Toolbox For Faith

A while back, I got a phone call from another Lutheran congregation in our area asking if they could have a copy of my job description. After I explained that I had a letter of call which outlined the ministry I was called to do, but not a job description detailing specific tasks, I offered to write down a few reflections on the role of a pastor. What follows is the reflection that I shared. You can download a pdf of the reflection here.

I do not have a job description. I have a Letter of Call which offers a general description of the ministry that the congregation has called me to do. The Letter of Call focuses on areas like preaching, sacramental leadership, worship leadership, pastoral care, lifting up the concerns of those in need, equipping others for service and sharing God’s love through word and deed.

One of the joys and challenges of being a pastor is that each day presents new opportunities for ministry and quite often, no two days or two weeks are the same. My week normally has a pattern. Typically, I lead worship and teach an adult class on Sunday mornings. I lead a Bible study and go to choir practice on Tuesdays. I write a sermon and prepare to teach my Sunday School class on Thursdays and Fridays. During the week, I make visits in the afternoons, go to ministry meetings in the evenings, oversee the business of the congregation in the mornings, coordinate with paid and volunteer staff at times convenient for them and engage in my own personal devotion and study. Add a funeral, hospital visitation, service project, a member or family experiencing a crisis, and/or synod event into the mix, and the entire structure of my week changes significantly. Seasons of the church year such as Lent and Christmas, require extra time for planning, preparation and services.

No pastor or congregation can be all things to all people, but thankfully as the Apostle Paul reminds us, “there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7). Pastoral ministry, at its best, is a partnership between God, God’s people in a particular place and a pastor. Each pastor has a unique set of gifts, competencies and passions and each congregation has an equally unique set of gifts, competencies, passions and mission opportunities. I believe that the key to creating a whole, healthy ministry is discovering and focusing on the ministries about which the pastor and the congregation are passionate and gifted. If you have a pastor who loves senior adults and a congregation full of seniors, then don’t try to start a youth group. Build a healthy senior adult ministry. If you invest time discovering your gifts, strengths and competencies, you will be able to begin to describe the ministry both the congregation and the pastor hope to accomplish and together you can then create a matrix by which to measure progress.

A word of caution about realistic expectations

Each person in a congregation has a set of expectations for their pastor. Many times, the congregations expectations are a compilation of all of these expectations added together, The result is that congregations expect pastors to be skilled worship leaders with inspiring sermons each Sunday, expert educators, compassionate caregivers, proficient small business administrators, fund-raisers, youth ministry specialists even when no youth are in the congregation, and public relations professionals while at the same time pleasing everyone. Pastors can be just as unrealistic. They expect members in congregations to be at least as pious as he or she is. They think that members should be keenly interested in reaching the unchurched, amazingly generous, conflict free and totally devoted to the church.

Neither set of expectations is realistic. Most pastors will bring a high degree of competency in one or two areas of ministry, a reasonable degree of competency in one to two other areas of ministry and very little competency in some areas of ministry. Most congregations are filled with ordinary people who come to church looking to share and receive community, compassion and hope. One way of looking at realistic and unrealistic expectations is to divide a sheet of paper into two columns. In one column put the expectations of what a pastor or congregation is to do and in the other column put the expectations of what the pastor or congregation is not to do. This can provide a concrete way for all parties involved to get a handle on the expectations. To me, a better way forward is to develop a shared vision for mission and then agree upon one or two ministry goals to be accomplished over the next year. I believe this approach is the healthiest and most effective way to undertake the ministry God is calling pastors and congregations to do.

When starting a call process, invest time in discovering the gifts of your congregation. An honest assessment of the ministry those gifts will allow you to accomplish will help you grow forward as a congregation. Don’t worry about what you think you are ‘supposed’ to do as a church, discover what God has gifted you to do, then look for a pastoral leader who has the gifts to help you build on your strengths and develop new strengths in the years to come.

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.

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.

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.

As I was reading a book called, “Take this Bread” by Sara Miles this week, I came to a section in the story when one individual offered this advice to Sara.  ”Sometimes you have to slow down to speed up.”  It was a very minor point in the book, but the words jumped out at me and stuck with me.  On a very basic level, I found myself resonating with this advice.  I know that I am at my best both in ministry and in life when I make time for respite and Sabbath.  I have spent a week away at a continuing education event nearly every year of my ministry and I have always returned rested and energized.  I try to make time each Tuesday morning to sit at Panera, have a cup of hot tea and read for about an hour and a half.  I feel no guilt when I change the “due date” for an item on my “To Do List” from this week to next week.  Over the last year, however, life seems to be picking up speed.  I have to be more intentional about slowing down or I’ll just keep going.  So this morning, I decided to slow down a little and I did a quick Google search on the phrase “Slow down to Speed up.”  The first three results appear to affirm my belief that that we actually grow stronger and healthier lives and ministries when we make time to slow down and to step away from all the stuff we have to do even if it is just for a few moments.

The first article is from Forbes Magazine Online: “Slow Down to Speed Up: You can’t gain power over events when you are always in a rush“.  It provides a business focused approach to the idea and discusses how individuals can become better leaders by slowing down.  At the beginning of the article, the authors identify a trap many leaders have fallen into today.

“Complexity is the No. 1 issue facing chief executives today, according to a 2010 IBM study of 1,500 chief executives. The problem is that we’ve bought into the complexity conspiracy. We try to match complexity with greater complexity and speed with increased speed. Feeling out of control, we seek more control. Instead of the clarity we crave, we get ambiguity and more uncertainty. There is a way to break the stranglehold of complexity: Slow down to power up. That’s right. Slow down now and you will move faster, further and with greater purpose later–even when, or especially when, you are staring down the triple threat of complexity, speed and uncertainty.”

The second search result yielded a few thoughts that were helpful from an entrepreneurial blog by Brad Feld on feld.com.  In his June 26, 2011 blog post, he wrote:

“Basically, I’m trying to slow down. If I do this right, I believe I’ll be able to cover even more ground. I think this applies to any entrepreneur, or anyone involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. “Being really busy” is seductive – it has nothing to do with getting things done, or actually accomplishing your goals. But there’s something satisfying, or at least addictive, about being so busy that you don’t have time to think or reflect on what is going on around you. This is a big mistake long term as you’ll ultimately make crummy decisions.  Slow down to speed up.”

Since pastors essentially have an entrepreneurial calling - Go and make disciples -  I think there is a temptation to feel like you need to constantly be in motion to ‘prove that you are doing something’ or to be ‘faithful’ to your calling.  Perhaps we should remember that God rested and we need to rest too.

The third search result really was the most amazing of all.  I found a little paper on the topic by the American Academy of Medical Administrators.  I almost didn’t click on the link because I didn’t know anything about the AAMA, but it was number three so I clicked on it and I am so glad that I did.  The authors of the article, Ronald J. Stupak and David S. Greisle,  provide a well reasoned and faith-filled take on why we need to slow down in life that quotes Bill Gates, C.S. Lewis, Arthur Miller and Frederick Buechner.  They provide seven steps to help accomplish the goal of slowing down.  Here’s a link to the article: Slow Down to Speed Up.  It’s only 10 pages and well worth the read.

(The search and all articles access took place on October 5, 2011.)

How many hours a week to you typically work - 40, 50, 60 or more? I am writing this on the 4th of July from my office, so I have to admit upfront that I typically work more than 40 hours per week, but an article I saw on Huffington Post this week got me thinking about why? Historically, I think most people would have said that pastors work long hours because the church is understaffed or because there are always emergencies happening or because the pastor wanted to be involved in everything. According to “Top-Level Professionals View 40-Hour Work Week As Part-Time” (accessed July 4, 2011), 40 hour plus work weeks for pastors may simply be a reflection of the world around us. The article discusses a report by The Center for American Progress which found that “many top-level professionals, lawyers and doctors view the traditional 40 hour work week as a “part-time” job . . . . Many feel, with some justification, that a 40-hour week would be career suicide. This schedule is seen as ‘part time’ in many professional-managerial jobs, and tends to spell a less-prestigious and less upwardly-mobile career path.” (quotation from the Huffington Post article).

Since I believe that most pastors reflect the culture around them, it makes sense that 50 or 60 hour weeks are become the acceptable norm, not an unhealthy habit that we were warned about in seminary. Let’s face it, if key leaders in your congregation are professionals who work long hours, then that’s what they will expect of their pastor. When I interned outside New York City, I wore a dress shirt and tie to the office Monday to Friday, but when I took my first call in Lowcountry South Carolina, the ties went in the closet and now only come out occasionally. Pastors often talk of “being in the world, but not of the world”, however I’m afraid we have become fully “of the world” when it comes to the number of hours pastors need to work or believe that they need to work per week to be faithful.

Since I don’t see that expectation changing anytime soon, the question becomes one of balance. How do you create a balance between work and home? For me, balance comes through flexibility. My internship supervisor, Pastor Roger Spencer, once told me that “some weeks you go home and the church owes you money, but some weeks you go home and you owe the church money. Hopefully over the course of the year, it all works out. The key to finding balance,” he said, “was to recognize the weeks when you could get back an hour or two and go home.” These days, seeking balance often revolves around time when I am in the office. I typically go into the office when I drop my kids off for school around 7:30 AM, but I also typically pick them up when school is over around 2:30 PM. Some days I am back in the office (and so are they) after I pick them up and some days, I am able to head home. Day to day, week to week it changes, but my kids and my congregation have learned my patterns and understand that this is one way that I balance family and church. I’m sure I’ll have to re-balance things as my kids get older, but for now it seems to work for us.

I received an email last week from a friend about potential factors involved in dealing with reduced giving in a congregation. As I thought about the situation, these five points came to mind.

1. Attendance - if attendance is trending down, that may explain part of the problem. People who don’t attend, typically don’t give - unless you have an automated giving system in place.

2. Increased Giving offset by Missing Families - Individuals may already have increased their giving, but that increase may be offset by families who have left or reduced giving. If you don’t see an increase in giving in response to a direct appeal, it doesn’t mean that people don’t want to respond, it may simply reflect the fact that the people who are present are already giving at their highest level, but it isn’t enough to offset what is lost. A detailed analysis of giving patterns could help bring clarity to this question.

3. The “If you want to see a change in the congregation, feel free to make two changes in yourself first.” Principle - Often people are more willing to make a change if they see change already happening around them. A clear announcement of an increase in giving by leadership combined with a small spending cut or a new source of funding, could encourage other people to act as well. Simply announcing we need to make a change probably won’t be enough.

4. Increased ministry = increased giving. Increased shepherding = increased giving. Often the best way to increase giving is not to send a letter, but to celebrate the ministry being done and to increase the amount of shepherding (caring/visits/conversations) taking place in the congregation. If I found myself in a congregation with a declining giving pattern, I would celebrate a “ministry success” loudly and then start making my way around to visit folks (in person or by phone) and simple ask how they were doing. I wouldn’t ask about money, just life. This is a long-term solution, not a quick fix.

5. How often are you saying “Thank You”? If you aren’t doing so already, I’d start sending (at least) quarterly giving statements with a thank you note in each one. Again, don’t ask for money, simply report what has been given, say “Thank You” and connect that gift to a ministry taking place within the congregation. This too is a long-term solution, not a quick fix.

I came across an excellent article last week from the Alban Institute entitled Tending the Vineyard by Paul E. Hopkins. Hopkins makes the case that there are four elements which are keys for creating what he calls “enduring pastoral fruitfulness”.

He suggests that for pastors to have healthy, fruitful lives and ministry, it is imperative that they have (1) a systematic commitment to livelong learning, (2) an intentional connection to communities of shared practice, (3) a careful stewardship of the leader’s own self, and (4) strong roots and active exercise in a growing faith. While none of these four suggestions is revolutionary or a totally new idea, my own experience in ministry resonates with these suggestions. I am at my best as a pastor and a person, when I am intentional about learning, when I am connected to a group of caring colleagues, when I am seeking balance between family and call and when I am taking time to nurture my connection to God.

In the future, I might use Hopkins four categories as a tool for self-evaluation. I could imagine taking each of his four categories and creating goals in each area to help me maintain pastoral fruitfulness and balance. If I actually put a tool together using these categories, I’ll try to remember to post it.

Most people would not have paid much attention to the sign that said “Pastor Parking Only” next to the church in the midst of the crowded parking lot near the front door of the church we were visiting last Sunday but it bothered me. I had almost forgotten about it when the pastor started off his sermon with an illustration that said we are all in this together. My thoughts immediately returned to the sign.

As a pastor, I have always felt that on Sunday mornings, the best place for the pastor to park was at the far edge of the parking lot. Having a reserved parking place next to the building says that the pastor is the most important person and automatically deserves the best parking spot. We might “all be in this together” but the pastor should be awarded the best parking spot. I never felt that way and had the signs quietly removed at three congregations where the closest parking spot said “Pastor Parking Only.” On Sundays, I parked on the edge of the parking lot and walked even though I was one of the first people to arrive. Besides, the exercise was good for me.

The specified parking space might be a little thing to most people but I feel strongly that this little thing communicates the wrong message for a pastor’s actions to preach.

“Thanks for the advice,” the person said as she left my office shortly before the start of our Vacation Bible School. “That was really helpful.” The remark caught me off guard because I thought that we were having a good discussion looking at possible options. I had not thought that I was distributing advice.

The next day I read an interview with David Freedman who wrote Wrong: Why Experts Keep Failing Us - and How to Know When Not to Trust Them when I came across his definition of good and bad advice which brought me back to the evening before. He said that bad advice tends to be simplistic, definite, universal and certain. Good advice, he feels, tends to be less certain.

I really appreciated what he said. Many people want a black and white world which explains why bad advice resonates with so many people who want simple, certain answers. Others see the world as a rainbow of colors which explains why good advice tends to be less certain. Good advice acknowledges that there are many roads to reach a destination, not just one way.

After reading all of Freedman’s comments, I started thinking that looking at possible options might be the best advice we can give or receive. And then I realized that sounded very simplistic, definite, universal and certain which made it bad advice. Oops! All I am certain about now is that I would appreciate it if you didn’t ask me for advice.