Why Do We It

Thanks to my friend Ron Freeman for sharing the following Journal. Ron currently serves as Pastor of Worship at Lakeview Baptist Church where I am the Intentional Interim Pastor.

Why Do We Do It?

“The Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Do you ever search to find what is at the root of why we act the way we do? We all follow traditions and many times have no clue why we do what we do. Some of those traditions may still be needed and some may have been adopted because of a certain need at the time. Why do we just follow blindly and not ask questions?

Over the years I have watched how we in the church have operated. I have watched us become convicted by a need and then out of our concern create a program to meet that need. We become passionate about it for a while then when our interest is sparked by something else we let it die. Why do we do that? The needs most of the time are still there but it is our commitment to them that wanes. We see the need to reach the lost in the community so we decide that we will start a program to reach the lost of the community. It works for a short time then interest dies and the lost of the community remain lost. Oswald Chambers said: “When the Spirit of God comes into a man, He gives him a worldwide outlook.” What I think he is saying is that God gives us something to look at that is bigger than ourselves. We always seem to be the center of the universe.

In this passage where was the focus of need? It was on a tax collector named Zaccheaus that “the people” said was “sinful.” Have you ever noticed that? It was the people present and not God pointing the finger? Who were “the people” that Jesus was drawn to? It was the tax collector, a prostitute, and adulteress, beggars, and lepers. The ones Jesus had the harsh word for were the ones who thought they had it all together and were above need.

Romans 3:23 says; “All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” Notice the word “All” We must realize that none of us are better than the one “people” call sinners. If it were not for the grace of God and the forgiveness offered by the shed blood of Jesus there would be no hope for us at all. Let us resist the urge to create programs to put band aids on problems. Let His mission become ours.

Prayer: Lord, Thank You for your grace and forgiveness. Let your seeking and saving of the lost become our desire too. Amen

The Wait

WAIT!!!!! That is such a short word. Even though it is only four letters it has a powerful meaning. From the beginning of life we have had to wait. I remember when we waited for our first child to be born. First, she was a month late in getting here so we waited. Then, there was the thirty hours of labor so we waited.

As time goes on we wait for school to start, for Christmas to come, for sixteen so we can get our driver’s license, for graduation and the big job. Life is full of waits. In the end the wait is worth it. We enjoy rewards for our wait. I can remember the feeling I had when I held our children in my arms for the first time. Christmas was always worth the wait as we opened the presents and enjoyed the events of that wonderful day. Our granddaughter posted on facebook tonight that she got her driver’s license today and drove to the store by herself. She was excited. The wait was worth it.

For the past two weeks I have been waiting. Two weeks ago Sunday something happened in my back and I was unable to walk because of the pain. After a trip to the ER the doctor told me that I had to be down for four weeks. I have not been able to preach on Sunday or go to the office. All I can do is wait in my recliner until my back heals. I must admit the wait is awful because I do not wait very well. My problem is that I have forgotten that the wait will be worth it. My back will heal and I will be able to be back to normal.

I have found that church members have as much trouble waiting as I do. We see this often when churches are in their pastor search. I can remember questions like, “Are we close to getting a pastor” even before I got settled in as Intentional Interim. We have to be careful that we do not forget that the wait is worth it. When we have issues that need to be dealt with the only way to deal with them is in time. That means we may have a longer wait than normal. When we wait we must keep the big picture in mind. Just like the birth of a baby or the excitement of Christmas or the driver’s license, the wait was worth it. The wait for churches is worth it if they just stay the course and let time help heal the wounds.

At http://www.ministrytogether.com we try to address the issues that cause wounds in churches. The matching system helps to match churches with pastors with like beliefs and skills so they will not cause some of the wounds that exist in many churches. Too many of my peers have found that they were not really a good match for the church they are pastoring. They answered all the questions and the churches stated what they were looking for in a pastor but in the long run it just wasn’t a match. By using the matching system we can get to the heart of what causes the issues in the first place.

I am reminded of the Scripture in Isaiah 40:31 "They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." Isaiah tells us very plainly that the wait is worth it.....Preacherman

Another One Bites The Dust

One of Queen's songs says "Another One Bites The Dust". Today, that song title applies to one of our friends. The church leaders met in a secret session and then told the senior pastor that he is terminated. This is immediate and he is not allowed in the pulpit again. He only has a few weeks to vacate the parsonage and will get three months severance. When he asked why he was told the church constitution states they do not have to give him any reason. The congregation was told Wednesday Evening that he resigned and they guess he just didn't want to come back.

This would be different if there was a moral issue or he was preaching heresy but neither of those applies. It is getting hard for me to understand why my friends keep getting hurt by churches. This story could be told of many churches in our country. It happens all the time. This time, it happened to a friend. That is why this one makes me mad. God's people should be better than that.

First we need to understand that God considers that His preachers are special people. Romans 10:14-16 says "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? Even as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of good things!"

I know that my feet are not physically beautiful. I also know that God has called me and therefore He will take care of me. I believe that churches that abuse pastors and then spew them out will be held accountable to God. The emotional and spiritual damage done to pastor's families is unconscionable and is a terrible indictment against the church in general.

The above scenario occurs when expectations for churches and pastors differ. Too often the search committee and church in general will not give an accurate description of what kind of pastor that are looking for. When they say "we want a pastor to lead us", ask probing questions. Does that mean the church is willing to follow when it is in a direction that is different from the past? Does that mean they will follow even when it is out of their comfort zone? Will they follow if it means new people will be involved and the old guard will no longer be in charge? These are healthy questions to ask before accepting the call. Too often we have a false impression of leadership styles and desires. Because of this false impression, things come crashing down after the honeymoon period ends.

Most often I try to acknowledge that church issues involve both pastor and church. I will leave that for another discussion because today I have a friend and his family who are hurt. We have to stop this trend. Too many pastors are leaving the ministry and some go to extremes and take their life. How does God get glory in that?

At http://www.ministrytogether.com we attempt to ask those probing questions. Our 54 point matching system helps determine the type of leadership the church wants and matches it with the same leadership style of the prospective pastor. Perhaps we need to revise our questions to include "Why did your last pastor leave? Was he forced out or did he resign? Will you be willing to give contact information so the prospective pastor can talk with him about his ministry there." That might help stop some of these hurts.....Now that I have vented I have to go. I have to determine what Joy and I can do to help this family pick up the pieces from this tragedy......Preacherman

Interim Pastor

For the past four months I have been serving as Interim Pastor at the beautiful Lakeview Baptist Church. This has been a very rewarding time as well as being very tiring. When I retired from full time pastoring I thought my life would become simpler. My thoughts; get up when you want, do what you want and enjoy the view of the lake. Well, I can tell you that has changed. It takes a lot of time and energy to pastor a church with almost 300 active members. Some of my goals during this time are to heal, hope, and have. We will spend the first few months healing our past. I believe every church needs a time for healing. We create wounds even when we do everything right. Our church has had some very good years and also some times when things didn't go so well. The healing must take place in order to go into the future with a new pastor who can lead us to ministering like God would have us minister. We have seen great progress with this healing. I have been speaking about living our lives with the Christlike spirit. The sermon series on living out the Fruit of the Spirit in our lives has been very successful in getting us to focus away from the past and looking positively toward the future. We can have hope as we see the changes take place. I am encouraged as I see people sitting across the table from each other on Wednesday and eating together, laughing, and just being a family. We now see the glass half full rather than half empty. We are looking to the future with excitement instead of despair. We also have a plan to get from where we were to where we need to be. We have accomplished much but have a ways to go. Our next step is to get our transition team together and begin looking at some of the issues that hamper ministry. This will be a challenge as we will look at some of the traditions and reactionary measures our church has taken in the past. One of the things we address at http://www.ministrytogether.com is leadership. Some churches will say they want a strong leader but in reality they want someone who is going to come in and keep the status quo when it comes to traditions and policies. Also, some senior pastors will say they are strong leaders but when it comes to addressing the past traditions and status quo, they either do not want to fight the Battle or they do not have the skills needed to do it. Our website uses the 54 point matching system to bring churches and pastors together with like skills and desires. Some churches will not allow change therefore they need to be matched with pastors who are willing to live and minister in that environment. My leadership skills and other skill sets have made it possible for our church to address the hard issues and come out stronger. We are not there yet but I am very thankful for a church that really wants change. That combination makes the road ahead much easier. At the end of that road lakeview will be much healthier and I will be able to again enjoy retirement...That is a great outcome.....Preacherman