A reporter for the local newspaper was doing a story on our church’s building plans. Offhandedly he asked if we were doing anything to connect with the enormous new retirement center being built in our community. It hit me.
“You’ve asked exactly the question I should’ve asked a long time ago,” I said, feeling rather foolish, “but it never occurred to me.”
A few weeks later, I was visiting with a seminary student in our church about what kind of ministry he might be seeking. “I know it sounds kind of strange,” he said, “but I’d either like to work with youth or senior adults.”
I mentioned that conversation to one of our elders, an executive working with retirement communities. “Senior adults are the forgotten ministry,” he said, with enormous passion. “It’s a big lie that everyone comes to Christ before they’re 18. We’ve seen 30 or 40 senior adults converted in the last year in our facilities.”
As pastor, I began to realize something was afoot, and almost blurted out “coincidence” before I realized this was a case of a serendipity spotting.
Serendipity is “an apparent aptitude for making fortunate discoveries accidentally.” Pastors have an inside track on serendipities. It might look like we make fortunate ministry discoveries accidentally, but the fact is, Someone is sending us signals.
Some ministries we begin out of careful planning and long consideration. But God also has a way of setting a church up for a ministry we never saw coming. Often these unexpected ministries are a source of special delight for a congregation; they are often unique, something a little different from what any other church is doing.
Pastors are often better situated to see the serendipities than anyone else. Why is that?
People share their ministry ideas and burdens with us. “What if we did VBS over Christmas break?” “Let’s do an outreach out at the drag strip.” If we’re not too quick to dismiss ideas we’ve never thought of, we might be on the verge of serendipity.
We know more people than most. We remember the woman from the membership class who used to work in radio, or the couple that has a missionary son in Costa Rica. Therefore, we can help people make connections with others who might become teammates.
We know the ropes. We know what committee would have to sign off on the plan, how to find some funding, and what policies might have to be considered.
We know how to put the word out—at a board meeting or a prayer gathering, to the women’s group or a particular leader. We can get something in the newsletter or bulletin or on the website.
We know our church’s bent. Every church has unique qualities, and the pastor usually understands these inclinations, like a parent who sees early on her child’s bent to art or problem solving. So when pastors get wind of a serendipity, they are likely to know how it will fit in the personality of the church—what will come naturally and what will take some doing.
Often, when God is in a serendipity ministry, the pastor has this gut-level reaction: “This will be perfect for us!”
We are equipped to help people seek God through this dream. We can pray with them, teach them how to trust God with their idea, and bolster their faith and vision through Scripture.
Not every new idea is serendipity in the works. The serendipity is in seeing several elements connect at just the right time. The “divine coincidence.” The role of the pastor is to keep his eyes open, to realize that God may be up to something in the church that didn’t come up at your leadership retreat or that isn’t in your long-term plan.
I once had an associate who would say, “Let’s be a church that says, ‘Yes!'” That’s got to be the attitude of any leader who hopes to spot divine serendipities.
I told our elders about the serendipities—these various signals about senior adult ministries—and we prayed about where God wanted us to go. We decided to have a pow-wow for anyone interested in talking and praying about such a ministry.
To our surprise, nearly 30 people showed up (another unexpected signal), and now, several months later, a new ministry is beginning to bloom.
It appears we have “an aptitude for making fortunate discoveries accidentally.” That, too, is a surprise.
Lee Eclov is pastor of Village Church of Lincolnshire, Illinois.
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