Leadership Journal

When the phone rang on that Monday morning, I was actually scheduled to be in Thailand on a business trip. My pastor, Allen Black, was on the other end. "The district superintendent just called me," Allen said, "and she has a church for you. You could start next Sunday."

I had been out of pastoral ministry for several years and owned a consulting business. Only a week before, I had told my wife, Debbie, that I just didn't feel I should make the trip to Thailand. I had cancelled my ticket and told my business partner that he would have to make the trip without me. Now I knew why I had stayed behind.

We had been praying for a church to serve, and God had answered our prayers—suddenly and dramatically. Although we were involved in our own church in outreach and new member training, God had been rekindling in my heart the call to pastoral ministry that I had received many years before.

"This was a wonderful congregation, filled with wonderful people," district superintendent Bettye Lewis told us. "Unfortunately, we had a mismatch in pastoral leadership and church personalities." This "mismatch" had resulted in serious conflict. Members had left, attendance was down, and church leaders were discouraged. Now, both of us—church and pastor—had an opportunity to begin anew.

"If you can just hold things together until we can make a permanent appointment in June," Bettye said, "that would be a great ministry to this congregation."

"And," her assistant added, "if you'll wear a robe in the pulpit, they'll be as thrilled as if you were the bishop." We all laughed, and I accepted the appointment.

Just as Bettye had said, the church was full of caring people who received us warmly on our first Sunday. Attendance had dropped into the low 30s, but on our first Sunday, 61 people showed up. It seemed we were off to a good start.

For the first few Sundays, I planned "safe" sermons. Fortunately, Thanksgiving was approaching, then Christmas, so I had weeks of good, safe topics to deal with. I wanted to get to know this congregation before I launched into anything more controversial than "God is love."

In those first weeks, we dug into the history of the congregation. Surfing the web one night, I yelled to my wife, "You won't believe this, but Prospect is on the Internet."

In the early 1800s, Prospect was selected by a Methodist circuit rider as a preaching point, and later grew into a permanent congregation. The first written record of the congregation is about 1820, but by then the church was already well-established. The community of Prospect, situated on the Elk River in southern Giles County, Tennessee, had been a thriving area, with its own train station, post office, mercantile stores, a school, and a funeral home. The first church building was erected on the hill overlooking the township.

Church members told us about growing up in Prospect. The two main sources of entertainment in those bygone days were attending church services, and waiting ...