Toolbox For Faith

Most people tend to look at weaknesses rather than strengths. When your strengths become stronger, your weaknesses are less apparent. When you attempt to solve weaknesses, the strengths that you had grow weaker.

When the Chicago Bulls were beginning to challenge the Detroit Pistons for dominance in basketball, they had a playoff game in Chicago. With around three seconds left, the Bulls got a rebound and called a time out. After the time out, the Bulls were going to take the ball out of bounds at mid court, behind by one. During the timeout, the radio announcers were discussing what to do when one said, “If they do not get the ball to Michael Jordan, they should fire the coach.” They got the ball to Jordan who hit a 3 point shot and the Bulls won by 2. They went with their best player.

In the church, we call a timeout which is a board or committee meeting and most often give the ball to the water boy—the area where we are weakest.

Go with your strengths. Do even better what you are already doing the best.

Like many other congregations, St. Michael orders palm crosses or branches each year for use on Palm Sunday/Sunday of the Passion. Certainly these worship supplies can be ordered from local florists or large supply houses, but you might consider ordering from ecopalms.org or African Palms USA. Ecopalms is an ecumenical partnership that focuses on providing palm branches in a way that is sustainable and helpful to the local economy. African Palms USA is a ministry sponsored by St. John’s Church, Olney, Maryland that produces palm crosses in Africa and then uses the proceeds for African ministries. I have ordered from African Palms USA several times and this year, after seeing a flyer from Lutheran World Relief, will be trying ecopalms.org for the first time.

I had a wonderful fourth Sunday in Advent children’s message that involved our children lighting the four candles on the Advent Wreath. When I went to invite the children forward to sit on the steps of the chancel with me, I suddenly had a horrible, sinking feeling. I had forgotten! I had forgotten that on the third Sunday at the church I am serving, they have children’s church and none of the children were in church. It was an excellent mistake.

As I looked around pondering what to do next, I noticed the top of the head of Jonathan, age two, in the back of the church. For some reason, he had stayed with his mother and father rather than going to Children’s Church. Abandoning all my plans, I asked Jonathan to come forward and help me light the candles while the congregation sang all four verses of the hymn we sing while lighting the wreath.. Jonathan and his mother came to the wreath. I took the acolyte’s stick, lit it from the altar candles and picked up Jonathan. Together, we lit all four candles.

When lighting the candles, his eyes were wide, wide open with one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen. When I put him down, he was jumping up and down, up and down. When he finally stopped, he gave me a high five and got his mother’s hand and danced up the aisle, pausing occasionally to wave at me. As he walked, he told everyone next to the aisle, “I lighted the candles, I lighted the candles.” I could see the smiles on the faces of all in the congregation. This was a powerful moment.

What a great lesson! God helps us at all times of life, even when we completely goof. God provided a little child to save me. That’s what Christmas is all about—a small child shall save us.

Goals have four levels depending on time required to accomplish the aim and the complexity of the objective.

• Quick victories require six to nine weeks to accomplish. Quick victories are usually relatively simple but create an attitude of accomplishment in the congregation. Many times, one or two people can achieve a quick victory usually with a minimum of people and financial resources.
• Short term victories require nine weeks to six months to accomplish. These are usually more complex than the quick victories but can be accomplished in a short period of time. Again, one or two people or a small group can organize a short term victory with a minimum of people or financial resources.
• Simple major victories require six months to a year to accomplish. These can be accomplished only by involving at least a small task team working together. Most simple major victories require financial resources and involvement of many in the congregation.
• Complex major victories require one to three years to accomplish. These victories require a significant involvement of the leadership and members of the congregation as well as financial resources.

When establishing goals, each category must be considered. Unless this happens, planning is incomplete. Most groups tend to concentrate only on the simple or complex major victories and loose the excellent momentum provided by the quick victories and short term victories.

1. Be enthusiastic! Paul talks of being “cheerful.” Enthusiasm comes from a word that means “God within.” Being enthusiastic means letting God, who is within you, shine through.

2. Be optimistic! You are optimistic because you know that God is acting in our world, our church and our lives.

3. Be hopeful! Hope is one of the most powerful forces. Hope can lead us into the future because we know that as Psalm 23 reminds us, the shepherd walks by our side.

Many church leaders approach finances as if all months are created equal. One finance committee at a church with a budget of $600,000 decided to divide by 12 and told the board and the congregation that they needed $50,000 a month to meet their budget. They ignored the fact that in December, they always received at least $95,000 to $105,000. As a result, starting in January, they immediately started falling behind and by November, they were at least $45,000 behind. Because they were behind, they would cut back expenditures starting in the summer when their offerings dropped significantly. All the talk was about how bad the church was doing. To quote scrooge who could have been a member of the finance committee, “Bah! Humbug!” By the end of the year, they always made their spending plan but by the time everyone realized it, a new year was starting and they were already behind because they assumed all months were created equal.

Offerings do not come in the same each month so the board needs to index the congregational income by determining the percentage of income they can expect each month. Start by looking back over the past three to five years and look at the percentage of the year’s income comes in each month. You will discover that most congregations have a specific pattern of giving. Realize that a fifth Sunday will change the shape of offerings and that either March or April will be boosted by Easter attendance. You will see a trend over the years as most months will be consistent in what percentage of the annual spending plan that is given. Instead of dividing by 12, take the annual budget and use the percentage for each month to see how much should be received. By doing this, you have a much better projection of what should be received each month.

The board can do the same thing with expenditures. Items like insurance come at the same time each year. Like offerings, expenditures can be projected based on the patterns from past years.

A church can’t do everything

The funeral director and the cemetery personnel were opening the niche in the columbarium to place the cremains of one of my members. They removed the metal covering and noticed something interesting–two urns were already stuffed in the opening. That taught me the importance of finding the correct niche.

None of the churches, even the large ones which I have served, have been able to do everything. What is important is discovering the niche or niches that the Lord calls you to serve in mission and ministry. Remember, God does not call us to do anything that God does not give us the power to do.

Here’s a wonderful example of discovering a niche. I would like to take credit for finding this fantastic niche but it just happened. God worked in a way we did not expect.

Our church ended up adopting the men’s soccer team at the University of South Carolina at Aiken because one of the young men on the team was a Lutheran from Texas and attended our church. We never started out to adopt the team, but through a series of circumstances, it happened. The women’s soccer team heard about what was happening with the men and their coach shared with us that they really wanted to be adopted, also. Before I left, the women’s basketball team thought that it was a good idea and we adopted them. Once a year, they all attended church. The last time they attended when I was pastor, all but one player (who had to work - attended. Several times a year, we had a supper just for them and invited people from the church. Our congregation attended some of their games together and we even had an ad in the programs. I still have my women’s basketball t-shirt that I purchased to wear to the games.

Ok - perhaps the title is a bit of an overstatement. Most of what I learned about preaching came from listing to my father preach for years and from classes with Dr. Tom Ridenhour at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, but as I read a story in the October 2011 issue of Inc Magazine, I was reminded of the influence that Robin Williams and other comedians have had on my preaching.

The article entitled, “Badabing, badaboom - Can doing standup help close the deal?” focused on a company that brings in a standup comedian named Clayton Fletcher to teach employees comedic technique as a way of making them better public speakers. “Fletcher runs through a list of rhetorical devices commonly used in standup routines. He explains how to establish a roll structure, or a succession of punch lines, and how to set up a reference to a previous joke, known as a callback.” The owner of the business says, “Many of the skills used in crafting a standup routine . . . are essential for winning over prospective clients. ‘If you’re a good comedian, you’re probably a good presenter.’”

Now I don’t tell jokes when I preach, but like standup comedians, I tell stories, talk about life and make observations on society as a way of connecting my story, the congregation’s story, and God’s story revealed in scripture. When I started preaching, I remember watching Robin Williams doing standup and noticing how he would always reference something from the beginning of his act as he was finishing up. At the time, I didn’t know he was doing a “callback”, but I recognized that it was a helpful way to highlight a point and I incorporated it into my preaching. As I listened to observational comics, I got a sense for how to look at the ordinary events of life from a different perspective. As I listened to storytelling comics, I got ideas for how to share an illustration in a way that draws the congregation into the story and while the content of my preaching has more to do with Tom Ridenour than with Robin Williams, the rhetorical devices used by standup comedians have definitely had a helpful influence on my sermon structure and delivery style.

Dr. Kennon Callahan was the one who introduced me many year ago to the 80-20 rule and it has been a wonderful revelation. The way that I understand the rule is that 80% of the effort create 20% of the results while 20% of the effort create 80% of the results.

If you have ever attended a committee meeting, you understand the principal. A great example of an 80 percenter is the worship committee who spent 30 minutes discussing how to deal with the acolytes who were chewing gum in church. They finally agreed with the pastor that the pastor would ask the acolyte to take out the gum before entering to light the candles and not to chew gum during the service. That 80 percenter was important to only the few anti-chewing-gum members of the committee.

At the same church later in the month, the property committee dealt with an important 20 percenter, parking at the church. The town had made a decision to enforce a parking ordinance that would have eliminated 40 parking spaces near the church that were used each Sunday. The committee was looking at every option to replace the spaces because they knew that the lack of parking would impact the Sunday attendance. That was a 20 percenter

When the 80 percenters tend to get just as much attention as the 20 percenters, many opportunities are missed. Look for the 20 percenters.

I always look forward to attending other churches and learning from the experience. For over three years in the congregation I served in Illinois, four council members and I would attend another congregation once a quarter and take the pastor out for lunch and learn from his or her expertise. That was a fantastic experience where I learned many excellent lessons.

That was not the case in my latest episode of sitting in the pew. We were on vacation and went to a nearby Lutheran congregation. The experience painfully taught me some great lessons about what not to do. So that your congregation does not make the same mistakes, I have made a list of “make sures.”

1. Make sure that you have friendly, smiling ushers who speak to the people arriving. The usher gave my wife a bulletin but did not speak. He only spoke to me after I said, “Good morning” but never smiled.

2. Make sure that the announcements are done in an excellent manner with planning, enthusiasm and complete information. The pastor started the announcements by looking around and finally said, “I guess you are wondering what I am doing. I am looking for…” but never said why that was important. He never welcomed guests so my assumption was that he did not expect guests. He rambled on and on. A member made an announcement about a Crop Walk and she had it written out, definitely had practiced it and did an excellent job of explaining the program. The pastor could have learned much from her.

3. Make sure that your choir director selects music that is appropriate for the choir. This church had 22 people in the choir but the director had selected a very difficult piece. The anthem had a section where they were unaccompanied during which the harmony resembled, in my wife’s words, “fingernails on a blackboard.” I really felt my wife was being generous. Ironically, I do not feel that the choir was that bad but the selection was much too difficult for their abilities as it would have been for the vast majority of church choirs.

4. Make sure that choir members realize that they are on view for everyone in the congregation to see. I tried to concentrate on the sermon but my thoughts wandered as the pastor rambled so I noticed the choir. Two choir members took a short nap during the sermon, one gazed at the congregation and never the pastor, another looked like she was checking phone messages and no one smiled.

5. Make sure that your ushers do not skip people when taking up an offering. O.K, I admit that should be a given but not in this congregation. I had my contribution ready when the usher came to our pew. I was the third person down but he did not want to let go of the offering plate and motioned to the other end of the pew. Sure enough, an usher came to that side of the pew but never slowed down for my offering even though my arm was extended. The woman who had spoken about the Crop Walk said that she would be in the narthex following the service so I thought I would give it to her but she was not there when I exited the church.

6. Make sure that everyone speaks to guests so they feel welcome. After the service, the woman in front of us turned around and stared—probably because I have great fun in singing hymns—but never said a word even after I smiled and said, “Good morning.” On the way out, the pastor shook our hands and welcomed us. One member who was one of my wife’s former teachers spoke to us but that was it. We definitely did not feel welcomed.

We Christians have the greatest cause in the world and I feel that demands excellence. Make it happen in your congregation. This experience has made me more determined than ever to do a better job in my interim congregation. I am going to “make sure” excellence happens.