{"id":21207,"date":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/1999\/10\/01\/stepping-off-trendmill\/"},"modified":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"1999-10-01T00:00:00","slug":"stepping-off-trendmill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/content\/stepping-off-trendmill\/","title":{"rendered":"Stepping Off the Trendmill"},"content":{"rendered":"

I<\/strong> entered pastoral ministry in a time of great transition for the institutional church (the early sixties).<\/p>\n\n

In the eyes of many, the church had reached a low. “Relevance” was the buzz word, and the church, as well as preachers\nin general, were said to be irrelevant, perhaps obsolete.\nAs a result, a heavy percentage of my seminary classmates were headed for\nmissions, parachurch works, the chaplaincy, and a new discipline called\ncounseling. Only a few of us really believed there could be a future in the\npastorate.<\/p>\n\n

My recollections are probably faulty, but as a new pastor, it seemed that\nevery week someone from some new organization blew into town with a new program\nto sell me.<\/p>\n\n

The opening pitch rarely varied: the church was dying, pastors were desperate,\nand here is a program (anointed by God) to save it all. Somewhere in the\ncountry (usually California) was a church that had adapted the program and\nwas now growing by the “thousands” (count ’em).<\/p>\n\n

I always found myself feeling guilty and a bit faithless as I would counter:\n“But that’s in California” or “he’s a different kind of leader”\nor “you don’t know our people (or me).”<\/p>\n\n

If it wasn’t an organizational representative, it was one of my own\npeople who had just returned from some church or conference saying, “You\nwon’t believe what God is doing there” or “You’ve got to attend\ntheir … ” or “You’ve got to start this … “<\/p>\n\n

I always tried to be nice in response, to show genuine interest and excitement,\nbut sometimes it was difficult.<\/p>\n\n

Over the span of my pastoral years, I have seen a lot of trends, emphases,\nand calls to reengineer the church: church renewal, body life, personal\nevangelism, the charismatic gifts, Sunday school conventions, the Jesus movement,\ncontemporary music (drums in the sanctuary?), church growth, the overhead\nprojector and the “pastor-teacher,” spiritual gift inventories, the pro-life\nmovement, discipleship, concerts of prayer, cell groups, home-schooling,\ndrama\/dance, high liturgy, and country and western worship.<\/p>\n\n

I’ve discovered a \ncluster of “knee-driven” \nprinciples to assist in making \nstrategic ministry choices.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Some of them have flared for a moment and then gone; others have taken a\nsolid position in our perspectives of ministry. But each, when it appeared,\nwas just the latest in a series of solutions for the church’s ills.<\/p>\n\n

When I began public ministry, the slogan was “release the laity”; today\nit’s “be seeker-sensitive.” Back then we wanted to recover the “great\nhymnody of the church”; today we seem to make them up as we go along. Yesterday\nwe talked about changing the world; today it seems as if we’d just like\nto change ourselves. As they say about the weather, if you don’t like\nwhat’s here now, wait 15 minutes.<\/p>\n\n

As a much younger man, I found myself bewildered as I listened to all the\nclaims.<\/p>\n\n

Thus, it was an important moment for me when I turned one day to an older,\nwiser man and said, “I find my head spinning trying to determine which of\nthese approaches to lock on to. How do I choose? I can’t do them all.”<\/p>\n\n

His answer has never left me: “Only on your knees will you and your leaders\nfind the answer. There is a way for you and your church; but don’t let\nanyone get between you and God as you seek out what it is.”<\/p>\n\n

It was simple but absolutely profound. I have tried to follow that advice\never since.<\/p>\n\n

Today that advice is more important than ever. We abound with ministry\nstrategies, techniques, resources, and talent I could never have imagined\n38 years ago. How wonderful! But how bewildering and potentially dangerous.\nIt takes a perceptive person to find the substance.<\/p>\n\n

More than a few young pastors (myself included) have gone to seminars that\npromised big stuff, come home with enthusiasm, expecting that something close\nto a reformation will break out in their town. A year later some are in the\nprocess of leaving their ministries, heartbroken, rejected, defeated. Casualties\nof heart can be high.<\/p>\n\n

Others, more fortunate, prepare to try something else. What worked in California,\nin Georgia, in Colorado (random examples), did not work in “my” community.<\/p>\n\n

“Only on your knees,” my friend said. The knees are the starting point. But\nfrom that starting point, I’ve discovered a cluster of “knee-driven”\nministry principles that assist one in making good decisions about where\nto go and how to make strategic ministry choices. These principles are really\ngifts, which I didn’t fully appreciate when I was a younger man. Only\nin retrospect do I see their value, and I have come to understand them as\npart of God’s kindness, the way He responded when I went to my knees.<\/p>\n\n

Value the habitual over the novel<\/strong>\nThe first of these ministry principles came from my seminary professors.\nAt the time I went to graduate school, my seminary was relatively young and\nstruggling, barely surviving. Its professors had little more to offer than\nsolid teaching and themselves as persons. They invested in young men and\nwomen, visiting in our homes (hovels?) when invited and asking us to theirs.\nIn the context of their family lives and academic lives, they modeled stability,\ncharacter, academic craftsmanship and spiritual vitality. They let us know\nthem.<\/p>\n\n

Perhaps the greatest lesson was their insistence that I be faithful to the\nroutines of life and ministry before I ever tried all of this “world-changing”\nstuff that is so seductive to the young, ambitious spirit. In other words,\ndo the right things before you attempt the big things.<\/p>\n\n

The routines (the right things) are the bread and butter of congregational\nlife. Being dependable, seeking excellence, caring for the hurting, being\nloyal to the biblical lifestyle, exalting Christ, developing people. They\ndid it, those seminary professors, and the message was clear that we should\ndo it too.<\/p>\n\n

Learn your history<\/strong>\nKnowing the history of the Christian movement is a ballast to any ministry\nin periods of cultural turbulence and change (like now). History offers the\nfact that just about everything has been tried before in one way or another.\nHistory reveals both the possibilities and the potholes.<\/p>\n\n

I invested much of my youthful energies in seeking to be an effective preacher,\nso I was tempted to compute my success in terms of how many people might\nbe attracted to my preaching. But in the reading of history, for example,\nI learned that something more than preaching would validate the effectiveness\nof my ministry.<\/p>\n\n

George Whitefield could easily have claimed a much larger number of responses\nto his preaching than could John Wesley. But soon after both men were dead,\nit was clear that Wesley’s work would impact future generations far\nmore than Whitefield’s. The reason? Wesley organized his followers into\nclasses (a form of small groups); Whitefield never did. I came to understand\nthat preaching without the reinforcement of deep community isn’t really\nworth all that much.<\/p>\n\n

Fly in formation<\/strong>\nSomewhere along the line I learned to “fly in formation” with a select collection\nof authors. Paul Tournier taught me about people. Elton Trueblood gave me\na love for ideas and the life of the mind. A.W. Tozer elevated my concept\nof God and worship. Stanley Jones became my inspiration for evangelism and\nthe Kingdom. John Stott taught me the power and dignity of preaching and\na hunger for biblical scholarship that had the “streets” of the real world\nin mind. And dear Henri Nouwen revealed to me the disciplines of the interior\nlife. In the books of these authors, I found a point of stability that protected\nme from running too quickly to the claims of instant success that came from\nother quarters.<\/p>\n\n

Preaching without the \nreinforcement of deep community \nisn’t really worth all that much.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

As the years have passed, I have broadened the bandwidth of my reading and\ndiscovered that the God of all truth has salted creation with insights in\nall sorts of places.<\/p>\n\n

For example, Matthew Arnold’s great ode to his father, a poem called\n“Rugby Chapel,” is a great commentary on leadership:<\/p>\n

\n

\n If in the paths of this world,<\/em>
\n stones may have wounded thy feet,<\/em>\n toil and dejection have wounded thy spirit,<\/em>
\n of that we saw nothing.<\/em>
\n To us thou wast cheerful, helpful, and firm.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

In a time when leaders are tempted to “dumb down” their conduct and simply\nbe like anyone else, Arnold’s characterization of his father brought\na lot of courage to me.<\/p>\n\n

Heroes dead and alive<\/strong>\nLike anyone else, I needed some godly heroes, and 19th-century Charles Simeon\nof Cambridge filled part of the bill. Serving for more than 50 years in an\nEnglish parish, Simeon became my model pastor. More than a century ago, he\nunderstood (and practiced) leadership development, small group ministries,\nthe theology of community, student evangelism, and church administration.<\/p>\n\n

I have rarely faced a significant issue in ministry that Simeon did not face.\nAnd his experiences have saved me more than once from making a fool of myself.<\/p>\n\n

Simeon’s biographer Hugh Evans Hopkins is candid in describing his\neccentricities: “There is no doubt that Charles Simeon was his own worst\nenemy, when it came to establishing close friendships.” At the time I read\nthis I was seriously questioning my own ability to be a good friend to others,\nand I caught this sentence and what followed with keen interest.\n“(Simeon’s) angular and sometimes arrogant personality, against which\nhe battled all this life long, more than anything else stood in the way.\nThough highly sensitive himself, it was a long time before he learned sensitivity\nto the feelings of others.” I grew, lots, from that simple insight.<\/p>\n\n

In addition to heroes of the past, I have always had a man in my life whom\nI consider a mentor or spiritual father. Actually, there have been several.\nBut the one who is most important lives 2,000 miles away, and our contact\nis, at best, sporadic. But when it occurs (by phone, letter, or personal\nvisit), it’s always intense and powerfully energizing.<\/p>\n\n

This man whom I love (I shall leave his name mercifully anonymous lest he\nbe deluged with calls) has always been there for me (and for countless others).\nHe has been there for my peak moments of ministry achievement, and my deepest\nvalleys of disappointment and humiliation. I have made few major decisions\nwithout his counsel.<\/p>\n\n

My wife, Gail, is also on this list. Gail is my opposite in temperament,\nand she has saved me from a thousand silly decisions with her sharp questions,\nher intuitive instincts, and her insistence on key life-loyalties. When I\nmarried her 38 years ago, a close friend admonished me, “She is God’s\ngift to you. Don’t squelch her giftedness; listen to her wisdom; honor\nher judgment.” It was incredibly good advice. I fear that without it, I would\nhave done the opposite.<\/p>\n\n

Gifts of friends and foes<\/strong>\nThen there has been the influence of friends. One category is a small group\nof men (in and out of the so-called ministry) who are simply good friends.\nThese are friends with whom I share experiences of life, who provide healthy\nperspective, prayer, laughter, and tears. I have not always had such friends\n(see my comments on Simeon), and it was in such times, when I’d isolated\nmyself, that I had my greatest troubles and did stupid things.<\/p>\n\n

The other category of friends have been ministry-oriented. We have worked\ntogether, and our ongoing day-to-day dialogue has been marked with candor\nand creativity. With them I learned the value of the consultative ministry\nlife.<\/p>\n\n

An extension of this has been those boards with which a pastor works. No\none ever taught me about the role of boards, and I fear that my earliest\nimpression was that such groups were an obstacle course, more adversity than\nassistance. I changed that attitude and, in so doing, generally found the\nboards to which I was accountable were quite able to help me discern and\nnegotiate the changes and opportunities out there.<\/p>\n\n

With a tad of reluctance, I find myself having to credit my critics with\na lot of help over the years. To be frank, more than a few people simply\nhave not liked me. Their varying observations of me: shallow, “liberal,”\nslick, arrogant, ambitious, or uncaring (there are likely one or two who\nwould include all of these on their lists). Some of them believe I should\nnot be in ministry at all.<\/p>\n\n

Had I blown off my critics and not listened to their voices, I would have\nmissed the kernel of truth that lived in their harsh assessments. Had I ignored\nthem, I would have probably fallen into the very traps they think I’ve\nfallen into. There are things I’ve not done, bandwagons I’ve not\njumped on because of these people. And in most cases I’m glad. Though\nit’s taken time, I’ve become grateful for them.<\/p>\n\n

One of my critics, who later became a close friend, followed me out the door\nof one board meeting after I had allowed my feelings to show when I’d\ngotten a “no” in response to one of my “world-changing” ideas.<\/p>\n\n

“You need to know,” he said, “that your performance in there was not very\nclassy. Moments like that will make this board increasingly reluctant to\ntell you what you need to hear, and that will insure that you lose credibility\nwith the congregation down the line.”<\/p>\n\n

How’s that for a rebuke?<\/p>\n\n

Ground it all in Scripture<\/strong>\nA love for the Bible has been an increasingly important ministry principle.\nYou’d think I’d have figured this one out eons ago. I have virtually\nmemorized Philippians 1, Ephesians 3, Acts 20 (Paul’s conversation with\nthe elders of Ephesus), and 2 Corinthians 4. They have been the keel under\nmy more visible life. Biblical personalities such as Joseph, Isaiah, Ezra,\nNehemiah, John the Baptizer, and Paul have been my illuminators. They have\ntaught me how to preservere, how to rebound from failure, how to handle defeat,\nand how to keep an eye on the mission God has given.<\/p>\n\n

One wonders if they might roll their eyes if they saw all the brochures arriving\non most pastors’ desks inviting them to some exotic place to acquire\nnew ministry knowledge. Would they, in exasperation, say, “Oh, puh-leeze!”\nwhen they heard of one more book on leadership? Would they understand a\nperson’s ambivalence who says, “All this stuff is good, but somewhere\nalong the line I’ve got to stay at home and do it.”<\/p>\n\n

As I look into the future and assess all the prognostications of the experts,\nI am once again bewildered by all that lies ahead. The futurists, the\ndemographers, the marketing people offer more information than I can adequately\nhandle. I love reading it and talking about it. I even love, on those occasions\nwhen I’m invited, to contribute to it. But there is always the possibility\nof overload.<\/p>\n\n

It doesn’t seem much different today than it was 38 years ago when I\nasked an older man how to sort through all those choices.<\/p>\n\n

“Only on your knees,” he said. And his advice to me then is just as good\ntoday.<\/p>\n\n

Gordon MacDonald<\/strong> (Box 319 Belmont, NH 03220) after pastoring\n38 years is an author and speaker and is a senior fellow with the Trinity\nForum in Washington D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Copyright © 1999 by the author or Christianity Today\/Leadership<\/em> Journal.\nClick here<\/a> for reprint information on Leadership Journal.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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