Pastors

PEOPLE IN PRINT

The Hurt and Healing of Church Discipline

Beyond Forgiveness by Don Baker, Multnomah, $7.95

Reviewed by J. Robin Maxson, pastor, Klamath Evangelical Free Church, Klamath Falls, Oregon

“The silence of my study was interrupted by the persistent ringing of the telephone. A longtime friend from a distant city was calling. ‘I’m sorry, Don, but I have some bad news for you—one of your people has been deeply involved in sin for many years. The whole sordid story is just beginning to surface here, and I thought I’d call you so you could deal with it before it comes to you second hand.’

“He described a long series of events with all the confirming evidence that was needed. It was not just one of my people—it was one of my dear friends—it was one of my staff who had fallen.”

With those two paragraphs, Don Baker plunges the reader into the real world of a sinning saint and of a church whose entire ministry was jeopardized by that sin.

Twenty-six months and two weeks later, Baker, senior pastor of Hinson Memorial Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon, addressed the offender before the congregation that had shared in the ordeal of discipline. What he said was staggering: “God has possibly made you better qualified to minister today than anybody I know.”

The dramatic events are narrated by Baker in a gripping book that shows how church discipline can go Beyond Forgiveness to full restoration.

The man in question had been on Hinson’s staff for two years, in ministry for twenty-five. He had been married for twenty-eight years to a wonderful, supportive woman. They had three grown children, all believers. His record was blemish-free; his ministry effective. But over a period of thirteen years, “Greg” committed adultery with ten women in three churches, including Hinson.

The facts were confirmed, the offender confronted, and a course of action determined. Eighty-three hours after the phone call, the exposed church leader made public confession before the assembled church.

Greg’s ordination was revoked, and he resigned his position. But he was not excommunicated. On the contrary, he was enjoined to remain in the church, to submit to the direction of the church staff, to accept professional counseling, and to commit himself to the total process of restoration regardless of cost. This he agreed to do.

Beyond Forgiveness is a book more experienced by the reader than studied. It is a clinic in church discipline done right. The confusion, the anguish, the dilemmas, the study, the strategy, the implementation, the mistakes, the suspense, the outcome are all revealed in sequence. Doctrine (wonderfully summarized in two concise chapters) is unfolded in the context of application. As a reviewer, I wrote down every question raised by the evolving scenario: What about . . . ? What if . . . ? Why didn’t you . . . ? Which passage . . . ?

Most were answered en route.

“It has been extremely awkward for me to find the sensitive balance between the biblical demands for purity and the equally powerful biblical commands to love,” writes Baker. “The primary purpose of discipline is restoration—not retribution.”

That focus was reiterated when I asked Pastor Baker to identify the most common mistake local churches make in applying discipline. “We approach the sin problem in a judgmental way. I used to say, ‘If you don’t quit what you’re doing, we’re going to have to take action against you.’ But our first response should be one of compassion because probably nine out of ten sinners in the church are hurting more than we imagine.”

How has his approach changed? “I’ll put my arm around a man and say (in private), ‘Jim, I’ve heard some things about you, like . . . Is there any truth to this?’ Often he’ll just break down and acknowledge it. But my key question is ‘How can I help you?’ It usually takes them by surprise.”

For Baker, the personal confrontation is normative and usually decisive. “We privately pursue the problem and help people out of their hole as quickly as possible. I’m very confrontive; that’s our responsibility—but always in private.” So usually no discipline is required. “Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11 that if we judge ourselves we will not come under God’s judgment. There’s no need for church discipline when there’s self-judgment.”

What demanded the extraordinary measures in Greg’s case was his position of leadership in the church. Baker writes, “His immoral relationships with numerous women disqualified him for ministry. … He had acknowledged his sin, [but we] could not tell if he was truly sorry for his sin or just sorry that he had been caught. … Like a new believer, Greg needed time to reestablish himself in the church—time to prove himself.” And in just over two years, that’s what happened.

Why did it work? Because the leaders at Hinson had already thoroughly studied church discipline in the Bible. Because the church does not reserve discipline for only sensational crimes; caring confrontation is routinely practiced as a style of ministry. Because the man’s wife forgave, stood by him, and participated in the agonizing process of recovery. Because five laymen supported him through a weekly breakfast. Because he got the kind of therapy he needed from a competent psychologist. And because Greg himself never gave in to the temptation to abandon the church.

Greg completed the process, but as Baker is quick to acknowledge, it doesn’t always work. And, though the book does not specifically address the issue, he is aware of the threat of lawsuits over applied church discipline.

“My son-in-law is an attorney, and we’ve been discussing this lately. It’s going to be increasingly difficult for the church to maintain its position in the area of church discipline without some infringement of a church member’s civil liberties. And the civil liberties are always going to take precedence over strict adherence to religious truth [in court].”

What are the ramifications for our practice of discipline? “When we confront anyone, we’re going to have to view it with the idea that some day it might be tested in court. And always consult an attorney before a final accusation is printed or read publicly.”

How about spelling out expectations and procedures at the point where people join a church—say, in a membership class? “That should be included. But we err even more in not giving an individual advance information in the initial confrontation.” Baker handles this by going through Scripture with the person. “I don’t assume a person knows that what he did was wrong. I’ll say, ‘Maybe you’re not aware of what the Scriptures say about this. Let me show you.’ ” If there is resistance, then passages on church discipline are included in the study.

I asked Baker if he struggled with any unresolved issues in this area. “Yes, mainly in the area of divorce and remarriage. I still haven’t resolved what to do with those in a questionable remarriage.”

What is he doing?

“We spend a lot of time in staff meetings discussing it. Usually when there has been a divorce and remarriage in situations not explicitly covered in the Bible, we ask the individuals to step out of leadership positions—at least temporarily.”

Beyond Forgiveness doesn’t attempt to solve every problem, but it provides a large dose of insight in less than 100 pages. It ought to be required reading in seminary. Even for church leaders hip-deep in alligators, this book could be the survival manual they need to find higher ground.

Finding Right People for the Right Jobs

How to Mobilize Church Volunteers by Marlene Wilson, Augsburg, $8.95

Reviewed by David Shelley, pastor of discipleship and worship, Sun River Church, Rancho Cordova, California

Any churchgoer can tell you the horror stories of lay involvement—and noninvolvement—in the church.

“Ten percent of the people pull 90 percent of the load,” moans a pastor.

“I offered to help out once,” a layman says in defense. “I got stuck with a class of fourth-grade boys. I don’t know how to teach, don’t relate to kids, and I couldn’t get a replacement.”

Marlene Wilson knows all the stories. But after years in secular volunteer placement work, she began to see how effective and satisfied volunteers were in YMCAs, nursing homes, Red Cross, and so on. Why then the dissatisfaction in her church and others?

Wilson directed a voluntary action center in Boulder, Colorado, for seven years, recruiting and placing volunteers in about ninety nonprofit agencies. Then in 1976 she began her own company, Volunteer Management Associates, to lead workshops in volunteer management throughout the country.

After applying the principles in her home church, Atonement Lutheran in Boulder, and learning from her mistakes, she began to train churches in effective use of volunteers. Churches now account for about half her work.

I asked her what response she’s gotten.

“Some pastors dislike the term ‘volunteers,’ ” she says. “They suggest ‘disciples.’ ” She doesn’t argue; she insists all God’s people are to be ministers.

The first chapter, her theological basis, points out that the doctrines of the priesthood of all believers and spiritual gifts give us reason to be uncomfortable with the practices of many churches.

She then describes an all-too-common situation: church “pillars” burning out, “pew-sitters” feeling unneeded and left out, and empty job slots receiving more attention than the people who are already working.

“The two major dilemmas I find,” she says, “are churches who want the pastor to share more of his work, and he won’t, and the pastor who would like the congregation to pick up more.”

Jane Whosit agonized over what to write on her stewardship form, turned it in and waited . . . and waited . . . and waited.

Mrs. Oldstandby, who leads the women’s group, sits on the church council, and sings in the choir, was asked to help out in the church office. She said yes for fear of letting down the pastor, then lay awake wondering how she would manage this with everything else.

“No one means to overlook Jane Whosit or burn out Mrs. Oldstandby, but it happens all the time,” writes Wilson.

The most effective leader, she argues, is the one who enables other people to minister by involving, supporting, and training them. “The basis of success is not how many hours I put in, but how many people I involve.”

The church serious about overcoming these problems will organize a program to recruit, train, supervise, and evaluate volunteers toward effectively applying their ministry gifts.

Wilson explains clearly the necessary steps to create such a structure. She also provides thirty pages of forms, checklists, sample job descriptions, lists of obstacles and characteristics, and planning sheets to get the program started.

She emphasizes clear job descriptions. People need to know what is expected of them and for how long. Too many people have been burned by endless tasks they never knew they accepted.

Sometimes overwhelming jobs can be broken down into more manageable segments. Perhaps small jobs can be combined into more important roles. New jobs can be created to put the unique gifts of certain members to use.

If this all sounds very businesslike, in many ways it is. But it is anything but impersonal. Wilson emphasizes, not minimizes, people and spiritual gifts.

“First,” she writes, “there is the intentional recruiting of a person for a specific job because he or she has demonstrated the gifts needed.”

She adds, “Be prepared to allow the person to say no gracefully. If a person says yes because he or she feels pressured to do so, the commitment you get may be grudging or half-hearted.”

Don’t assume a negative response to one request means that person wants no involvement. “Very seldom is any follow-up done to see where the individual would like to serve,” she observes.

She recommends an interview, not only to determine whether the person is qualified but also what that person is most eager and suited to do. “The year before we used job descriptions and interviews we had three sign up for the evangelism program,” says Wilson. “The year following we had thirty.”

She’s also willing to take some risks. The freedom to fail often leads to remarkable successes.

Out of her experiences Wilson offers a chapter of the most frequently asked questions:

“What if the wrong person volunteers for the job?”

Answer: “First of all, the person isn’t wrong, the job is wrong for that person. I repeatedly emphasized the importance of matching the right person to the right job. … “

Question: “How can I get out of a volunteer job I’m tired of doing (especially one I’m good at)?”

Answer: “This is where having definite time commitments on the job description helps. … “

These and other answers help clarify both the concepts and the necessary attitudes for this type of work.

What influence does she hope the book will have?

“I would like to see more people ministering outside the church with the church’s encouragement, in scattered ministry rather than gathered,” says Wilson. “The church ought to be celebrating that, not feeling let down.”

Wilson is now working with pastors and lay leaders in “almost every major denomination.” The book discusses the cautious steps necessary in implementing such a new process in a church full of traditions. But, she says, “New churches are the most enthusiastic about it, because they say, ‘If we set it up right we won’t have to undo things later. We want to involve people as they come into the church.’ “

Marlene Wilson has thought creatively, systematically, and seriously about motivating and utilizing individual members in the church. This book can help a lot of us think that way.

A Nondefensive Defense of Small Churches

The Smaller Church in a Super Church Era edited by Jon Johnston and Bill M. Sullivan, Beacon Hill, $5.95

Reviewed by Mark R. Littleton, Millersville, Maryland

“Small is beautiful,” says one pastor.

“Forget it,” says another. “If you stop growing, you’re dead.”

“You’re wrong. Small is for the spiritual.”

The argument could go on and on. But eleven sociologists, all members of the Church of the Nazarene, have jumped into the fray and possibly begun peacemaking instead of haymaking. Their little book (152 pages) not only punctures a lot of hot-air balloons but also provides some zeppelins of its own—of challenge, encouragement, and joy.

What the editors of The Smaller Church want to accomplish is both destructive and constructive. They want to destroy the two extreme assumptions about small churches (less than 150 members). As Bill Sullivan says, “People generally think every small church should grow into a superchurch or it’s a failure. On the other end are those who claim ‘Small is more beautiful than big.’ “

The eleven writers strive hard to explode the myths about little churches that remain little. Those unfair conclusions range from “assuming a severe lack of dedication to making insinuations about a lack of know-how.”

Constructively, the authors want to show that small is not better or worse; it has both strengths and weaknesses, and wise pastors will capitalize on the strengths.

What are these strengths? Intimacy. Family atmosphere. Accountability. Involvement. Small churches are a breeding ground for leaders—young people are given ample opportunity to serve. Simplicity. The quality of worship depends on real worshipers, not actors prancing on a stage. In addition, there’s often a great sense of excitement about a single convert (in contrast to large churches, where an altar call that yields only two is a failure).

As I talked with the editors by phone, I sensed their concern and excitement. All the contributors have been pastors or members of small churches or else closely connected with them. They say unabashedly, “The small church has a long history and a great future.” Jon Johnston loves the intimacy and the challenge of the smaller church.

“You can participate without being perfect,” he says. People are real in small churches. It’s hard to fake it.

The book has a scholarly feel without being professorial. Its contributors all presented papers on the small church at a recent conference of the Association of Nazarene Sociologists of Religion.

These authors want to communicate and motivate. “Throughout history . . . the majority of congregations have had fewer than 100 members.”

The book also has a pastoral bent. “The greatest discovery a smaller church can make is not some organizational strategy or programmatic method but the spiritual power of the Holy Spirit.”

While somewhat repetitive because each author is speaking independently of the others, each writer brings a unique perspective. One chapter by Paul M. Bassett outlines a cameo history of the small church from the days of Christ. Another by B. Edgar Johnson discusses the case history of the Church of the Nazarene as an example of one denomination not only capitalizing on its smaller churches but actually promoting them.

The book is effective as a word of encouragement and challenge. But it will frustrate some readers for its lack of strong biblical theology (not necessarily in substance but in citation) and its apparent jumpiness. Often you feel there’s little connection from one chapter to the next. This is a common fault of anthologies.

If you’re a pastor or member of a smaller church, this book is helpful. First, in making you feel better about yourself (though I think the authors may carry the “small-church complex” to the point of making you feel you ought to have a complex even when you don’t). Second, to give some practical ideas about making your church work at optimum service potential.

Bill Sullivan summed it up well by saying, “No matter what size the church, nothing really happens till someone accepts Christ.” And that can happen anywhere.

Your Best Resource: The People You Know

You and Your Network by Fred Smith, Word, $8.95

Reviewed by Terry Muck, editor, LEADERSHIP

“For sixteen years, Jarrell McCracken (president of Word, Inc.) has been telling me I should write a book. I finally gave in,” said Fred Smith when asked why he wrote You and Your Network. It’s fitting that he wrote in response to a friend’s request, because that’s what this book is all about: how the people you know make a difference in your life—as heroes, models, mentors, peers, friends, enemies, and family.

Smith writes from the point of view of an experienced businessman who has been very active in his local church, as an adviser (to the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Youth for Christ, and Christianity Today, Incorporated), a regular contributor to LEADERSHIP Journal, and a public speaker.

“One of the themes of my speaking and teaching has always been to encourage people to recognize the resource other people can be. Few people adequately think about the effect of their relationships unless they’re negative. I try to get people thinking about how they can be mutually helpful, how they can organize their own private network to live a more effective life.”

Each chapter takes one group and analyzes the importance those people can have in your life. The underlying assumption is that the way you relate to each group determines a great deal about the way you approach life. for example, in the chapter on heroes, Smith writes, “Heroes are the personification of our ideals, the embodiment of our highest values. A society writes its diary by naming its heroes. We as individuals do the same.”

Of models he writes, “Heroes we idolize, models we emulate. A person is easier to emulate than an essay. We are able to query our models and share in the dynamism that drives them. We borrow from their motivation.”

Of mentors: “As we climb the mountain toward the peak the way gets narrower and steeper, and our need for a sure guide is greater. Three areas of life need greater discipline: nobility of spirit, stability of emotion, and intellectual maturity. These cannot be taught by an outsider—they must be shown, lived, and developed.”

Of peers: “Few of us escape peer pressure. Adults talk about its effect on young people, but I find it everywhere. It simply takes a different form with adults.”

Of enemies: “Enemies are the opposite bank of our stream. They help define our existence, often more nearly or clearly than we could or would do.”

Of friends: “Someone jokingly said that you can tell a real friend when you call him from jail. If he asks ‘Where?’ he’s your friend. If he asks ‘Why?’ he isn’t.”

Of family: “If your wife doesn’t treat you as she should, be grateful.”

The cumulative result of these chapters is a recognition that each of us has a network whether we use it or not. We can either use it to our advantage or work around it—but we can’t ignore it. On the down side, that means that despite our attempts to be independent, all the people we know make a difference in our lives. Positively, though, we can take that influence and use it to our benefit.

For local-church leaders, the implications are clear: we need to be sensitive to our personal networks as much as anyone. Even as we are helping others, they are influencing us. And we are not exempt from needing their help. We need to develop ways to maximize that help.

Smith tells one way he did it: “(I developed) a personal board of directors. I picked out eight qualities for my life which I saw personified in various men I knew. I asked them for an autographed picture which I framed and placed in a circle which I could see every day. It sounds corny now, but knowing how deeply I felt about this, I probably would do it again. … I also framed a plain mirror, putting it at the bottom where I could look at myself and then look at these others and consider my growth in the particular qualities which I felt were needed in my life.”

However it’s done, networking can make a difference. You and Your Network can help you think through some of the issues and decide how you can best tap yours.

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

FROM THE OFFICE OF THE PUBLISHER

Harold L. Myra

My brain, like yours, is remarkable. Sometimes it astounds me by creating a string of words or a solution to a complex problem. Yet it also embarrasses me. It’s clumsy; it malfunctions with names and simple tasks.

With names I am like a five-year-old trying to master addition. I seldom have trouble with faces. I can generally remember the emotional setting of a contact and the person’s role and attitude. But in trying to recall the names of even close friends, my brain at times shorts out.

I once felt guilty because of the theory that those who don’t remember names don’t care about people. I gained a bit of comfort when I read an article attacking that idea, but I was even more comforted by incontrovertible proof that the theory is muddle-headed: twice now I have literally forgotten my own name. You without this weakness may think I jest, but for at least two seconds my brain impulses detoured, and I simply couldn’t remember “Harold Myra.” Knowing my strong interest in myself, that devastated the theory.

Actually, our remarkable brains all have weaknesses. A friend described an experience during graduate training in psychology. The professor warned that a series of tests the class was to take might be disillusioning. “You’ll probably find you are brain-damaged.”

My very bright friend was startled. What an odd prediction! But afterward, he and his classmates found that parts of their brains were indeed less than completely functional.

Maybe that’s why I can’t remember names. Or maybe it’s because I have such an abstract brain it always wanders off into broad implications.

Brains are not like bones or kidneys or fingernails. They’re radically different-like Picasso contrasted with Renoir, the Beatles with Bach.

I find it oddly comforting to think of us all going about life with damaged brains. It puts us at one with the mentally handicapped, the socially inept. It helps us think more compassionately about people in prisons who often started life genetically aberrant or were damaged by childhood abuse.

It also may make us a little more relaxed with the brilliant. My son has difficulty with spelling. I happened to mention that to Fred Smith once, and he said, “I have the same problem. They gave up on me at school. They just excused me from spelling. I still can’t spell many simple words.” I was astounded. Fred is one of the most brilliant and successful men I’ve met.

In the book The Soul of a New Machine, programmer Neal Firth is described as a man who could write up to three hundred lines of code in his mind but had a hard time remembering his own phone number He kept his number on a slip of paper in his desk drawer.

As Jay Kesler, president of Youth for Christ, says about both our minds and personalities, “We’re all a little odd. If you rolled any one of us down a hill, we’d flop, flop, flop all the way to the bottom.”

This is not only an aid to both humility and hope for us odd ducks, but it also hints at a mosaic of beautiful interconnectedness.

Fred Smith once also told me a psychiatrist friend had said to him, “You never read a book through, do you, Fred?” This time it was Fred who was astounded. How could the psychiatrist know that? Fred acknowledged that he dips into books for bits and pieces, catching the flavor and key ideas. Fred’s brain works extremely well, but totally different from mine.

My wife, Jeanette, has brilliant intuitions and perceptions, and our brains are about equal in intelligence, but they are as different as an orange and a pear.

All of the above may help explain why a carefully crafted, prayed-over sermon may not hit all brains the same.

To some, the reaction will be like putting a key in a lock. For others, the message is like something in a different language, or at least something with a heavy foreign accent.

All of us tend to think the universe runs its axis through our lives and that our way of thinking is the prime reality. If we’re into Narnia and Middle Earth, we tend to dismiss the line-by-line Bible study crowd as uncreative and parochial, whereas the Bible studiers dismiss the mythopoeics as shallow and less biblical. Part of this is the way our brains work. We all need to be thoroughly Christ-centered and biblical, but can we allow for fully diverse minds and respect each other?

We might be helped in this if we would: (1) probe minds different from ours and learn how they think; (2) accept the fact that despite our best efforts, we may not communicate well with everybody; (3) relax with our limitations.

We need a correct assessment of ourselves. Clark Clifford once observed that Harry Truman had virtually no affectations and no inferiority complex. Though his roots were in the farm and haberdashery, he saw himself neither above nor below his Yale and Harvard-educated Secretary of State, Dean Acheson.

As we with considerable humor learn the truth about ourselves, we can relax with the fact that God made us as we are and has equipped us for our specific tasks. Diversity in a congregation should not be an irritant or a cause of either inferiority feelings or pride. Instead, it should enable us to say with Paul, “I thank God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel” (Phil. 1:3-5 NIV).

Harold L. Myra, President Christianity Today, Inc.

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

IDEAS THAT WORK

Dan W. Hess

Protecting the Church Treasurer

PROTECTING THE CHURCH TREASURER

Don’t ask me how it happened, because I honestly don’t know.

The facts are these: after several months of stable, predictable giving, the income of Sunrise Christian Fellowship mysteriously dropped 40 percent. Our commitments to people and programs were suddenly pinched. Church leaders naturally turned to their treasurer (me) and began asking questions.

It was then I realized the folly of my being the sole person in the church to count, record, and deposit the offerings. I knew I hadn’t had my hand in the till-but how could anyone else be sure? Although no accusations were raised, I was still uncomfortable. I was also greatly relieved when church giving returned to its normal level the next month! We never did figure out what caused the dip.

Many church treasurers are, like me, accountants or businessmen by profession. We view this position as a chance to use our professional skills in God’s work. However, unless some financial controls are in place, our integrity may be jeopardized.

Even the apostle Paul touched on the importance of good church money management in 2 Corinthians 8:20-21 (PHILLIPS): “Naturally we want to avoid the slightest breath of criticism in the distribution of their gifts, and to be absolutely above-board not only in the sight of God but in the eyes of men.”

Here are some practical procedures worth considering:

Have at least two people present whenever offerings are counted. That way nothing irregular can occur, honest or otherwise, without being observed.

If at all possible, separate the functions of record keeping and cash handling. In other words, the treasurer, who likely keeps the church books, should have another trusted person make the actual bank deposits. This way the treasurer cannot be accused of stealing money and then doctoring the books, nor will the depositor have incentive to steal, because he has no access to the books where he could hide the deed.

Require two signatures on checks larger than a certain amount, say $100. Again, the purpose is not so much to prevent fraud as to protect the treasurer’s integrity.

Persons with responsibility for handling cash should be specifically designated by the governing board. They should be elected to their posts if at all possible, in order to avoid the impression of self-serving appointments.

Separate the functions of receiving cash and disbursing cash. Those who count the offering should not be the ones to write and sign checks for disbursement.

Use banking facilities as much as possible. Keep minimal cash on hand.

Record and deposit all cash receipts promptly.

Disburse all funds by check.

The above guidelines help safeguard the church’s money, which is the asset most susceptible to theft. In addition, it is good stewardship to have as much church money as possible earning interest. By using interest-earning checking accounts and money market funds, it is fairly easy to do this, even if the money is to be spent shortly. Church treasurers who have not recently studied the type of bank accounts now being offered should do so, as changes have been rapid in this area in the past two or three years.

The conscientious church treasurer will also appreciate a clear delineation on who is authorized to spend the church’s money and for what purposes. The membership in general, although well-meaning, should not be allowed to purchase items for the church and then present the treasurer with the bill. This puts the treasurer in a difficult position if the item is questionable. In addition, the member has no way of knowing whether the cash was available or whether this was the highest-priority use of the cash at the time.

A middle road is to authorize one person in each area of ministry to make limited purchases. Such persons-and this includes pastors-must be diligent to turn in organized, complete records so all monetary transactions can be traced and verified as proper. The treasurer should have the ability to prove his or her innocence if necessary.

Even though such procedures may be more time-consuming, bothersome, and expensive, the treasurer’s integrity and reputation are at stake. For the small church to apply all of these principles may be difficult. However, many of these are easy to implement at little expense in time or money.

In addition, most church members consider financial integrity a must. Their feeling of security in the proper handling of their offerings has a direct relationship to how freely they give.

One final suggestion: If possible, make your treasurer a part of the inner circle of leadership. Let this person sense and help develop the vision for the church, praying with you over key decisions and problems. This tells the treasurer that his key role is more than tending ledger sheets; it is caring for people.

The role of treasurer is certainly one of the spiritual “gifts of administration” (1 Cor. 12:28). The office of treasurer is thus a position of spiritual leadership within the body.

When the people view the treasurer in this light, it tends to negate any “appearances of evil.” They see this person as committed to the core motives and goals of the church, not just a detached money handler.

The church treasurer performs a necessary and important function. The pastor and governing board can make the job more enjoyable and less dangerous by following these ideas. Most importantly, the treasurer can help move the church forward in its basic mission of caring for the flock and reaching to the community.

Dan W. Hess is assistant professor of business at Seattle Pacific University.

PASTORAL CARE ANYTIME, NO QUESTIONS ASKED

As one way of showing the church’s young people he loves them-with no strings attached-Pastor Dwain Olson of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Waukesha, Wisconsin, periodically prints this invitation in the church newsletter:

If you are in a jam . . . call Pastor at home, 547-2420, or the office, 542-7665.

A while back, a girl was killed in a one-car accident. Her date was drunk, and he slammed into a tree, killing her instantly. If you are ever in a situation where things aren’t what you think they should be . . . leave. Better to lose your “friends” than your life or your virginity.

If the party is going bad . . . leave. Call your parents to come and get you. If no one can be reached, call me collect (you can call collect from any pay phone), and I’ll come and get you NO QUESTIONS ASKED.

You are a member of this family, and that is what it means to belong to a family.

Olson reports: “When the note was originally written, I was thinking about our young people. But the first person to take advantage of the offer was a middle-aged church member who had been picked up by the police. He was allowed one phone call, and since he knew his wife wasn’t home, he called me, tersely saying where he was and asking me to get his wife and bring cash to bail him out.”

For the next six hours, Olson and the man’s wife sat in the station, wondering what had happened and waiting for the police to finish the paperwork.

“When he was finally released, he said, ‘I’m too ashamed to talk about it,'” says Olson. “I reassured him of what I had written; he didn’t need to explain anything to me. If he ever wanted to talk about it, that was his privilege.

“The next day he returned the bail money I’d loaned him, and weeks later he was ready to talk about the incident with me.”

Since then, Olson says, he doesn’t assume young people are the only ones who need such help. He’s rewritten the note now for a broader audience.

“I don’t do it to be dramatic,” he says. “I just want to illustrate what unconditional love is all about.”

MOVING RIGHT ALONG . . .

There’s less talk and earlier adjournments these days in the monthly Session meetings at Key Biscayne Presbyterian Church in Florida. That’s because many of the routine approvals are now handled by “Decision Memos.”

“Each elder with oversight of a certain department is authorized to fill out a form telling what he’s decided,” explains Cathy Wyatt, the church’s administrative assistant. “The form includes a description of the particulars plus ‘Reasons For’ and ‘Reasons Against.’ A copy goes in every elder’s mailbox, and if no one speaks up in seven days, the action proceeds.”

For example, if the elder in charge of Christian education talks with the staff and they decide they want to show the James Dobson film series on the family, he fills out a Decision Memo giving dates, costs, promotion plans, and why he feels this would be a good event for the church.

Any fellow elder who thinks otherwise will see the memo and phone the first elder to raise a red flag. The two of them work it out or else ask Wyatt to put the matter on the docket for the next Session meeting-which rarely happens.

“The memos are used for things that are fairly certain to be approved,” she adds. “The system took some clarifying in the beginning, but the longer we use it, the more we appreciate its advantages.”

THOSE WITH AN EAR (PLUG) TO HEAR

Several members of the Locust Street Church of Christ were complaining they couldn’t hear. Turning up the P.A. still didn’t produce enough volume, and the small church couldn’t afford to wire a special system for the hearing-impaired.

J. Richard Lewis, minister of the Johnson City, Tennessee, congregation, discovered a creative solution for less than $100.

“We bought a small FM wireless microphone from Radio Shack for under $25,” he says. “It’s half the size of a matchbox, and we mounted it on one of our P.A. speakers.” The church also purchased four small FM radios with ear plugs for approximately $15 each. (“Those with an adjustable tone control work best,” says Lewis.)

Because it’s difficult to explain to those with hearing difficulty how the system works, the tuner is preset to the right frequency and covered with tape. “Otherwise they might be listening to rock ‘n’ roll,” Lewis says with a grin.

“The system is great. You can hear anywhere in the building. And when one of our members had a back injury that prevented him from climbing stairs, he listened on his FM car radio in the parking lot.”

JOYFUL GIVERS

Offering time at Vacation Bible School usually doesn’t net much, simply because children don’t have cash on hand, and parents forget to send some.

Last summer, Trinity United Methodist Church in Clermont, Georgia, came up with a better idea. “We were searching for ways to make the daily offering more meaningful,” says Pastor Roger Bourgeois. “Jean Braselton, our VBS director, suggesting collecting food for needy families instead of the usual nickels and dimes.”

A flier went home with the sixty children on Monday explaining the change, “and the response was fantastic,” says the pastor.

“The enthusiasm and joy at offering time was beautiful. The value of the offering tripled what had been our usual experience,” resulting in $50 worth of nonperishable items that filled a large box.

The cans were exhibited the following Sunday to stimulate church adults to do likewise. Then the food was given to Gateway House, a local shelter for battered women and children. The VBS youngsters had also brought dog and cat food, which went to the humane society.

Trinity plans to expand the approach this summer, bringing in special speakers to make brief presentations to the children about hunger.

A side benefit: non-Christian parents of VBS attenders respond more positively to this idea than to the church once again asking for money.

WHAT’S WORKED FOR YOU?

Each account of a local church doing something in a fresh, effective way earns up to $30.

Send your description of a noteworthy ministry, method, system, or approach to:

Ideas That Work

LEADERSHIP

465 Gundersen Drive

Carol Stream, IL 60188

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

The Way of Contentment

Richard Lewis

I rose early for devotions, but it wasn’t starting off well. I read for the third time the Swahili letter from one of our national pastors telling me he was leaving his church and moving to another area.

For five years I had worked with this young man, teaching him the Scriptures and helping him start his church in the bush area of Kenya. It’s not easy to find willing, educated Turkanans to be pastors. I regretted his decision, but my overwhelming concern was for Pastor Diyo himself. His letter expressed the feelings of so many servants of God, regardless of where they live-discouraged, defeated, unhappy.

My mind wandered back over my fifteen years in the ministry. I knew what Pastor Diyo was feeling. I know what it’s like to work hard but never feel I’m accomplishing anything worthwhile for the Master. I could sympathize with his frustration of working with people whose response and spiritual growth was very slow.

My first pastorate was in an air force town. Equipped with a zeal surpassing all common sense, I set out to build my ministry for God. Each time our church finally got the right personnel to fill the positions necessary for growth, Uncle Sam would transfer half the teaching staff. Every six months we’d slide back to square one. After three years I left, discouraged and defeated.

Discontentment in the ministry is certainly not unusual: in fact, it’s probably the norm. Contentment doesn’t come naturally, and not all situations are conducive for it, but the last seven years of my ministry have been most fulfilling, a marked contrast to my first pastorate.

What makes the difference between a servant who is frustrated and one who is content? Here’s what I’ve learned.

Contentment comes in exercising your spiritual gifts. The average pastor is expected to be a jack of all trades with the ability to master them all. But the Scriptures clearly teach that all Christians, including pastors, are only given certain spiritual gifts for the profit of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:4-7). Discontentment sets in when people want to minister, but their gifts don’t coincide with their duties. Many pastors are performing tasks, day after day, that they don’t enjoy and are not spiritually equipped to perform.

Though I like people, I am not a “people person.” My gift is not gab, and though I worked at them diligently, my pastoral visitation and counseling left a lot to be desired.

Some people love to stand before a congregation to preach. When I have to preach, I get the bends. Yet, as a pastor I preached twice a Sunday for six years. Is it any wonder those years were filled with discouragement?

Most missionaries are builders, workers with their hands. I am not gifted in this area; I have trouble driving a nail straight. Though I travel hundreds of miles in the desert alone, if my vehicle broke down, I would be stranded, for I’m no mechanic. There was a time I felt discouraged about this, but then the Holy Spirit showed me that not all his servants must be carbon copies. I began to see that the Lord wants me to exercise my gifts, not fret over talents I don’t have.

My strong suit, my spiritual gift, is teaching. As a pastor, the only task I really enjoyed was teaching my Sunday school class and Wednesday night Bible study. Here in Kenya I spend most of my hours writing study materials in Swahili and teaching in a Bible institute. I’ve never been so content. Why? Because I’m doing a job I’m equipped to handle.

Contentment comes when you enjoy your ministry. You only enjoy a ministry when you’re doing the work the Holy Spirit has equipped you to do.

Contentment is enjoying your ministry right now where you are. If you cannot enjoy the daily ministry, it’s a cinch you won’t enjoy the accomplished goal. If you don’t have satisfaction in the journey, you won’t be satisfied when you reach the destination.

I wish I’d been able to see thirteen years ago that the air force wasn’t sabotaging my ministry-it was extending it around the globe!

Contentment is financial stability, not financial security. My salary when I entered the pastorate was $57.50 a week. From that handsome sum I paid our rent, utilities, food, car expenses . . . everything. Of necessity I learned the importance of managing finances. Looking back on those lean years, I honestly don’t know how we made it. The Lord was gracious. Though we didn’t have much, we were never in debt.

The number one killer of contentment is financial instability. Many pastors never settle into the ministry of Christ because they are married to their credit cards. Financial stability does not come with an increase of money supply. Government spending is a classic example that throwing more money into a program does not insure stability.

Blessed is the man who learns the art of money management. Regardless of his annual income, he will know contentment.

Contentment is knowing the true value of things. Lack of self-control is a sign of instability, especially in the area of possessions.

I have a pastor friend who is obsessed with clothes. I’ve accused him of spending more time in men’s shops than in his study. He’s never content with his wardrobe; there’s always something he must buy.

Another pastor I know would be absolutely red-faced driving last year’s model.

Another pastor finally saved enough money to purchase his own home. Unfulfilled, he continued to invest his money until he finally left the ministry so he could keep up with his investments.

Perhaps it was necessary for me to move to Kenya and work with destitute tribes before I could understand the meaning of Agur’s prayer, “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that is my portion” (Prov. 30:8).

There’s never a time I enter an American church that I don’t think of the Christians in Kenya meeting in their mud buildings. Each time I look into my closet filled with shirts and trousers I think of those in the desert who have nothing. At meal time I think of those who go to bed hungry.

Forgive me for sounding like a missionary, but I’ve learned that things, though nice to have, are not really all that valuable. Happy is the man who can say with Paul, “If we have food and covering, with these we shall be content” (1 Tim. 6:8).

Contentment doesn’t mean a problem-free life. Paul was in prison when he wrote, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances” (Phil. 4:11). Contentment is a state of mind. We determine our outlook on life by our attitude. Or, as Abraham Lincoln said, “A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be.” If a person has his priorities straight, he will be content, even in the midst of a storm.

Contentment doesn’t mean a person is lazy, lacks goals, or is not self-motivated. The pastor exercising spiritual gifts will never be content with mediocrity. If there is a tribe yet to be reached, a book yet to be written, a visit yet to be made, the minister of Christ will not rest until the task has been completed. It is actually discontentment that destroys self-motivation. Discouragement saps energy and the desire to set goals.

The fear of contentment is a cultural disease. A Chinese philosopher stated, “The most outstanding characteristic of the Eastern civilization is to know contentment, whereas that of the Western civilization is not to know contentment.”

Contentment is something not easily or quickly learned. The late Dr. Noel Smith told an old friend from his hospital bed, “Just about the time a man learns how to live, it’s time to die.” Sadly, for some people, they never learn how to live. They never learn, as 1 Timothy 6:6 says, that “godliness with contentment is great gain.” That balance is also the way of effective ministry.

-Richard Lewis

Kitale, Kenya

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

Confessions of a Small-Group Leader

Joe Higginbotham

A lay leader tells what he’ll do differently last time.

My first experience in small-group ministry is now over-sooner than I expected. But I still believe in the concept. Even though I made so many mistakes, I intend to go out and try again. In fact, I’m already involved in a second small group, and I’ve taken steps to safeguard against the problems I’m about to describe.

The first group started after my Sunday school class complained that forty-five minutes wasn’t enough time to do the text justice. I suggested we meet on some weeknight in addition to Sunday morning.

One couple volunteered their home, and before long, their living room was filled with young adults we never could have coaxed out of bed for Sunday school. More important, the teaching enjoyed an efficiency over tortilla chips and cola that somehow had hit snags coming over a pulpit or lectern. The church had given me a license to preach, but the small group gave me license to minister.

We made some serious blunders, however. What were they? Here are several.

Prone to Clone

Having never been a guru before, I had no idea how easy it is to abuse your position of prominence and clone others in your image.

Our group granted me the positions of Discussion Leader, Teacher, Information Clearinghouse, and Interpreter of Holy Writ-and I too readily accepted.

At first I praised the Lord for a group so responsive to my discipling, but I started hearing things that scared me. People began quoting me the way I quoted C. S. Lewis and C. H. Spurgeon. I heard not only my words, illustrations, anecdotes, mottoes, and doctrinal positions being repeated, but also my attitudes and prejudices. It wasn’t so bad that they adopted my soteriology and even my eschatology, but they were assuming my personality! I wondered if Jim Jones started out this way.

What precautions should I have taken?

I should have insisted that others in the group lead the studies with gradually increasing frequency. I should have asked fewer questions with “right” answers. I should have gradually extricated myself and forced them to go on without me as their role model.

Resisting My Natural Bent

Allowing myself to become the long-term leader played against my natural strengths. I’m a starter, not a sustainer.

Our original plan was for me to start the group, leave it in the hands of whatever leadership God raised up, and move on to launch another group. But I was swayed from my better judgment.

Yes, we started a spin-off group for people who couldn’t meet on Tuesdays, but it never really took off. Instead of leading that group myself, I delegated the missionary task to two young men I’d been meeting with one-on-one. They were good students, willing “missionaries,” but the fact remains that I was the more gifted spark plug. The main group would have done fine under their leadership; the second group would have done better under mine.

Leading a Bible study over the long haul is like pastoring-you become a marriage counselor, demonologist, and psychotherapist. My living room became a refuge for the romantically disturbed. Since my gifts are more prophetic than pastoral, I was playing a role God hadn’t intended me to play. I wound up tired, frustrated, impatient.

This wouldn’t have happened if I’d stuck to my plan of starting but letting others sustain.

People We Didn’t Expect

When word gets out that something significant is going on in so-and-so’s living room, you’ll attract two kinds of people who can spell trouble: (1) those with emotional or psychological problems who see your group as a crisis intervention center, and (2) offbeat theological nomads looking for a group to take over.

Our group didn’t do so well with those looking for psychoanalysis. I read Gary Collins, Jay Adams, and every other counseling expert I could find, but I ended up referring the troubled souls to local ministers who had doctorates in counseling. The troubled souls merely drifted through in their search for a couch.

We did better with the traveling heretics. If you measure success by the ability to drown dissonant voices, we were most impressive.

One night several cultists dropped in and wanted to challenge me on two or three basics of orthodoxy. For once I was glad I’d cloned myself among the members of the group. I just sat back and listened as two of the guys I’d been meeting for breakfast over a systematic theology text soundly out-debated the outsiders. The nonnegotiables of orthodoxy were well defended without me opening my mouth. If I hadn’t done much else right, at least I’d developed a couple of better-than-average apologists for the faith.

An Informal Institution

The nonchurchy, spontaneous atmosphere of our group was its most basic appeal. It was my fault we lost it. In an effort to develop cohesion and identity, we developed too many trappings of an institution.

One of my early mistakes was bringing in outside speakers once a month. I thought it would give us access to the best possible teaching. But attendance dropped on those nights, the group voting their disapproval by their absence. Those who came were hesitant to open up with questions or comments.

Another mistake was trying to give the group a name. Being identified with a catchy name and logo would draw us closer, I thought, but the group saw the innovation as churchiness. They continued to call our group simply “the Bible study.”

The whole group was at fault for yet another feature: we behaved like jealous lovers when one of our number left for another activity or ministry. The heart of institutionalism is demanding self-interested loyalty, which should never characterize Christians, whose only justifiable loyalty is their allegiance to Christ. We would never say so, but we began feeling ours was the best, if not the only, game in town. We forgot our purposes of discipleship, evangelism, and Bible knowledge. We just wanted to preserve our group.

We even had a liturgy of sorts. We ate junk food at a certain time, prayed at a certain time, shared, and of course, I taught-all in proper order. We lost our initial spontaneity and became so rigid that visitors felt like outsiders and didn’t come back. We no longer offered the cozy supplement to the church; we had become our own church.

The End of Our Beginning

I once heard J. Vernon McGee say something to the effect that most organizations get started because there’s a real need that ought to be met, but many groups perpetuate themselves long after the goals have been met. They outlive their usefulness.

From the beginning I viewed the Bible study as a temporary work that would meet some needs, fill a gap, and then pass away when no longer needed. I often thought of Amos the prophet, who rose from obscurity to speak the words God gave him and then, his mission completed, had enough sense to shut up and go back to his herds. I vowed I would be like Amos and disband the small group when my prophetic mission was accomplished.

Eventually came the day when I felt the Bible study had outlived its purpose. Most of the people were in churches that, for the most part, met their needs, and the few who hadn’t yet joined organized congregations were spiritually strong enough to survive without the weekly spoon feeding. Of course, there were a few who relied on the group heavily-too heavily, I thought. I suspected they would grow more if made to fend for themselves.

The first time I suggested we disband, the group protested. I gave it more time but urged them to pray for God’s direction and to examine their motives for seeing the group continue.

The next time I suggested dissolution, there were nods of agreement. We met one more time, and then called it quits.

Two Words of Warning

Ministry in a small group requires a solid ecclesiology. Without it, two pitfalls become real dangers for small-group leaders.

First, people can make you feel you have to start a church, if not formally, at least informally, complete with polity, clergy, and other trappings. The danger is losing sight of the original purpose; the group can begin to exist for its own sake.

Remember Amos. God may be raising up a neighborhood Bible study or a young-adult sharing group just for a certain time. Meet as long as you see fruit. Quit when the purposes have been fulfilled.

A second pitfall is thinking that because you’re not a church, you can get by with less commitment and preparation. The difference between an organized church and a home Bible study is often no more than people sitting in pews or on sofas. The body of Christ is anatomically identical whether in a living room or a cathedral. It requires our best effort.

Don’t confuse the wineskins with the wine. Whether the wineskins are organized churches with pews and payrolls or home Bible studies with coffee and questions, the wine is the same.

So small groups are sometimes fraught with dangers-largely in the temptation to make them something they’re not or in not respecting them for all they are. But don’t allow the perils to dissuade you.

Despite my less-than-perfect experience, I still believe the small group is the best vehicle available for the full employment of all the spiritual gifts and blessings in the church.

Joe Higginbotham is a layman in St. Albans, West Virginia.

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

Getting the Real Story: A Guide to Candidating

Douglas G. Scott

Eighteen questions to ask before you say yes

I took a deep breath to push the fatigue from my mind and body. After traveling seven hours to be here, my wife and I were now holding cups of strong coffee, surrounded by thirty people, and trying to connect names with faces.

They examined us closely, some smiling, some sizing us up like wary customers looking for a used car. Four months of correspondence, telephone conversations, research, and prayer had brought us to this moment. Every facet of my life would soon be explored publicly. I knew I would need the endurance of a distance runner just to withstand this evening. I was being interviewed.

The church, a major congregation in the South, was looking for a senior pastor. They had sent me a bulky package of materials-results of a congregational self-study, membership statistics, a statement of mission and purpose, and comprehensive financial reports for the previous five years.

I, in turn, had provided them with my background and experience.

We had planned our three-day interview trip with surgical precision-the children were with my parents in Philadelphia, the dog housed at a kennel, the airline connections engineered so my absence would not be missed, and other clergy covering for me. It had been expensive and exhausting, but we were excited about the possibilities.

As we moved to our chairs, front and center, I prayed for discernment, knowing our conversations the next three days might well affect the rest of our lives. The chairman stood to begin the discussion.

Looking at me over the tops of his reading glasses, he said, “Before we begin, I want y’all to know I had to live up with Yankees for a year back in 1965, and I didn’t like it one bit! What makes you think you’re gonna be happy livin’ down here?”

My wife and I exchanged glances and knew at once-it was all over.

That interview, at least, left no doubt about the congregation’s attitudes-which is better than search committees and candidates performing a verbal dance trying to appear as attractive as possible in the ecclesiastical mating ritual. Often discussion is merely an exchange of theological pleasantries, with the tragic result that congregation and pastor don’t really know each other. At best, this means the first year is spent discovering the truth. At worst, such a flawed process makes everyone disillusioned when unexpected attitudes, ideas, and commitments surface only after the pastor arrives.

How can candidates improve the situation? Can the interview itself be a constructive and even enjoyable process?

Yes. Approached carefully, the interview is an effective tool for discerning expectations. The committee may not have thought back further than the former pastor’s resignation, and their forward vision may be limited to moving the new one into the manse. They may be mired in the moment, uncertain where they want to go. At your interview, you can minister to them, as well as helping to discern if this invitation is of God, by exploring their history as God’s people in a particular place, helping them focus their present concerns and expand their vision of the future.

The Approach

Upon being invited to interview, one of the first things you must make clear is that you’ll be asking a number of questions yourself, and that you expect your questions to take at least an hour. Set the interview time accordingly.

Do not assume that they expect you to ask questions. I was once the last of six candidates to interview with a particular church, but the first to ask any questions. After our conversation, one committee member said, “We were surprised you had questions about coming here! We assumed our church was so attractive that any clergyman would be glad to come. I don’t know if you are the right one for us, but you were the only candidate who forced us to think about what kind of minister our church needed.”

There are three types of questions you’ll want to raise:

Questions of census to discover who the congregation is-the talents, skills, interests, and commitments these people bring to church. Questions of census also look beyond the congregation itself to the area it serves. Does the church draw its members from the surrounding community? Have there been major demographic shifts in the past ten years, and if so, how has the church addressed these shifts? Do these trends indicate future changes? Is housing in the area affordable for young couples? If not, what is the potential for church growth?

Every congregation also has particular issues you’ll need to know about. Some are low-risk, pleasantly discussed questions of theory; others are powder-kegs. Is the church inward- or outward-looking? Have changes in worship practice disrupted the congregation? Was there (or is there) any contention over the previous pastor? Have there been theological or practical divisions in the congregation? Has a building program alienated anyone? Just as questions of census cannot be divorced from the community at large, neither can questions of issues. Has the school district been affected by busing? Is the community racially, economically, and socially integrated? If so, is the congregation? Are crime rates increasing? Candidates must explore the social context to understand issues within the church.

Questions centering on structures attempt to discover both the formal and the hidden, informal networks in the congregation. But they also can probe beyond this particular congregation. Are relations with neighboring churches friendly? Has this church been involved with ecumenical worship, educational, or fellowship programs? Are there strong ties between this congregation and the district, presbytery, or diocese? If the congregation is nonaligned, is there an active clergy association in the community for fellowship and support?

The interview is the time for hard and honest statement. If you expect the church to increase your salary by 15 percent every year, this is the time to tell them so. If you will be disappointed by a midweek service of less than 50 percent of the congregation, explain that now!

Why? Congregational expectations of the clergy beyond the written job description (if there is one) are so erratic they are impossible to state accurately. Some parishioners will expect an eighty-hour work week from you; others will want you to spend significant time with your family. The selection committee cannot represent all the congregational expectations, but they will probably suggest trends.

Many clergy bristle when asked if their spouse will accompany them on the interview. Terse statements are frequently made (“You are hiring me, not my wife!”), which, while true, will not endear you to the committee. Personally, I consider my wife a tremendous asset at a job interview. She has the ability to discern attitudes while I am embroiled in answering questions. In addition, she enjoys having the opportunity to meet the individuals involved-after all, she will have to live with them, too! However, many wives (or husbands) feel uncomfortable in this situation and may resent being asked. The wisest policy is to graciously tell the committee that your spouse will (or will not) be accompanying you, whichever is your preference.

Before the Committee

As the interview begins, ask if you might begin with prayer if someone else has not already done so.

If you are the one to pray, let your prayer speak to the situation; don’t try to impress them with your ability at extemporaneous praying. One honest “Lord Jesus, quiet our anxious hearts” will do more for all of you than a thousand “we beseech thee of thy gracious favors.”

I believe both candidates and committee are best served if the committee asks their questions first. That way, you can modify yours to follow up on issues they have raised. Your agenda includes not only your concerns but also ministering to their needs.

Preface your questions with a statement that some answers you are looking for are matters of fact, but others are matters of feeling, specifically their feelings. As a result, you realize there may be different answers to one question, and you welcome that diversity of opinion.

It is important to have a list of prepared questions based on your understanding of the congregation rather than appearing to ask questions off the cuff. The best kind of spontaneity, someone once said, is the well-planned kind.

While you may be tempted to deal with specific events, statistics, and services, resist the urge to focus on too narrow an area. While there are no perfect “canned” questions for each interview, I would recommend the following approach. Some questions may be useful the way they are; others will need modification depending on the situation.

The primary purpose is to allow committee members to verbalize their attitudes and expectations. You will find it far more helpful to understand their likes and dislikes than their financial condition for the last ten years.

Questions to Ask

Why am I of particular interest to you?

Start with this question. You are not fishing for compliments, but it helps to know if they’re excited about you as their potential pastor. You also need to know why you are of real interest. The answer may surprise you!

I interviewed with one congregation who confessed (after I asked) that they weren’t really interested, but the bishop had asked them to contact me, and they felt obliged to do so. Once I knew that, we were able to talk in depth about their particular situation. As a result, they were able to clarify some issues in congregational life they had not seen prior to my visit.

What has been the most significant event in the life of this congregation since you have been a member?

The question serves two purposes. First, you discover what events are significant to them, which helps both you and the committee focus on future expectations. In addition, you see what ministries this congregation considers significant. Do their responses focus on worship activities? Social functions? Outreach programs? Would you characterize any of those events as significant if they happened in your church?

Aside from the upheaval of looking for a new pastor, what has been the most upsetting event in the life of this church?

Unless this congregation is highly unusual, there has probably never been a public opportunity for members to express their frustration, disappointment, and anger. While they may have had plenty of private (and potentially divisive) opportunities, your question allows them to voice their pain openly. It also allows you the luxury of future vision-that is, knowing what is likely to upset them in the years ahead.

In your opinion, what areas of concern need to be addressed by this congregation?

Delightfully nonspecific, this question may be the perfect invitation for a committee member to open an issue that is unresolved or unrecognized. You must, however, be prepared to bring the group back to your agenda should they spend too much time on isolated concerns.

This question once evoked a heated argument within one search committee over a question of property maintenance. When we pursued it further, I discovered fully half the members expected the pastor to mow the church lawn in summer and shovel the snow in winter.

What kinds of things did your former pastor do particularly well?

Certain questions regarding your predecessor are fair territory as long as you refer to him with respect and treat his ministry with courtesy and honor. Your kindness in asking this question will be appreciated. It allows those present to celebrate their former pastor in a specific way-by holding up his or her particular gifts in ministry. It also allows you to see what aspects of ministry were well-received, including tasks that may be expected of you.

What were the circumstances surrounding your former pastor’s departure?

You may already know the answer, having heard through the grapevine. But unless the former pastor died in office, it is a good idea to ask so the committee can state openly the reasons. If your predecessor did die in office, or if he was extremely popular and moved on to another congregation, you will have to be sensitive to their need to mourn his departure. If you are following an individual who had a long term as pastor, you may want to ask if the committee feels another long-term pastorate is feasible considering the tenure of your predecessor.

In what areas did you wish your former pastors had more expertise?

“We’ve had three preachers in a row in this church, and now we need a money man!” Listening to this response by a committee member a few years ago, I felt glad I had asked!

You have cushioned this question by making the subject plural, thus taking the onus off your predecessor, but you’ve still allowed them to express their opinions about unaddressed areas of need.

Two caveats should be issued: First, you are not talking about personality traits but ministerial skills. Second, ask them to speak only about first-hand experience. Rumors that Pastor So-and-so didn’t deal with poor Mr. Jones’s suicide very well may be nothing more than that-rumors, and are therefore counterproductive.

What formal and informal methods of support have you used in the past to help your pastor become a better minister?

The question may stop them cold! If they display signs of confusion, offer explanations based on your expectations of congregational support. Did they encourage (and offer to pay for) any continuing education? Are there formal structures to assist the pastor in preaching by providing disciplined feedback? Has the congregation developed methods to evaluate their own performance as Christian ministers?

Tell me about the governing board.

And I mean everything! How are they elected? How frequently? Does the board rotate membership on a regular basis? What is the background, business, and interest of each member? What kind of jobs do they hold? Are they employers or employees? (The answer makes a significant difference in how they treat their clergy!)

Who runs the stewardship, Christian education, youth, mission, and outreach programs? Who oversees building maintenance? Is the church board bound to any state laws in addition to congregational by-laws and denominational methods of procedure? If there is a staff in addition to the pastor, who is responsible for church-staff relations? How much authority does the board exercise in staff management? How frequently does the board meet? How long, on the average, do the meetings last?

The church building may be beautiful, the community ideal, the manse a mansion, but the quality of your working life will be determined largely by your relationship with the board. Discover as much as you can about its members and how they function before you consider accepting this call.

Has the pastor’s family traditionally taken an active role in this church?

In answering this question, committee members may reveal how they felt about the level of activity of previous pastors’ families. Therein lies the key to the criteria by which your family will be judged.

How is the pastor’s compensation package determined? How frequently is it reviewed? By whom? What factors are used in determining that package? Merit or cost-of-living increases? Social Security reimbursement? Equity in the parsonage or a cash equity allowance? Continuing education, book, and automobile allowances?

Presumably, you already know what salary the church is offering. What you are interested in is whether you will be a participant in your salary review a year after your call. You also need to sensitize the committee to the increasing financial burden placed on clergy by factors beyond their control such as Social Security increases (soon to be 13 percent) and the loss of equity by living in church-owned housing.

Far too often, humility (or embarrassment) prevents clergy from honestly discussing financial needs, but the laborer is worthy of his hire, and your compensation package must meet the needs of your family. Your interest in the process and participation in annual reviews must be stated at the outset.

How should your pastor spend his time? In the course of a week, how much time should be spent in prayer? Personal study? Sermon preparation? Administration? Individual and family counseling? Visiting? With the family?

At some point, get specific information about their expectations of your time. I remember asking a question about the rector’s personal time, and a vestryman responded, “Day off? Why, our rectors never take a day off!” I accepted the call to that church and found the man wasn’t kidding-they expected their rector to be available at a moment’s notice. It took two years before they became accustomed to my practice of leaving town a day and a half each week.

How many hours do they expect you to work in a week? If you expect to work forty, and they expect eighty, better to know it now! How are those hours to be used? When they are used up and work remains undone, what happens? If you work extra hours one week, will they allow you to take those hours for yourself and your family next week? Do they see prayer, study, and sermon preparation as part of your work week, or things to be done on top of forty hours of hospital and home visiting?

In your questioning, you must not sound judgmental-you are acquiring information. They may have thought of the pastor’s job only in the most general terms. These questions force them to state their expectations clearly both for themselves and the candidate.

What organizations in the congregation are the most active or successful?

This allows you to determine the congregational priorities. If the Ladies’ Bridge Club is thriving but the Young People’s Fellowship is limping along, you know where the interest and commitment is. Ask if any organizations have dissolved in the last two years. If so, why?

Beyond calling a pastor and its related concerns, what is the highest congregational priority for the next twelve months?

Whatever the responses (and there are bound to be more than one), they will form your expected agenda for the next year. You must determine if their interests align with your own. You may want to build a men’s program or start an emergency food cupboard, but they may want to panel the church lounge or pave the parking lot.

What goals have you established for church growth? What methods can be used to achieve those goals?

The question of growth is a census question. Where will the new people come from? If this community is like most others, the question will be how to attract and sustain the unchurched. Is the church ready for that?

Perhaps the most honest response I ever received to this question came from one committee member who said, “Getting more people is your job, and I don’t care how you do it. I just come here to worship.”

While undoubtedly many people feel this way, if that attitude is embraced by the congregation as a whole, the task before you is formidable.

What plans have you made for the expansion of staff or plant?

If they haven’t planned for expansion, they don’t intend to grow. The vision of their future ministry is bound by the limitations of the present moment. While this may not deter you from accepting the position, you must realize you have some hard work cut out for you, beginning with an expansion of their horizons.

How stable is this congregation financially?

With the recent economic uncertainties, few churches have been able to work toward future financial security. Ask them to speculate aloud about the future financial needs of the congregation.

What programs have you planned to implement in the next ten years?

Many churches feel any plans they may have had go out the window when a new pastor comes. On the other hand, some congregations may be anxious to implement changes the former pastor disallowed. The question allows them to state their dreams of the future. You, in turn, can give them an honest assessment of your interest in those particular programs with relatively little risk.

But How Do I Know?

The search for the perfect congregation is futile. No church can ever fully meet a minister’s needs, any more than one minister can fulfill all the expectations of a congregation. Even so, you need not accept every offer that comes along. How do you know when to pursue an interview to the next stage, or to accept the call if offered?

Accepting a call is at best a series of tradeoffs. Are you are willing to live with this particular drawback in order to acquire that specific benefit?

Consequently, before you begin the process, take time to assess your professional needs and your family’s social and economic needs. What are the nonnegotiables? What are things you’d be willing to wait two years for? What are mere preferences?

Do you have skills as a teacher that you need to use? Are you particularly gifted in youth work? Do you hunger to share your spiritual journey with a group of fellow pilgrims? What family needs will shape your decision? Will your spouse expect or need to work? What stage have your children reached in their schooling? Will their gifts or needs require specialized instruction or guidance?

Don’t forget to list areas where you will require assistance. Do you find administrative work a burden and hope to have members of the congregation share the load? Do you depend on lay assistance in visitation? Do you need structured feedback to help you gauge your performance?

An honest assessment of needs will highlight specific areas your interview must address. If your needs assessment is carefully done, you’ll know what you require and what you’re willing to trade off.

The criteria you establish, however, may not be your final basis for deciding. I once interviewed with a church that presented me with a dozen reasons to say no. Some members of the search committee were guarded, others hostile. Several questions I asked received an answer I didn’t expect (or want). Accepting the call would have meant taking a cut in salary and moving my wife and children even farther from our already distant families. I was certain the pastor who accepted this call would be faced with a long list of difficulties.

But I accepted that call nonetheless and serve that congregation today, convinced that even though it seemed all wrong, it was definitely right.

The interview, stressful and upsetting as it may be, is the best forum for hammering out concerns, commitments, and priorities in an atmosphere of intense excitement and high expectation. Handled carefully and prayerfully, it can be a time of joyous discovery that leads to a long and fruitful relationship.

Douglas G. Scott is rector of The Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury in Smithtown, New York.

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

Renewal that Lasts

Howard A. Snyder

How God’s church- — once awakened — can keep from dozing off again.

The more we talk about revitalizing the church, the more questions we seem to raise. Some of the most central ones are these: Is renewal totally in God’s hands, or do we have a part to play? How does God renew the church? And is “renewal fade-out” inevitable?

Renewal, like the church itself, is a mystery. But the study of Scripture and church history does tell us much about how renewal has come-and stayed-in the past. We begin to see that renewal has more than one dimension. Here are five:

Personal Renewal

This is our usual definition. Many of us have experienced individual renewal at some point in our Christian lives. Our spiritual life was deepened; God became closer and more personally real. Personal renewal may be a dramatic, decisive experience or simply a deepening that gives us greater peace and joy.

A few years ago, a friend reported that more or less on her own she had come into a new peace with God and a richer sense of his presence. She calls this her “rise”; that’s the best way she can describe it.

Whatever else renewal is, it surely must be personal. We are human persons made to experience God in all his fullness. Nothing can substitute for this. First through the New Birth, then through the deepening work of the Holy Spirit, God wants every son and daughter to know the joy of deep, fulfilling communion with himself. This is, in fact, the heart of the Christian faith.

But there are broader dimensions to renewal. Renewing individual believers is only part of the story.

Corporate Renewal

God is not satisfied until the whole community of believers takes on a renewed life.

Again, many of us have experienced this at some time in our lives. God’s Spirit moved graciously over the whole church; everyone was touched. This may have been marked by a dramatic spirit of revival sweeping the congregation or simply by a gentle quickening in the life of the believers. Either way, it was the work of the Spirit.

I remember several times when, as a teenager, I experienced the Holy Spirit’s deep stirring on the campus and in the church at Spring Arbor, Michigan. I quote from my diary for Tuesday, January 17, 1956: “In chapel period God broke loose and an altar service lasted until 2:00 P.M., and almost all the Spring Arbor students were saved.” And the next evening: “In the student vesper service God again broke loose while a larger number testified and [one of the students] told of his vision of heaven.” This was a dramatic, seemingly spontaneous revival; people coming onto campus said they could feel the Spirit of God. I was fifteen at the time.

Corporate renewal is not always that dramatic, nor need it be. The point isn’t how we feel but rather the freedom the Spirit has among us. Where renewal becomes corporate, touching the whole body, it reaches a deeper, broader level than when it remains the experience of a few individuals only.

With corporate renewal, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. A renewed congregation is more powerful in God’s hands than a collection of isolated Christians, no matter how deeply revived. Combined the glowing coals of renewal burst into flame.

Conceptual Renewal

But these are not the only two dimensions. Renewal may also come conceptually, as God gives new vision of what the church can and should be.

Conceptual renewal is a new vision for the church’s life and mission. It comes primarily in the area of our thoughts, ideas, and images of the church. Each of us has a set of ideas-a certain “model”-of what the church should be. Our models are a combination of our experience and our study of Scripture. Conceptual renewal comes when our models are challenged, and we are forced to rethink what the church is really all about.

I began to experience this kind of renewal in seminary and while pastoring briefly in Detroit. The process came into focus especially when my family and I went to Brazil as missionaries. Studying, thinking, praying, and reflecting on more than twenty-five years in the church, I came to a new understanding. I found a new model: the organic community pictured so forcefully in the New Testament. For me, this was conceptual renewal-my “conversion” to a more biblical understanding of the church.

The model was not really new, of course; it was as old as Scripture. But it was new to me.

It is important to see that God works in our minds as well as our hearts. Conceptual renewal can be just as much the work of the Spirit as a powerful revival. God wants the eyes of our understanding to be enlightened, so that we may comprehend the breadth of what he is doing in and through the church (Eph. 1:17-18).

Many people have experienced conceptual renewal but not yet personal renewal. They have a new vision of what the church can become, but they haven’t experienced it. This easily leads to frustration. The key is not to give up on the vision but to become part of a community of believers that is open to the work of the Spirit in all its dimensions. In this context one’s vision is clarified and sharpened even while one’s heart is warmed. New avenues of ministry open up.

We need conceptual and theological renewal in the church as surely as we need personal and corporate renewal. Jesus warned the Pharisees that they were voiding the Word of God by their traditions, that new wine needs new wineskins. The same principles hold today. We need an understanding of the church that is based on Scripture first, on practical reason and experience second, and only thirdly on tradition. What promotes revival, renewal, and faithful kingdom witness in the church should be kept; what does not should be scrapped.

It is easy to miss the importance of this aspect of renewal, and yet it is often crucial to the work of the Spirit. We can be imprisoned by our concepts as surely as we are imprisoned by our habits. In fact, concepts are habits-habitual ways of understanding and viewing things. God’s Spirit may be hindered by wrong ideas as well as by cold hearts.

Church history shows that conceptual renewal has often been at the heart of revival movements. By God’s Spirit, people have been led to a deeper understanding-a new model or vision, a new paradigm-of what the gospel is or what the church should be. Luther’s rediscovery of justification by faith was as much a new concept in his day as a new experience. When John Wesley said, “Christianity is a social religion” and began organizing cell groups, he was teaching a new concept of the church as community. Yet both Luther and Wesley were simply rediscovering what Scripture teaches. This was part of God’s renewing work.

I believe God is at work today, weaning us away from old, static views of the church to new, dynamic views of the committed, intimate covenant community. Every age needs to reinterpret the biblical understanding of the church for its time and unique needs if renewal is going to go as far as God intends.

Structural Renewal

A fourth dimension of renewal has to do with forms and structures. It is the dimension of renewal concerned with the way we, as believers, live out our lives together. It is the question of the best wineskins for the new wine.

Renewal often dies prematurely for lack of effective structures. The new wine flows through the cracks of our old forms and is soon lost. Renewal becomes a fond memory, not a new way of life.

Structural renewal is simply finding the best forms, in our day and age, for living out the new life in Christ. History is full of examples of structural renewal becoming a key to extending renewal beyond the passing moment. Early Christians discovered the usefulness of homes for church gatherings, and through history the rediscovery of the “house church” has often been a part of renewal movements. Wesley created the class meeting, the band, the Methodist society, and a team of “lay” preachers as “wineskins” to carry the wine of renewal. It worked! Many other examples could be cited, including the contemporary rediscovery of small groups, one-on-one discipling, and other nontraditional forms of church life and witness.

It seems to be a principle that traditions and structures outlive their usefulness and become more a hindrance than a help. Nothing in Scripture, for instance, says churches must have a Sunday school, a midweek service, or leadership primarily in the hands of one or two persons. Nor is there any biblical reason for most activities to happen in a church building rather than in homes. Many other examples could be cited. The point is that any traditional form, structure, or practice that helps us be alive and faithful should be kept and improved; any that insulate us from the fresh fire of the Spirit should be modified or retired.

True enough: We cannot bring renewal by changing forms. But we can stifle it by putting forms above life. Renewal is less likely to come and more likely to die in a tradition-bound group where everything happens in the church building and there is little freedom to innovate. Renewal is more likely when believers begin to share their faith together in homes, when traditional forms are periodically reevaluated, and when the structural vitality and flexibility of the early church are rediscovered.

Missiological Renewal

A church needing renewal is focused inward. A renewed church focuses outward to needy persons. It is moved to carry on the very works Christ did, for the sake of his kingdom.

Sometimes renewal actually begins here, with a new sense of mission. Some people catch a vision for a new ministry in the church, the neighborhood, or the world. “Here is a need we can meet,” they say. Faith takes hold; resources are brought together. In finding those in need, a church often finds itself and the renewing work of the Spirit.

Jesus told us to seek first the righteousness and justice of his kingdom (Matt. 6:33), to pray that his kingdom may come on earth (Matt. 6:10). The church, Emil Brunner said, exists by mission as fire exists by burning. Genuine renewal will issue in missiological renewal. A renewed, creative sense of mission is as much a part of renewal as is personal or corporate renewal. A church has not really been renewed until it has found its unique mission for God’s kingdom in the here and now.

No Certain Sequence

We see, then, that there are many sides to renewal: personal, corporate, conceptual, structural, and missiological. We can say several things about them:

1. Renewal may begin in any one or more of these five ways. While we most commonly think of renewal as personal and corporate, history shows that renewal has often begun initially at one of the other points. We should watch for and welcome the renewing work of the Holy Spirit wherever and however it comes.

2. Renewal must become personal and corporate to be genuine. A new vision for the church, new structures, or a renewed sense of mission won’t carry us very far unless hearts are warmed and changed. Similarly, warmed hearts will not fully renew the church unless the church becomes a renewed community. In Paul’s words, it is the whole body that must “be built up” and “reach unity in the faith” as it “grows and builds itself up in love” (Eph. 4:12-16). Renewal is not really renewal in the full, biblical sense until it is both personal and corporate.

3. Renewal must become conceptual and structural to be long-lasting. Too often renewal has failed precisely here. More than once I have seen the Spirit move upon a congregation until nearly every person was changed-but the renewal aborted because believers did not understand what was happening and lacked appropriate structures to nurture the new life. In short order it was stifled by institutional business as usual.

The great renewals in history that shaped the face of society, such as the Wesleyan Revival, reached the conceptual and structural levels. They were based on a recovered biblical vision of the church, and they found appropriate structures to sustain the new life of the Spirit. There probably have been hundreds of revivals in the history of the church, but only a handful were carried through to the conceptual and structural levels.

4. Renewal must reach the missiological level to be fully dynamic. A church is not really renewed until it discovers its mission in the world. God’s goal, after all, is not just to renew the church but to reconcile the world. As agents of reconciliation, we are to find our own crucial role in the overall plan of God “to bring all things . . . together under one head, even Christ” (Eph. 1:10).

Practical Implications

What can we do to bring genuine, Spirit-fired renewal?

We can be totally open to the Spirit and the Word-not only in our hearts but in our minds and acts as well. That openness is born from an understanding of the church and God’s kingdom plan for it. Careful Bible study can help, especially if carried out in home groups where we have opportunity to learn, share, and pray together. Particularly useful portions of Scripture for this kind of study include Ephesians, Acts, 1 Corinthians, the Gospels, Hebrews, and Isaiah. More broadly, it is useful to trace God’s acts in forming a people in the Old Testament, leading to Jesus Christ and the birth of the church in the New.

One way or another, every Christian should be part of a small committed cell group where he or she can grow and develop, learning new openness to others and to the work of the Spirit. We pastors must make the forming and nurturing of such groups a high priority.

These practices, supplementing the accepted, necessary disciplines of prayer, worship, and personal Bible study, can be used of God to bring renewal to our lives and to the church-renewal in all its dimensions.

Howard A. Snyder is pastoral coordinator of Irving Park Free Methodist Church, Chicago, Illinois.

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

Worship’s Mysterious Inner Urge: Two Views

John W. Drakeford, David Shelley

The Simplicity of Silence

It will probably horrify teachers of small children in religious schools when I express my doubts as to the validity of the thesis that God is easily discovered in the beauties of nature. In my visits to parts of the country noted for scenery, I have seldom been impressed by the depth of religious devotion of the inhabitants.

On the other hand, trips to the sandy plains of West Texas have sent me home pondering the religious dedication of so many people in those areas. Great numbers of crowded churches are located in country which would not be considered beautiful by many. I am sometimes tempted to claim there is an inverse ratio of religious devotion to natural beauty.

A good proportion of the great religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, either came into existence or were nurtured in the silent sands of the desert. Here it was that Moses saw the burning bush, Jesus overcame temptation, Muhammad had his vision, and Paul thought out the implications of his new-found faith.

Void of distraction, the desert provided the silent environment within which a man could clearly hear the voice of deity.

I sometimes smile when I hear ministers state the assumption that a new type of building will create a worship atmosphere. In my late adolescence I occasionally worshiped with the Plymouth Brethren. Meeting in the barest halls, adorned only with inartistic signs carrying Scripture verses, they had the most worshipful services I have ever attended.

Silence was the key to it all. No organist in whispered conferences, pushing or pulling stops, beamed smiling messages. Greeting, giggling, whispering, shuffling were all outlawed. Coughing was hushed by the miracle drug, reverence. Children were quieted. People tiptoed to their places in the circle to sit with bowed heads or read their Bibles. The keen anticipation of the movement of the Spirit of God in leading one of the assembled laymen to announce a hymn, read the Scripture, or offer prayer was sensed in these moments of deep reverence which contrasts sharply with the hubbub of many Protestant services. Their secret was the use of silence.

-John W. Drakeford

The Offering of Beauty

When I toured with a choir and orchestra performing Handel’s Messiah, we stopped in one small farming community. I expected only to bore the crowd of hog ranchers, who would surely date music history to the birth of Hank Williams and would care nothing for baroque counterpoint. But during the concert my snobbery became shame as I watched tears come to the eyes of one person after another. Afterwards, one hefty farmer told me, “I’ve never heard anything like that. It put me in mind of heaven.”

Beauty in art and nature have often been used to direct our thoughts to God. Of course, while Scripture proclaims that “the heavens declare the glory of God,” it also points out that people have exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worship the creature rather than the Creator.

Yet despite our fallen state, it seems apparent that God values beauty, not only in his own creation but in our creative efforts. God commanded art forms to be made for the tabernacle (Exod. 25). He decreed that priestly garments be made “for glory and for beauty” (Exod. 28:2). He appointed certain men and gave them abilities “to devise artistic designs” (Exod. 31:3-4), and David appointed musicians “to raise sounds of joy” (1 Chron. 15:16). Solomon’s temple was adorned with gold and precious stones (2 Chron. 3:5-7). None of these seems to have a pragmatic function outside of aesthetic beauty.

Why is so much of Scripture in poetic form? Certainly not for journalistic clarity. Revelation 21 describes the ornate beauty of the New Jerusalem, the beauty of the creation reflecting the Creator.

Of course, people do not always demonstrate a correlation of beauty and godliness. Brahms was no saint, and Saint Peter was no artist, if his epistles are any indication. The same “beellions of stars” that are but scientific phenomena to Carl Sagan caused Saint Francis to write, “Ye lights of evening, find a voice! O praise Him!”

Beauty neither promotes or distracts worship. Worship is not the end; it is the activity. We offer God beauty not merely to cause others to worship, but to offer him our best as an act of worship itself. I can seldom worship “in spirit and truth” when the leaders of the service are obviously trying to make me worship. But when those up front have given their best in preparation, and are themselves worshiping, I can scarcely help but do likewise.

-David Shelley

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

THE ART OF ARTS

Gregory of Nazianzus

Gregory of Nazianzus was an Eastern Church ecclesiastic and theologian who lived from 330 to 389 A.D. A champion of orthodoxy at the Council of Constantinople in 381, he also had an abiding interest in the clergy of his day. The following material is excerpted and adapted from an oration he delivered in 362 that has come to be called In Defense of His Flight to Pontus. The main argument is a defense of Gregory’s ordination to the ministry, an ordination he at first felt was imposed upon him by his father, but later came to embrace wholeheartedly. Much of the letter deals with Gregory’s idea of what pastoral duties entail.

Guiding man, the most variable of creatures, is the art of arts. Pastors have been called the “physicians of souls,” and compared with physicians who treat the body. But as difficult as treatment of the body is, it pales in significance when compared with soul work.

Physicians work with bodies and perishable, failing matter. Ministers work with souls that come from God and partake of heavenly nobility. Place, time, age, and season are the subjects of physicians’ scrutiny. They prescribe medicines and diets, and guard against things injurious. Sometimes they make use of the knife or of severer remedies. But none of these are so hard as diagnosis and cure of our habits, passions, lives, and wills.

The difficulty of treatment

Physical diseases remain basically the same under the watchfulness of the physician. Spiritual disease, on the other hand, puts up crafty opposition hostile to the work of the minister. Human selfishness is a great obstacle to the advance of virtue and acts like armed resistance to ministers eager to help. Indeed, patients actively eschew treatment and struggle against what is in their own spiritual self-interest.

Patients avoid treatment in three ways. First, they hide their sin in the depths of their soul like some festering and malignant disease, as if by escaping the notice of men they could escape the mighty eye of God and justice. Second, they excuse their sin by devising pleas in defense of their shortcomings. Third, they brazenly act out their sin right in front of those who would heal it. What madness! Those whom they ought to love as their benefactors they keep away as if they were their enemies.

Tailoring the treatment

The same medicine is not in every case administered to men’s bodies. A difference is made according to their degree of health or infirmity. So also are souls treated with varying instruction and guidance. Some are led by doctrine, others trained by example. Some need the spur, others the curb. Some are sluggish and hard to rouse to the good and must be stirred up by being smitten with the Word. Others are immoderately fervent in spirit, with impulses difficult to restrain, like thoroughbred colts who run wide of the turning post-to improve them, the Word must have a restraining and checking influence.

Some are benefited by praise, others by blame, both being applied in season. If done at the wrong time or with lack of reason, they injure the patient. Some are set right by encouragement, others by rebuke. Some need to be taken to task in public, but others need to be privately corrected. Many despise private admonitions but are recalled to their senses by the condemnation of a large number of people. Others who would grow reckless under reproof given openly, accept rebuke because it is in secret, and yield obedience in return for sympathy.

Some need to be watched closely, even in the minutest of details. If they are not watched, they become puffed up with the idea of their own wisdom. Of others it is better to take no notice. In some cases we must even be angry, without feeling angry, or treat them with a disdain we do not feel, or manifest despair, though we do not really despair of them. Others we must treat with condescension and lowliness, helping them to conceive a hope of better things. Some we must conquer-by others to be overcome, and to praise or deprecate, in one case wealth and power, in another poverty and failure.

Our treatment does not correspond with virtue and vice. In some cases a particular treatment may be beneficial; in another the same treatment may be harmful. Time, circumstance, and disposition of the patient all determine the treatment to be used.

Impressing the truth

To impress the truth upon a soul when it is still fresh, like wax not yet subjected to the seal, is an easier task than inscribing pious doctrine on top of wrong doctrines and dogmas. It is better to tread a road that is smooth and well trodden than one that is untrodden and rough, or to plough land that has often been cleft and broken up by the plough: but a soul to be written upon should be free from the inscription of harmful doctrine. Otherwise the pious inscriber would have a twofold task: the erasure of the former impressions and the substitution of others that are more excellent.

Some need to be fed with the milk of the most simple and elementary doctrines, for example those who are babes in habits and unable to bear the manly food of the Word. Others require the wisdom that is spoken among the perfect, and the higher and more solid food, since their senses have been sufficiently exercised to discern truth and falsehood. If they were made to drink milk and fed on the vegetable diet of invalids, they would be annoyed.

A word of caution: to undertake the training of others before being sufficiently trained oneself, and to learn, as men say, the potter’s art on a wine-jar, that is, to practice ourselves in piety at the expense of others’ souls, seems to me to be excessive folly or excessive rashness-folly, if we are not even aware of our own ignorance; rashness, if in spite of this knowledge we venture on the task.

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

Pastors

They Like Me, They Like Me Not

James A Davey with Warren Bird

How to respond to hidden agendas and private opinions

This article and The Sound of Clashing Expectations form a pair. Two pastors from two different denominations in two widely separated parts of the nation talk about the crunch of local-church expectations. Each has felt the invisible vise, and both have survived. Here they pass along helpful ways to manage the cross-pressures.

In the course of one month I received the following comments jotted onto Fellowship Cards at our church and dropped into the offering plate:

“We come to church, we pay our tithes, we read our Bibles, but none of us are going to make it to our final reward unless we start singing the ‘Amen’ at the end of the hymns. … “

“The van did not come to the university to pick up students today. Twelve people were waiting. I’d appreciate it if you could straighten things out.”

“My dog is hurting. She has sores on her back.”

“This year’s offering envelopes are too small! Must now fold a check twice to insert. What happened this year?”

Well, at least these problems were out on the surface where they could be dealt with.

Expectations become more serious, however, when they comprise a hidden agenda. Then they emerge at awkward, inconvenient, even embarrassing moments. Here are three common kinds:

The expectation to be just like a predecessor-or the opposite. If the previous pastor preached for twenty-eight minutes, ate Tuesday lunch with the chairman of the bus committee, wore three-piece suits, drove a ten-year-old Volkswagen, and always hugged the women on New Year’s Eve-look out! You can be sure some people will be offended, puzzled, and disappointed if you preach forty minutes, fast on Tuesdays, wear sweaters, drive a Delta 88, and shake hands modestly.

I recall several very difficult home visits, each of them shortly after I moved to a new church. Everyone was ill at ease, because each family expected me to play the role assumed by my predecessor-friend, counselor, confidant, or whatever.

Each time a pastor leaves a church, whole networks of human relationships are ripped up by the roots. The surest route to insanity for the new pastor is to try to duplicate those friendship expectations.

The expectation to be a perfect pastor to everyone. If I were a layman, the perfect pastor would be the one who conformed to my ideal specifications. He might be pleasing everyone else, but if he didn’t please me, he wouldn’t be perfect! After all, the point is that my needs be met.

My bluntness is rather crude, but I think I am not overstating the case. If you have 248 people in your congregation, you have 248 standards of perfection. One woman will want you to bury your nose in the study and be an expert expositor. A father will want you to preach “popularly” so as to hold the attention of his teenage rebels. Someone else expects you to spend every afternoon doing evangelistic calling, while another wants systematic visitation of the saints.

Make a composite of all these wishes, and if you don’t die of fright, be prepared to work thirty hours a day. Even then, if in the process of satisfying one expectation you are not instantly available to satisfy another, be prepared for misunderstanding or animosity. To complete your frustration, whenever you think you have arrived, ask your wife (or husband) what she expects from you!

The expectation to handle doctrine a certain way. No matter how carefully we approach our study of the Word, we all bring an interpretive grid. Within the confines of my denomination, for example, two pastors can preach on a given topic, each being true to the Alliance heritage and biblical meaning, yet be perceived as miles apart.

A new couple attended North Seattle Alliance about a year ago. After the service, they asked me a forthright question: “Do you preach expositionally?”

I waited to see if there was more. “I mean, do you preach through books of the Bible?” came the young man’s clarification. I still stood silent.

“What I really mean is, do you preach like Pastor ______? I listen to him on my way to work.” Ah, that was the real question. (The answer was no-but they still decided to come to our church.)

Deciding How to Respond

When all the war stories are told, the need to understand and handle these conflicting expectations still remains. I offer two alternatives. You can do what I did for many years: scream, wish I were a plumber, argue, and look for flaws in others. Or you can learn to manage expectations. Since the first option is injurious to your mental health, let me suggest some principles for establishing a perspective you can live with.

Know yourself. Strip away the accretions of the years-those layers of expectations others have laid upon you and you have willingly assumed. Who are you? “Think of yourself with sober judgment,” says Romans 12:3 (NIV). What can you do? With what do you struggle? What are your strengths? your weaknesses? What spiritual gifts do you have? or lack? What do you really enjoy? dislike? What gives you satisfaction? creates conflict?

Do not be lulled into thinking such self-examination can be casual or easy. Do not underestimate the power of others to make us dishonest with ourselves. It is costly to know oneself. We have carefully bandaged some ancient wounds, and it is painful to strip the dressing.

If you are serious about this, you may find it helpful to keep a journal of your findings. Or you may discover you need someone else to confide in (confess to), lest you fool yourself.

You and I would get more done if we spent more time doing the things we do best and delegating the rest (or treating them with benign neglect). Some years ago I tried to compensate for my ignorance of Christian education by systematically buying and reading the best books in the field. I found I still didn’t understand it, I wasn’t particularly interested in it except as a defensive effort, and my time could be more profitably spent in other things.

I eventually discovered that the only thing I needed to know about C.E. was the name of a parishioner who was an expert. Any time a question came up, I’d pick up the phone. I don’t remember ever feeling dumb after that unless I failed first to check with Pat.

Be transparent. Do not pretend you can do it all. If you find a certain area of ministry onerous or difficult, say so at the right time. Develop at least enough competency to “pay the rent”-Lyle Schaller’s term for the minimal tasks that come with a pastor’s territory (funerals, some administrative work, etc.). But then seek other church leaders’ help in freeing yourself to operate in areas of strength. If you are stiff and awkward in visitation but shine in counseling, tell them. You don’t need to tell everyone in the church, but do tell the right people.

Be inner-directed. In 1973, David Riesman wrote in The Lonely Crowd about the “inner-directed” person, that is, the individual who derives values, motivation, and purpose from within.

As pastors we should have a fairly clear idea of what we hope to accomplish. We have not become pastors to please people, but God. It is God who called us, who equips us, who works in us, who provides for us (regardless of who signs the salary check), and God who directs us. Unless we grab this perspective, we will be victimized by people’s expectations.

Be purposeful in pursuing your course. I came upon a helpful concept in the very first issue of LEADERSHIP. Texas businessman Fred Smith said the pastor must constantly remind people of his commitment to the most important thing. “I don’t think they would be offended the least bit if he said, ‘Folks, Tuesday is my day with God. I have to spend some time with my boss to keep this job and he has called me into conference on Tuesday. He takes a dim view of me answering the phones and appearing at social occasions on conference day. Your boss wouldn’t like it if you’re running out of the room when he was trying to talk to you. Mine doesn’t either.’ “

Smith says he knows a pastor who does this. He secludes himself and studies all day on Tuesdays. And it works. His people know he’s studying and respect him for it.

A minister is supposed to expound the Word, continues Smith. And he can’t do it without studying. If he lets secondary matters take control, “he would be like the merchant who was so bent on trying to keep the store clean he would never unlock the front door. The real reason for running the store is to have customers come in, not to clean it up. Anybody’s time can be completely used up.”

Be able to absorb some misunderstanding. One of the most helpful definitions I know is this: “Management is the ability to inflict pain.” To that I would add a corollary: “Leadership is the ability to absorb pain.” The sooner a pastor realizes not everyone will love him and some will misunderstand even his purest motives, the better adjusted he will be.

Perhaps the whole question of expectations would become academic if we would constantly be monitoring our lives by this standard: “Does it meet God’s expectations?”

Create positive expectations. There is power in encouragement.

I remember one church where I really believe everyone expected me to fail. While it wasn’t ever verbalized, the negative expectation was almost palpable.

I went from that church, defeated in spirit, to another where I was greeted by such a warm, affirming response that it literally turned my life and ministry right side up.

Certainly that church nurtured me with encouragement. They expected that when I stood to preach I would have something to say, that my counsel could be trusted, that my judgment was sound. Actually, my preaching did improve, because suddenly my task was a joy, not a burden.

That’s what the power of positive expectation can do.

The Starting Point

But it begins with you and me. When you walk into a worship service, what is your expectation level? When was the last time you caught someone doing something right and told him so? Do you write notes of appreciation and praise?

If you want lay people to encourage you, to expect your best, you must be prepared to do the same. Define their tasks, help them, believe in them, praise them publicly and privately, and pray for them.

It becomes a habit. If it isn’t yet a habit for you, begin today. The whole church can catch your spirit.

Expectations can work for you or against you. True, the pastor feels expectations from every corner-peers, denomination, supervisor, church board, spouse. But it is possible to handle the web of diverse expectations that may be tying you down. And to a large degree, you will determine which way those expectations will go.

James A. Davey is pastor of North Seattle Alliance Church, Seattle, Washington.

Warren Bird is assistant editor of The Alliance Witness, Nyack, New York.

Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.

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