Last Stop

Many of you responded to the article two weeks ago, about getting people off the bus. Here are highlights, along with my occasional commentary. (To read the article, visit: http://ChristianityToday.com/leaders/newsletter/2002/cln20808.html)

Challenging the bus metaphor

“My problem with this bus metaphor is that removing a volunteer from a position of leadership is like telling Uncle Harry he can’t help out with the family reunion anymore because he’s too obnoxious and tells bad jokes.

“Sure, we could find a better person to light the grill and help cook the hamburgers, but he’s family. What are we gonna do—put him on kitchen detail? Tell him to just sit over there and keep quiet? Grilling burgers is what he lives for and he thinks he’s good at it, even if he’s not.

“What will we tell Aunt Sally or Grandma Kelly when they catch him moping around and feeling left out? And, how has it helped Harry become a better part of the family by taking away the one thing he enjoyed—for better or worse? It seems to me people matter more than that in the Bible. And, there are better ways of handling the problem than just “removing” Harry, especially if our real goal is to make Uncle Harry into a better person anyway.”

—Lauren Porter, pastor, Vicksburg, Mississippi

(I love your Uncle Harry metaphor. My response: Removing a volunteer from a position of leadership is more like telling Uncle Harry he can’t grill the hamburgers anymore because he’s burned them three years in a row, even though people have asked him not to. He can still come; he just can’t give everybody charcoal to eat.)

Jesus chose and put up with troubled and troublesome leaders

“During a leadership meeting one evening our senior pastor described how to choose the right leaders. He suggested that we strive to avoid the Judas principle, meaning don’t bring a person on board who isn’t on board with the ministry or who will be a drain on you or who isn’t prepared, etc. As I listened I could not help but disagree. Jesus spent the entire night in prayer prior to choosing the twelve and he chose Judas [and also] Peter, Matthew, and doubting Thomas—an argumentative decision challenger, a social traitor and outcast, and a faithless whiner. … Jesus staffed the most strategic positions the church has ever known with a group of individuals most churches wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole.”

—John

(John, you raise an important distinction. Getting the “right” person on your bus does not mean getting someone who is socially inoffensive and wholly spiritually mature. It does mean the person is gifted and called to help you fulfill your mission, which Peter, Matthew, and Thomas all proved to be. Judas is a unique case, given that Jesus was called to suffer betrayal and die. I’m not prepared to take from Jesus’ choice of him a direct application to selection of church leaders.)

“I disagree, strongly. … We have lost the focus that Jesus had on people. We focus rather on getting a job done. David Schroeder, president of Nyack College, put it this way, “The kingdom leader doesn’t use people to get work done, he uses work to get people done.”

“Peter is a perfect example of this. Dallas Willard highlights this in The Divine Conspiracy. Jesus knew Peter would deny Him three times—He even predicted it. But did He stop Peter—do anything to keep Peter from making this terrible mistake? Jesus’ loving response was, “I’ve prayed for you that your faith will not fail.” That is the proper response and support that comes from a Christ-like leader. We look back and say, “Peter was the right man in the right seat,” but that is only because he was made right through suffering the humiliation of denying our Lord in front of his peers and then learning that it was okay. Jesus still loved him.

“Maybe in relation to Miller’s article we need to throw up more—throw up realizing how often we fail to follow Jesus.”

—George Cooper, TWR, in Slovakia

(Love for a failing performer means we try to help him grow and stay, which Jesus did with Peter. But if the person can’t or won’t change like Peter did, we should love the person enough to help him find another position, which sometimes is available only outside our organization. Love also means we don’t allow everyone else in the organization to be terrorized by one person’s nonperformance. Here’s how one reader put it:)

“Why would we allow incompetent people to remain in positions of authority [and thus power] in the church whom we would not let do the same job in the “real world”? Is it truthful to keep someone who is clearly doing harm or is incompetent in a job just because they are a volunteer or because this is the church? Is it the goal of the church to give people work they want—or is it to do the work of the Great Commission?”

—Dan Denton, Bethel Seminary, San Diego

(Still, I acknowledge that what to do with a struggling or failing person is one of the most difficult and divisive issues within Christianity. Take, for example, the heated argument between Paul and Barnabas—two apostles!—over what to do with the quitter John Mark. Barnabas sided with the Christian virtue of restoring the person, while Paul sided with the Christian virtue of counting the cost and fulfilling the call. Apparently there’s room for some range of opinion on these questions.)

You sound like Caiaphas

“The statement that it is better for “the church’s needs over any one person” to me sounds like the council member Caiaphas “who said it is better for one man to die then all of Israel” (John 11:49-51) and so Jesus’ arrest was planned. Every individual is the church and is worthy to serve where God has called him. It is not our job to question where God has placed this minister. Sometimes God has purposely put an individual in a particular ministry that could be construed as “this person is in the wrong ministry,” to bring out something that we are just missing.”

—Dan

(I can agree that the “it’s not our job to question” strategy, which lets each person determine his own place of ministry, would work—if everybody heard God perfectly and assessed his gifts accurately. But in practice, people mishear and mis- assess, so leaders are called to do the hard work of getting people in the right place of ministry. That’s part of what it means to lead diligently, as called for in Romans 12:8. We must do it humbly and sensitively, but if we fail to get the right people in the right place, the body will never function well. And even working as hard as we can, God will still allow plenty of people who will bring out missing patience in us.)

I feel like a failure

“Over the past two years I’ve had to weather the storm over a member of the church who wanted to preach. … Regretfully the storm is not yet over and the issue from his point of view is unresolved and he is now causing conflict within the church, which as a small fellowship is very painful. Yes, I literally do feel sick, but praise God for the support of my leaders. As a pastor, I long for the situation to be resolved and the man restored to fellowship (we have currently closed all doors of public service until the matter is resolved), but I think he and his family (long-term members) will probably leave. Although I know this may be for the best, I can already feel the pain of personal failure.”

—A pastor in the UK

(I feel for you and just said a prayer that God will bring peace and unity to your church. May it encourage you to remember that pain is not necessarily a sign of failure, but as in the case of surgery and athletics, it is often a sign of success.)

Where’s the help?

“This article captures my attitudes and fears precisely, but ends with the weak answer of “throwing up.” Can you get more real and offer solutions/resources for those of us that often find ourselves in this situation?”

—Mark O’Ffill, associate pastor, Orlando

(You’re right, Mark: My article was meant mainly to raise awareness of the problem and encourage people to do the right thing, despite it. Here, though, are some helpful ideas from a fellow reader, to whom I’ll give the closing words.)

“Too often in the church we have brought people into positions (especially volunteers) via the “warm body” method. We prescribe an artificial number of people who need to be on the Board of Elders, and when we are two short, we simply go and look for someone who can be “arm-twisted” into joining the Board. I believe we need to look at how we determine our needs, and how we staff for those needs, with a more critical eye.

“Regarding determining the needs: rather than saying we need seven people on each committee, perhaps it is better to say, we need a minimum of five. This allows flexibility. The Holy Spirit does not always give us seven who belong on a certain bench.

Regarding Staffing: perhaps the use of Spiritual Gifts Inventories or using behavioral tools like the DISC survey can help us better understand the people who will be on the bus, thereby enabling us to make a more educated guess as to who should be seated in which seat before the bus leaves the terminal.”

Dave Mumm, pastor, Des Moines, Iowa

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