ministry but as a key part of ministry itself.
Monday, September 14, 2015
What To Do While You Wait
Ministry, has a certain cycle to it often described in the Bible as sowing and reaping or planting and harvesting. Times when you are doing the hard work to get it started, set it up, make the plan, recruit the team, raise the finances, establish the partnerships - planting. And then there is the season where it all comes together and you start reaping the benefits. You see the plan become a reality, the leaders step up, the new people get involved, the relationships deepen, the lives changed - harvest.
But in ministry, like in agriculture, there is always a season in between planting and harvesting. A season when you do some occasional watering but mostly wha you do is wait and while planting and harvesting are a ton of work for many of us the words of Tom Petty ring true - the waiting in the hardest part. So what do you do while you wait?
Pray: I don't mean this tritely. Paul said "somebody plants it and somebody else waters it but it's God who makes it grow" (1 Cor 3:7 AJV). Pray that God would make it grow, that he would send along the people and circumstances needed to water it, that He would bring it to maturity. If God doesn't give the increase you didn't plant, you just buried seeds. Pray.
Rest: Planting was hard work. Harvesting is going to be busy. While you are waiting in between - rest. Get some extra sleep. Engage in some of those fun activities that are life giving for you. Spend a little extra time with your family. You might just be disciplined about working sane hours or maybe you need to take a full on vacation. Insert lesson about sabbath here. Seriously, it's ok. You are going to need all your tanks full for what's coming. Rest.
Invest: Both planting and harvesting can take a lot out of you. In between is a great time to put something back in. Take that class. Read that book. Engage that mentor. Develop that new habit or break that old one. Take up that hobby you have been meaning to get into. And by all means lean hard into growing in your relationship with God. Harvest isn't the time to be sharpening your sickle. While you are waiting you can be doing things that will make you a stronger, healthier, smarter, more skilled "farmer." Invest in you. Plant some stuff in you that you can harvest later.
If you have a driven temperament you can easily feel like the waiting is a curse but it's really a blessing. It's how God keeps your ego in check and makes it clear that it's ultimately Him who makes things grow and it's how keeps you from killing yourself by running flat out all the time but don't just wait out the waiting. Use that gift of time to pray, rest, and invest. Come harvest time you will be glad you did.
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