THE VISION THING
Vision is my least-favorite word in the English language,” said a pastor who stopped by recently. He has felt intense pressure to be visionary—from best-selling books, from colleagues, from seminars, from executives in his congregation. The demand to have vision actually caused him to feel depressed.
The depression lifted only after an unsual dream: he saw himself accosted by a mobster in a “power suit” who wounded him with a knife. Upon reflection, the pastor realized the quest for vision had become emotionally deadly. “God does not expect me to work in that mode,” he said. “I’ve relaxed, stepped back into my creative mode, and worked with others more given to strategic planning.”
So why the intensity about vision? Max DePree, chairman of the board of Herman Miller, Inc., said about vision (in the summer 1994 LEADERSHIP): “We could relax a little more than we do.”
FATIGUE VS. CREATIVITY
At one recent gathering of church leaders, a church planter gave an impassioned appeal for pastors to be more creative.
“Yes,” a pastor replied, “but it’s hard to be creative when you’re exhausted.”
DISILLUSIONED?
When we planned this issue on “Expectations,” contributing editor Bob Moeller suggested two “theological safeguards against disillusionment”:
The doctrine of human depravity causes us to lower our expectations of people. That keeps us from being so disappointed when folks sin or attack us.
The doctrine of God’s sovereignty causes us to raise our expectations of God. That keeps us hopeful when circumstances disappoint, since we know God works all things for good.
TYPES OF NEW MEMBERS
A prominent southern church leader was wise enough not to let his name be associated with this observation. He noted that when former Catholics join the congregation, they submit to pastoral leadership, but they don’t know about giving. When former Baptists join the congregation, they give, but they don’t know about submitting to pastoral leadership!
FAMILY FEUD?
This past year marked the fifteenth anniversary of LEADERSHIP. We asked Leith Anderson, pastor of Wooddale Church in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, to help us think about how church ministry is changing. One statement by Leith particularly surprised us: “Today, there is less preaching about marriage and family.”
That runs counter to our observation that in many churches, messages about “Building a Healthy Home” come often. But Leith pointed out that aging baby boomers now have teenage and twentysomething children who don’t necessarily follow their parents’ values; it’s harder for many ministers to preach about family matters with certainty.
WORSHIP WARS
The fiercest battles in many churches these days are not over doctrine but over worship style. Choruses vs. Hymns. Choir vs. Worship Team. Organ vs. Ensemble.
Based on our informal conversations with church leaders, choruses are in ascendancy. On the other hand, Worship Leader magazine sees a swing back to older hymnody (along with contemporary songs).
In the debate, one question we don’t often hear asked: What does it take for worship to be deepened rather than merely given a new form?
CHALLENGE WILLIMON
Last issue, Will Willimon wrote “Been There, Preached That.” One reader asked this follow-up question: “Willimon attacks ‘Scaling down our speech to that which anybody off the street can hear and understand without conversion or training.’ But wasn’t the New Testament written in the street language of the Greeks?”
Willimon responds: “The New Testament is one long effort to explain the gospel. Paul employs common Greek terms but redefines them.
FAREWELL TO A FRIEND
As we were readying this issue for the printer, we learned that Richard Halverson, former Senate chaplain and long-time pastor of Fourth Presbyterian Church near Washington, D.C., had gone home to heaven. LEADERSHIP has lost a good friend.
Dick was a member of LEADERSHIP’S inaugural advisory board. In our first year of publication (Fall 1980), we interviewed him. The first words out of his mouth still need to be heard: “The Christian church equates bigness with success, and I think that’s absolutely wrong!”
LEADERSHIP’S founding editor, Paul Robbins, remembers Halverson: “Perhaps more than anyone I’ve met, he embodied what it means to be a pastor.”
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1996 Christianity Today/LEADERSHIP Journal
