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Is There Such A Thing As An All Powerful Pastor?

March 8, 2012 in advocacy, church, leadership, life, preaching, priorities, productivity, ranting, spiritual formation with 4 Comments

I’m sick of it! Permit me to rant for a moment!

And if you’re a pastor/preacher/minister, you’re likely sick of it too. You’ve seen all the tweets and articles in magazines that act as if the pastor is a singular human in their organization, capable of creating and sustaining wonderful health and growth all by his or her own lonesome.

Here are some of the doozies I’ve heard lately:

As the pastor, you should be the happiest person in your church.
Pastor, what’s your staff culture? Remember, you set the culture for your staff.
If you don’t have 5 evangelistic relationships going on, how can you expect your congregants to have any?

On and on the lists go. It all adds up to this: As the leader of your organization you’re expected to have a great family, exercise daily, be studied in theology, history, culture, music, Bible and the local and national news. You’re also solely responsible for the culture and spiritual growth of your staff and congregation, as well as their intellectual and emotional health and growth. By the way, how up-to-speed are you on fund-raising and systems-thinking and strategy- implementation? What about addiction, co-dependency, visitation, guest-services, and community activities. Oh, before I forget, don’t you have a sermon to preach this weekend?

The problem with these little maxims is that they are partly true. As a pastor and leader, you do carry some level of responsibility for all these things. Yet there are so many things to be responsible for that no human can do them all well. I don’t mean to be snippy, just realistic. I pastor in the real world with real-world limitations. And many church leaders I know are stuck in systems that they are handling with as much hard work and determination they can muster. And still others, face challenges that they cannot overcome. There are simply more considerations than some evangelical leaders understand when passing down their leadership maxims. While these considerations run the risk of being labeled excuses, for many people it’s the water they swim in. In nearly 20 years of working near, around and in churches, I know these considerations to be depressingly true.

What No One Tells You About…Staying.

March 2, 2012 in change, family, home, leadership, ministry, preaching with 6 Comments

Saying goodbye is never easy. To be frank, it sucks. It just sucks. It sucks to say goodbye to the school you’ve invested thousands of dollars in and given your children to. Forever, The Trinity School will be the place we first left our oldest daughter and trusted with her care. It sucks to say goodbye to your church community, who entrusted you with their spiritual care and for whom you’ve sat at beside in hospitals and prayed through difficult times. And it especially sucks to say goodbye to the friends you’ve made in both places and that you’ve given your heart to.

Rochelle and I are confident that God has called us to a new place in this season of life, but it doesn’t take the suck out of it. Even with all the excitement we have about The Vine, there is a bittersweetness about leaving Northern California that I never expected. In the last month I’ve had more brunches, lunches, and dinners to say farewell than I thought possible. So much so, you begin to wonder, “Why are we leaving these people?” Through all the leaving, I’ve learned an important lessons about leaving and staying.

I’ve learned…

How One Word Can Transform Your Life!

February 23, 2012 in church, leadership, life, ministry, preaching, productivity, reading, teamwork with 2 Comments

One word can change the way you do everything. One word can refocus your attention, focus your energies and create a new outlook in an instant.

Since I’ve never been one for New Year’s Resolutions, I decided this year that instead of picking one habit to incorporate, jettison, or enhance, I wanted to do something that would effect my entire life. I wanted something that would effect my church work, community leadership, reading, blogging, writing, speaking, investment in others, marriage, parenting, everything.

I chose one word.

One word to remind, inspire and focus my energies. The word? GRIND! (I know, it’s rife for humor as a word. I get it) Anyway…

Everyday Is A Grind

Grind reminds me that at any time when I feel a lull in enthusiasm or energy, there is something I could be doing – creating blog, sermon, or class content, exercising, returning e-mail, deepening and communicating my vision for organizations I partner with, investing in relationships with my wife and daughters, sharpening my mind or bettering my story-telling through reading and writing, or simply working on some unfinished project around the house. It reminds me that life is work, and to get the most out of it is a grind. All I have to say to myself is, “Grind!” And what was about to become a time suck – flipping channels, YouTube, worrying about something I can’t control, etc… – gets turned into opportunity moment. I then can transition into something that will actually benefit someone. Recently a friend asked me how I was managing to spend time with my wife and kids, say goodbye to friends, pack boxes, make arrangements for moving, blog, preach and launch a new venture. The answer: Grind! It’s my word. GRIND! reminds me that I can be making something in my life better.

You need a word too.

You need a word to agitate your laziness into action.

You need a word to give clarity to moments of fuzzyheadedness.

You need a word to keep you moving toward your goals.

You need a word.

What Happened To The 20-Minute Sermon?

February 22, 2012 in Bible, church, homiletics, leadership, missional, preaching, speaking, speech acts, spiritual formation, words with 16 Comments

I was slightly taken aback when one of our church members – a friend and supporter of mine – joked to her husband that she listens to me 40-minutes every Sunday. Trust me, no one knows better than I do when I stray over my allotted time. In fairness, my sermons are typically about 30-minutes, not 40. A co-worker complained to me once that a particular sermon was 38-minutes (I could tell she had only checked the time stamp on the podcast and hadn’t listened to it. There was more recorded than the sermon and she hadn’t been in worship to hear it the first time. That sermon was 30-minutes). However, she was right in that my sermons are longer than (1) I was trained to make them, (2) have typically preached them in the past and (3) than I grew up hearing others preach their sermons.

What’s more, I’m not the only one who is preaching longer. I examined the podcasts I listen to weekly and began paying attention to the length of the sermons. I also paid closer attention to the communicators I watch online in the early hours of Sunday morning. In addition, I talked to local preachers and perused all types of church websites and I noticed something: Hardly anyone preaches 20-minutes sermons anymore! As a matter of fact, recently we had a family join our congregation only to leave a month later. When I encountered the husband one morning in BestBuy, he reluctantly confessed he left because of “the teaching.” Surprised by his bluntness, I stepped back. He continued, “Sorry, Pastor, It just wasn’t enough. I need an hour of teaching; 50-minutes at least.” Oddly, while attention spans in America may be getting shorter, sermons are getting longer. And there are 4 reasons why!