Pastoral Success

I've been pastoring churches for a long time. I went to my first church in 1975 and have pastored continuously except for one brief period. I pastored my first church for nearly two years, the second one for about three years, the third one for three years, the next one for five years and I have been with my current church for 20 years. The churches have been as varied as urban, near downtown to very rural. The smallest town where I pastored had 117 people in it and the largest city had a population of about half a million with the entire area having 2 million people. The churches have been mainly small but about average with the average church in America. They have all grown dramatically while I pastored there. The church I now pastor has grown about five or six times its size when I first went there.

I have been through building programs, moving to two services, transitional communities, growing communities, declining communities, churches in poverty stricken areas and churches in middle America.

I have seen just about every thing a pastor can experience in my 30 years of pastoring churches. And, I would love to share some of the stories and some of the things I have learned through the years so as to help and encourage those of you that are pastors no matter where you are in your journey. We should all be learning all the time. If we ever stop learning we should move aside and let someone take our place.

When I went to my first church while still in college I had an idea of what it means to succeed as a pastor. To me success was pastoring a church with a lot of people in attendance and a large staff to shepherd them. I saw myself as the potential CEO of that organization and casting a vision of how to get there.

I had grown up in large churches. Actually I had never attended a church that had less than 500 in attendance. And, the last church where I was a member had an average attendance on Sunday morning of about 1500. So, my perspective was that of a large church.

Imagine my shock when we had 20 people and the entire population of the town where I lived and where the church was situation was only 117. I could have everyone in town and half of the population around us and still not have 500.

I had to either change my view of success or I had to learn to live with failure. Unfortunately at that point I didn't or maybe couldn't change my view of success. I worked hard and the church grew but in my zeal and youthful ignorance I alienated a portion of the membership of the church that was there when I arrived. I left there in less than two years with anger in my heart towards those that had been obstructionist in my attempts to build a great church. Too bad I missed the opportunity to build relationships and bring people along with me as I attempted to build a great church. Too bad I didn't take a look at reality and determine what the definition of a great church could be in that particular place.

You see success is different in every place that you serve. There are some constants but there are also variables to every situation. Success has to be evaluated in terms of opportunity, resources and skills. God has you where you are for a purpose. He wants a living, vibrant and ministering church no matter where you are. Some of the constants that should be in place for every church are; 1) A focus on evangelism. We are all given the great commission. The world as a whole is lost without Jesus. It's our purpose to share the Gospel with them and give them an opportunity to become followers of Jesus Christ. 2) There should be an emphasis on discipleship. In my opinion the greatest failure of most churches in the US is failure to disciple those people that we reach. The back door of the church is as big or bigger than the front door. 3) There should be an emphasis on ministering to the people in the community right around us. We should know who it is that is on our doorstep and we should develop tools, methods and programs designed to minister to them at their point of need. Those needs are going to be different with every community but they have to be one of our focuses.

For us to do the job God has called us to do we have to be focused. We have to know our calling, our responsibilities and our opportunities. When we know that we have to develop our mission statement and then stay on point in that mission. If we do that, we will absolutely be successful regardless of how that looks. It may be a large attendance with a lot of opportunities to learn and grow in Christ. Or it could be a smaller group of people who are growing in Christ and reaching out to the hurting in the community around them. And, it might be somewhere in between. Whatever it is that God wants for us is what we should work towards and be happy with.

The Telephone; Friend or Foe?

Do you ever cringe when the phone rings? As a pastor it seems that every time the phone rings its another crisis or someone in need. People in need seem to come in abundance. Friends in deed are fewer for sure. This is true with the phone as well. There are far more calls where someone wants something from me than calls where someone wants to give something to me or even just to express some kindness to me. Therefore, the telephone can become quite a nuisance or at the least a frustration.

On the other hand, the telephone can be among your greatest assets in ministry and in managing your time. We have to take control of our time and control of the phone. There is a balance that has to be maintained also. You can not cut yourself off from the people that need you but you can manage how that takes place. You can also control the conversation so it doesn't take so much of your time.

Here are some suggestions that will help you to overcome your phone frustration and give you better control over your time.

1. Determine what hours you are going to be available. During those hours take all calls. There are exceptions where you have to turn off your availability even in those times but for the most part be available. By the way, it is not necessary to announce or publicize these times. It can just be when you are available. Actually over time people will learn and respond to those times.
2. Determine times when you are going to be unavailable except for emergencies. Many of us like to have dinner without interruption. So, we will let the voice mail machine handle our calls during the dinner hour. When I go out with my family or on a date with my wife my phone serves as a call screener. I watch to see who is calling and evaluate whether that person is someone that I should answer or let go to voice mail. Most of the time I let it go to voice mail. There is very little that can't wait for a couple of hours so I can enjoy an evening with my family.
   
3. When you take a call and it is from someone needing ministry of some sort do your triage quickly. When a patient goes into the emergency room someone evaluates that patient to determine where they should fall in order of priority based upon their condition. There are certain questions they ask and examination techniques that are used to determine this priority. Develop a series of questions that are designed to take control of the call and that allow you to gain the information you need to determine if this is something that needs to be handled now or should it be referred to someone else or handled at a different time. Some of the issues that should be considered are:

• Who is involved
• Are there other voices that need to be heard
• Is there someone else that would be better at handling this issue
• Is there some major issue that will be created by not responding to this immediately
• What other opportunities would there be to handle this
• Are there emotions involved that could cloud the reality of the issue.
  

If you will consider these issues and implement these and other tools to take control of your phone and your time you will become much more effective and feel better about your phone.

Later we will discuss how we can use the phone to be more efficient in our ministry.

The Pastor's Paraklete

As you know, Paraklete is the Greek word used in the New Testament for the Holy Spirit. And, one of the meanings of the word is to come along side. The Holy Spirit comes along side of us to help us through this life. I want to come along side of pastors to be a help to them, especially young pastors. I would love to help you avoid some of the mistakes I made and which I have observed a lot of other young pastors make.

In this blog I am going to try to focus on methodologies that will help pastors to become more effective and activities, behaviors and attitudes to avoid that will rob you of your effectiveness.

Over the last 20 years I have served a small church and worked full time at a secular job. It's been a wonderful blessing to serve this church. This church is the most loving and accepting church that I have ever known. Their attitude towards others has been loving and caring. They are not generally judgmental or critical. This has not been completely true but mostly.

We have grown a lot. The growth has been numerical and spiritual. When I went to the church we had about 20 people the first Sunday. We now have about 120 on Sunday morning. It's been interesting how there have been spirts of growth. We are in one right now actually.

The church, as it has grown, has changed in complexion. The change is not bad. I want to emphasize that it's not bad. It's just different. And, as it changes we have all had to adjust and react to that change. One of the changes that we are going through right now is in the need of a pastor. We are really at a place where the church needs a full time pastor. It's going to be interesting to see how we react to that change.

I will keep you informed as we go along. Maybe there will be something you can learn in all of that also.