Pastor Search # 7

Getting Rid Of The Rust

I am in the middle of a very interesting project for Christmas. We bought a thirty year old Radio Flyer wagon for my grandson and I have been restoring it for one of his Christmas presents. I have found out some very interesting things about the restoration process. First, you have to get rid of all the rust before you can make it look good. That takes some hard decisions. I had to have the entire wagon sandblasted in order to get all of the old gone before I could start on the new. The second thing I had to do was put a good primer on before I could paint. Without the primer the final product would not have looked as good. Thirdly, I found that there are some things from the past that I could not keep. I was unable to get the exact Radio Flyer decals and some of the bolts are slightly different. So, although the wagon will look new and will have the foundation of the past it will be somewhat different from what it originally was.

Search committees need to realize that some churches are like the wagon. The foundation is extremely solid but some of the surface needs to be repaired. This may mean taking more time than most members want in order for the sandblasting to take place. Sometimes people need to leave in order for the church to be able to go forward. Some churches try to hold on to the past so much that they fail to see the wonderful finished product they could be. Those churches usually are not completely up front with their prospects. They will say things like, “Everything is great in our church family”. “We don’t have any problems”. That is true if they want to stay the same as they were. Where this becomes a problem is when the new pastor comes onboard and wants to follow God into the future and all the rust from the past begins to show up. They resist anything that will make them look different from what they have always been. That is tragic because the new pastor must either try to scale off a little of the rust at a time and pay the price or he gives up entirely and either leaves or settles for less than what God would have him be. It is possible for a church to hold on to some great foundations and still change for the future. I have never been in favor of what I call “Throwing out the baby with the bath water”. There are some things from the past that are great and we need to hold on to them. What is not good is when we stand in the way of doing different things because we have never done them before.

The greatest thing for search committees is to just be honest. Discuss the rust. Consider the fix even when it requires a lot of effort and time. The look on my grandson’s face Christmas morning will make all the time and work worthwhile. The end results of an honest approach to calling your next pastor will be as rewarding and worthwhile to your committee and your church. At http://www.ministrytogether.com we use a matching matrix to bring churches and prospects together that are suited for each other. When they each fill out the questionnaire they will deal with some of the rust we have been talking about……….I can’t wait til Christmas morning…I plan to take pictures…….Preacherman