Category: The Church

I talked to God today. I didn’t hear anything back though. I suppose God may have been busy. He has been that way a lot lately. Perhaps God was busy doing other things. Or maybe God’s stuck in Washington DC what with the shutdown and all. I am not sure where he was but if he wanted to say something I was available.

Have you ever wondered what God is doing while we sleep? Of course the whole world doesn’t sleep at the same time so God always has something to do. Maybe that’s why he made the world round. I wonder what would happen if we started a movement where everyone in the world would sleep at the same time. What would God do then? Too be a bit more religious, what would happen if we all prayed at the same time? Perhaps God would do what Bruce Almighty did and just push alt, control, yes at the same time. But that didn’t turn out too well for Jim Carrey.

Religious people get scandalized easily but usually about the wrong things. For example, take the war on Christmas. What in the world is that? As far as I can tell it all started at Wal Mart. I am not sure but the basic premise is that we can’t say Merry Christmas any longer, or maybe it is that we’re supposed to say Merry Christmas. I am not a very good foot soldier for this war but some people seem to think the Second Coming will be delayed if we don’t somehow win this one.

Oh and religious people get all worked up about politics. You know it’s all about the wall or immigration or Supreme Court justices. Katy bar the door, this one is huge, or is that yuge? If you pay attention this doesn’t just come from those who are trying to save Christmas. In fact I just heard that if Jesus were a baby in the world today he would have been killed at our border. That doesn’t seem to resonate with me theologically but it isn’t any worse than so-called evangelical leaders who claim that it’s immoral to not protect the borders. I am not sure what it is we are supposed to save them from or why they need saving but save them we must.

My new favorite comes from Jerry Falwell’s son (anyone remember the Moral Majority which was an oxymoron sort of like Microsoft Works). Evidently we are to be scandalized by those who want to help the poor or something like that. Jerry’s son (who ironically has the same name as his father) is all worked up about all the focus on poor people. After all what do they contribute to our country? All they want is to take, take, take.

I am sure there are other examples out there but this seems to be a good cross section. Well that’s interesting, I used the term “cross.” If religious people want to be scandalized, I recommend this one. You know the “deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me” deal or this little tidbit:

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.”

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

Well that seems like something religious people ought to read. Maybe they have but it appears that the God they worship needs some help. I mean what if we all prayed at the same time, or slept at the same time, or Wal Mart won, or God forbid, the wrong person was put on the Supreme Court or the borders were left unprotected, what would happen to us?

I struggle with religious people. They seem too serious. They get worked up too easily and the wrong things scandalize them. As I learned to say during my ten years in Texas, “bless their hearts.” I would rather spend my energy on being scandalized on things that scandalize God: the desperately lonely, the vulnerable who society has forgotten, orphans, widows, wars and drone attacks, innocents slaughtered by power hungry dictators, those who die seeking better lives by traversing over miles and miles of dangerous lands and so on. I’ll leave the religious to try to help God out, or to save God from disaster. I will let God help me out and save me from disaster. Even when I don’t hear God speak, I’ll keep praying. It does my heart well. In the meantime, God has already told me what I’m supposed to be doing: be scandalized about the right things and do something about it, one person at a time.

Until next time,

Darrel+

Since my retirement from active church leadership, I have the opportunity to sit in the congregation and listen to someone else preach. This is not easy for me. Perhaps it comes from nearly 28 years of preaching every Sunday. Maybe it is an ego thing. I find sitting and listening a difficult discipline but one that has proved to be fruitful.

Since we attend a nondenominational church, I no longer find comfort in the rhythm of the liturgy. Fortunately a lot of the BCP is used, including prayers and sometimes even the confession. The value of immersing myself for all these years in the Eucharistic prayers of the Book of Common Prayer did make Sunday mornings both transcendent and familiar. It has been good to step away from that for a season and remember why it was so life giving for me.

Now my involvement at church is much different. I have preached from time to time but just attending without any expectations from others has been restorative and I have found I have grown. Yet, at first I felt like a spectator. I watched the congregation and the pastor pray. I paid attention to the pastor’s family, wondering if that is what people did to me and my family. I listened to music that I had never heard and even, from time to time, tried to sing along. But the biggest challenge has come from listening to sermons.

My style is very different from the pastor I listen to weekly. That is neither good nor bad, just different. I would call my style a sort of “pastorally-focused, practical application” of the Gospel. My focus was on attempting to help the congregation understand how relevant the Gospel is and the challenges in applying Biblical principles to everyday life. I avoided a lot of controversial topics, determined that a pastoral approach would connect me with people. I felt I was challenging but not threatening. Pastoral and not very prophetic.

Now I listen to a different sermon. The pastor’s approach is more pedagogy than proclamation. Indeed, sometimes I feel like it is more like an adult class than a sermon. His focus is on speaking prophetically into the culture. Again I am not criticizing, just noticing the difference. But the biggest contrast is in the prophetic way in which he speaks into current events. He never crosses the line into partisanship but speaks strongly about the ways the Gospel is misused by many in our society. I am impressed.

While I might have preached a series on worship, or parenting, or leadership, I now listen to sermons addressing immigration, racial divisions, and the current failure of American evangelicalism. I remember preaching about racial reconciliation a couple of years ago and the push back was palpable. So as I reflect back on my preaching history I wonder if I avoided controversial issues in order to avoid conflict? Perhaps I am too critical of myself but as I listen to the pastor preach now and note how it affects my heart and draws me more and more into the public square with a clearer understanding of the need that followers of Jesus have to speak truth to power, I wonder what my motivation was. I can only imagine the push back he receives and yet continues to prophetically speak against the systemic evils of society.

Can you teach an old pastor new tricks? Well, I am not learning any new tricks but I am being challenged in profound ways. A good friend of mine just tagged me in a post on social media about being a pastor. It said “if you want everyone to like you, don’t be a pastor. Go sell ice cream.” I pray that the church continues to find its prophetic role in our society. If not the church, who will do that? Sometimes it may cause some people to walk away but after all, not everyone found comfort in Jesus’ teaching. And notice he didn’t decide to go sell ice cream.

Recently we returned from a six-thousand-mile journey, more or less. We were gone for exactly thirty days which qualifies it for the longest vacation I have ever taken. Well, it ties it. But those two vacations could not be more different.

A couple of years ago I decided to take my full vacation all at once. As a priest, I signed a letter of agreement with each of the congregations I served. It is an accepted policy by most congregations to grant a thirty-day vacation annually for a rector, which is the head of the congregation in an Episcopal Church. I never seemed to be able to take that much time, since there always seemed to be something going on that needed my presence. I decided that I would finally take what the congregation had agreed upon and planned to be away for thirty days. Then I unplugged. I deleted my email app on my phone and told the staff to not call me. What I did not know came back to bite me.

The congregation I was serving had recently replaced a long-term staff member with a person who had many gifts but was uniquely different from the person replaced. There had been several issues related to the new staff member before I left on vacation but it exploded during my absence. I had met with several key members who were influencers in the area of ministry of this staff member and assured them that I would fully address the issue after my return. It was two days before my vacation and I was too busy getting ready to leave to attend to it before I left.

As I look back on that time, I cannot remember where we went on vacation. That memory is shrouded by the range fire that was burning when I got back on the grid. In my twenty-seven years of ministry I had never seen such a situation go from fairly quiet to a full out frontal assault. I will not get into the specifics here but I do share this extensively in a book I am writing. Suffice it to say, there was poor leadership involved in both the staff member, key influencers and a particular board member. I have changed names to protect the innocent but it stands as one of the most peculiar lessons on leadership I have ever encountered.

The vacation provided rest but over the next year, I felt like I had burned my candle at both ends and needed those thirty days of vacation. Perhaps I should have taken them but even though the situation in the congregation was much different, I did not. There were many lessons in that but I will save those for the book as well.

This vacation was much different. There were challenges, particularly my truck having mechanical issues but when we returned home there were no emails that needed answered, no phone calls I needed to return and no one acting out. Clearly I preferred this vacation to the other.

Of course I am not leading a congregation any longer so I do not have to face issues related to that. But as I look back, I know there were many things that I could have done to have kept the conflict from exploding. But as I sit here now, I know that thirty day vacations needed to have been the norm not the exception. I cannot undo the past but I can certainly share the lessons learned.

Until next time,

DP

I have been away from church leadership since November of last year and I have found the time away to be an important time of reconnection, reflection, renewal and re-forming. When I began my sabbatical I was not sure what to expect. I just needed to get away. I needed space to breathe and grieve and pray and think. I needed to reconnect with my heart. I had grown weary with expectations and criticisms and the not always silent commentary about how long it would take before I “got over my grief.” As I look back on the months leading up to the sabbatical, I am pleased that I did not do anything inappropriate to a couple of people who kept pushing and prodding, checking on how many times I mentioned Joseph (my deceased son) in a sermon or how many times I broke down in a class that I taught. To be fair, some of my perceptions were simply that, perceptions. But not all of them. I had grown weary.

Three months away was invigorating and I lost my weariness. Unexpectedly, though, a new perspective about the church and ministry began to emerge. It did not happen immediately but rather slowly, over time. I would see something, read something, hear a conversation or simply sit alone in my thoughts and prayers and something would click inside my heart. This was not anything revolutionary and some of it lead me to confess that if I had been quieter as I led in the church I would have discovered much of this new perspective years ago.

One of my favorite quotes, the kind of thing one puts on social media, for several years is that “the local church is the hope of the world.” There seems to be something profound about seeing the local expression of the Church as the place of mission and the place where lives are changed. Mission does happen and lives are changed, not by the denomination but where the mission ought to happen, at the local level. I still believe that but I know only too well that things get in the way of that happening more often. Let me give you an example.

Recently I had a conversation with someone who is a regular church-goer for most of his life. He was expressing his frustration with his local pastor who, every summer, would berate his congregation for being gone for most of the summer. He told me that he liked to go to the lake, loved vacations and felt a deep need to get away. He looked at me and said “what’s wrong with that?” Without thinking, I told him there was nothing wrong with vacations and getting away from the regular pattern of life for much needed vacations (re-creation). But I said something else, without reflecting on it for more than a couple of moments. I then said “do you want to know a deep secret that most pastors won’t admit?” He pulled his chair closer to mine and said “Yes!” I then said “really most pastors don’t care if you are on vacation or not. They are just worried that you will forget your pledge while you are gone.” I could have added “they also hate that you’re gone, not because you won’t do ministry but that it will have an impact on average Sunday attendance.” Ouch.

In the movie Jerry Maguire, the phrase “show me the money” was used by an athlete who was encouraging his agent to execute a better contract with his sports team. That same phrase could be used by those in leadership positions in the church. As I thought about this I felt a catch in my spirit because my criticism was directed toward me. In the church, money should not be the significant concern of the leadership but often it is the sole concern. When one looks back at the Church that emerged from Pentecost, budgets and capital campaigns and salaries and mortgages are never mentioned. Why? Because ministry is not about those things. It should never be “show me the money” but rather, “show me the cross.”

It may seem disingenuous to say such things now that I am not responsible for budgets and salaries and mortgages and so on. Perhaps it is but as these months away from such concerns has gone on, I am surprised and blessed to have been given the opportunity to see the errors in the way in which my time and energy were devoted. Much of my time was spent dealing with the financial issues because that was the hand I was dealt. When mortgage payments are the largest line item on a budget, it is a challenge to not make finances a top priority. The concern of many, shared freely and openly with me, had nothing to do with being an image bearer of Christ.

On this side of the altar, I now see that I wasted that time and energy. Perhaps I would not have lasted as long as I did had I not but what a blessing it would have been to have spent all that energy on living like those first Christians did and place the cross as the sole context of ministry. This caused me to wonder if the effectiveness of ministry is directly related to the energy spent in building buildings instead of people. Is the local church truly the hope of the world? It could be but often is not. Because it is all about the money.

There is a local church a couple of miles from my house that is in the process of finishing a new building. As I was driving by recently I wondered how much the Kingdom of God will make a difference in the world because of the new and shiny structure. I also wondered if the money raised could be funneled into helping the hungry, the thirsty, the naked and those in prison. Have I become naïve? No. I simply have seen the waste. What a tragedy it is.

The season of Lent is almost upon us and will officially begin tomorrow, on Ash Wednesday. “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return,” is the phrase that will be used countless times as ashes are place on the penitents’ foreheads. The forty days are a time of self-reflection, prayer, the study of God’s word and coming to terms with how much we get wrong.

Increasingly I have come to terms with where much of what passes for Christianity in our country is missing the mark. Recently a preacher reminded me that nowhere in the Bible is there found a “sinner’s prayer.” That is not only true but most Christians I know would not know that. Christian piety for many is simply getting one’s self right with God so that one can go to heaven. How one lives one’s life is not a as significant as getting the salvation box checked. The implication of such theology is profound.

NT Wright, the great Anglican Biblical scholar, points out that the vocation of a Christian is NOT to be morally superior than others. When that is the object of a Christian life, then it is easy to sit on the sidelines and point out the moral inadequacies of others. Our task isn’t to do “better than others” and thereby earning one’s away into heaven. Carried to a logical end, this attitude leads to a disengagement with the world. Haven’t you seen this in the way that Global Climate change has been summarily dismissed by many evangelicals? Haven’t you seen this in the way that some evangelical Christians claim to be “pro-life” but rail against any social program that would protect the health of children or provide a way out of the systemic cycle of poverty? Pro-life, in my opinion, is both against abortion but also in favor of supporting the most innocent and vulnerable after they arrive from the womb. The logical inconsistency of many makes me scratch my head.

Instead, the vocation of a Christian is to be an “image bearer of Christ” in the world (whatever community in which you are a part). Matthew 25:31ff makes it clear that Jesus demands that we engage with the physical needs of our world. When we do, we have ministered to him. When we don’t we have refused to minister to him. To be the image bearer of Christ in the world is to take Jesus heart, concern and grief over the suffering all around us, into the very core of such suffering.

I am not sure I always got this. It’s too demanding. But it’s very biblical. The other day I watched a new series on Netflix hosted by David Letterman. The series is called “My Next Guest,” and I watched and listened to Letterman interview George Clooney. Clooney and his wife Amal have been actively involved in humanitarian concerns, even though they don’t need to. Their involvement is more that photo ops and they, whether or not they know it, are living into the vocation where all Christians are called. But I suspect many “evangelical” (I put the word in quotes because there is nothing evangelical about it) Christians would reject them as Hollywood liberals with some sort of secular agenda. For me, I found myself praying for forgiveness that I haven’t engaged the world as I have been called.

So this Ash Wednesday, I will make my confession that I am “dust and to dust I shall return.” But I will also pray that I have been deaf to my call to enter into the suffering of this world as Jesus has called me. It’s challenging but if we listen carefully and pray the solemn collects thoughtfully, we have no other option.

One day I may look back on this blog entry with a twinkle in my eye and a sense of how naïve I once was. I have only been retired since February 1 but I have been surprised by what I miss. There is a long list of what I don’t miss but as I started to list those things/people I decided that might hurt someone’s feelings. So I erased that list and will focus on a couple of things that remain the same and what I miss the most.

Monday mornings will always be Monday mornings, even if there is not a string of meetings to attend. Just getting back into the weekly grind is difficult whether or not one is working for a paycheck. There are always problematic people to deal with, either at work, online, in the neighborhood or even at the grocery store. Those things do not go away. I did not expect them to but at some level I thought it would be a bit different.

As many of you know, Julie and I are watching our Grandson while the calendar marches toward the time he goes to pre-school. Many of our days begin at 8 am, others at 10 am and then the occasional noon start. Since it’s been so cold, we usually stay at our daughter’s house all day, making the day seem so much like going to work. Of course we love him and are happy to be such a big help but one day does seem the same as the past one.

So with these similarities, what is it that I miss? Community is the bearer of Christ’s image in this world. It is in community where we struggle and soar, sometime at the same time. God is not experienced “out-there.” God is found both within, and without. God is in us. This means if I am to have a clear experience of God, I will discover God in the other. This is not only significant and meaningful, it is crucial to understand. Some theological bents will claim a rather gnostic sense of God. God “speaks to me” and tells me about you. God “told me” we should do this or that. I have seen this theological error too many times and find it to be both dangerous and deceiving. God is experienced within community. With all the messiness of people doing life together; in the midst of hurt feelings and agendas; God is there. If you have ever been part of a Church community you know only too well how difficult it can be. Yet it is the very place God is discovered. I suppose that’s the attraction of going it alone and hoping God can just reside in one’s own pocket. It would be cleaner, easier and without challenge. But God is in the challenge.

That is what I miss. I miss the community. I have a new one emerging but I was instrumental in shaping the last one. God only knows we were not perfect. I could go back and start listing the issues but as I mentioned, there is no real purpose in that. Even among the most problematic people and the most outrageously silly concern, God was there. I hated meetings but God was there. I shook my head at lengthy and critical emails, but God was there. Even in budget meetings, God was there.

God is still with me. My community is much smaller now. But my God is not smaller. My task is to remember that because God became flesh, humanity has changed. We all have been created with the Imago Dei. But because of the Incarnation, God becoming flesh, not only do we look around to see the Image of God, but we can now look within and without and find an incarnational community where God loves, shares and calls us all to love others as we are being loved.

What about you? Do you find God in community?

Busy. Just typing the word conjures up many feelings and images. There are many kinds of busy for a pastor and not all of them are productive. There’s the kind of busy that is part of the every day grind at work. I have experienced that kind of busy too often. I had sermons to write, Bible studies to prepare, Sunday adult classes that had to be taught every week and the regular rhythm of staff and vestry meetings, administrative demands and so on. Sundays always seemed to roll around with alarming regularity because of the way each week was filled with detail after detail that demanded attention. Someone onced coined this kind of busy-ness “the tyranny of the urgent.”

I constantly sought ways out of such demands but rarely found success. As a pastor, it’s clear to most that widgets are not being made. Yet the pressure to be in the office, at one’s desk was felt by the expectations of others. I often felt that if I were not physically present at the office, then someone would criticize the way I was spending my time. In fact I was criticized if I wasn’t immediately available at the church. Was I loafing? Taking time off? I have a pastor friend who named his boat “Visitation.” When he needed time away from the “tyranny of the urgent” he would tell his staff he was going on “Visitation.” That’s both amusing and sad at the same time. Being a pastor demands spending time differently than most. Let me explain.

A seldom used phrase describes the vocation of ordained ministry is that one has “a cure of souls.” This meant that beyond sermon preparation and other weekly demands, time is needed to care for the spiritual lives of those with whom the priest is entrusted. Beyond visiting hospitals and nursing homes, there needs to be time away from phones, emails and coffee conversations in the office. Caring for others means prayer, seeking a balance in one’s own life and solitude. Let the pastor who lives into such a spiritually healthy life be forewarned. If that kind of balance is achieved, criticism will be sure to follow. Even so there is no other way to care for people at the level that most pastors desire.

As I look back on serving a church, criticism caused me to change the way I spent my week too many times. A lack of criticism just seemed to make life easier. It is not possible to effectively care for a “cure of souls” without caring for one’s own soul. If a priest is to be a sacramental presence in the lives of those who are overwhelmed with the minutiae of their own lives, then the priest cannot live like everyone else. There will always be those who criticize. A priest/pastor must be willing to accept that. Ironically it is easier when one finds a spiritual balance, week after week, even in the midst of the “tyranny of the urgent.”

I have a clearer vision on serving a church now as my sabbatical draws to a close. There is not a thing I can do about the past but I do desire to help others, both those who serve in a church and those who are served by it. What are your expectations of the way a pastor spends his/her time? If your pastor is not in the office, what do you think he/she is doing? Is solitude a worthwhile way to spend time?

There is another way to be more effective. Get a boat and name her “Solitude.” Or a camper.

The anniversary of my ordination came and went this year without me noticing. I have never treated it in a special way and only once did a congregation do anything special for it. Last year, a small group in the congregation gave me a gift to commemorate it. I received a “stole” which is the garment worn by a priest who is presiding over a sacramental service. I only wore it once because it is blue on one side for Advent and the other side is white for Christmas or Easter. But since it also has a manger on it as well, Easter seemed to be a stretch for its use.

I find it rather emblematic that any congregation that I led failed to recognize ordination anniversaries. While an ordination is very special to the one being ordained, I am not sure it is for others. Or maybe most people do not realize its uniqueness. I am not complaining, especially since it was easy for me to forget the actual date, but I do not forget the day of my ordination. Nor have I lost focus on all that came after: the eucharists, baptisms, funerals, weddings and so on. After nearly 27 years, some of the names have been forgotten but I remember the joy and sadness, the excitement and pain of so many events that I either led or participated in because of my ordination.

Now that I am virtually on the outside looking in, I believe I have a unique picture of the church. I now sit in the pew (or chair since the church where I worship doesn’t have pews) and even though the pastor often asks for verbal feedback in his sermons (brave guy) I just sit silently. I am not critical of what I hear or see, though sometimes I will correct something quietly but I only share that with Julie. Instead of being critical, I am curious. I sit in a chair in the crowd watching others. I watch the Pastor worship. I watch the Pastor’s wife scurrying around and pausing to worship with her husband. I have watched the Pastor’s son and wondered if he feels like my children felt. I watch others worship, take communion, sing and sit to listen to the sermon. I never had the opportunity to watch others when I led worship. There was always the next thing. A prayer. A song. The sermon. But now as I watch and reflect, I enjoy a fresh look at many things I often simply ignored.

I do not believe there is a more important work to do than that of a pastor. Maybe you think I am just buttering my own bread, but I cannot think of other work than is as instrumental in changing people’s lives. A pastor’s work is heart work. Every week the pastor prays that people will show up, that he or she will have a word from God that will encourage, challenge, comfort or equip those that do. I have seen people who have nearly given up on life come alive. I have seen hard hearts turn soft. I have seen marriages healed and relationships restored. Where else can one find such fundamentally important work?

But there is other heart work that happens. It’s in the pastor’s heart. The pastor is often lifted high and brought low by that which goes on around him/her. The excitement of welcoming new people into the congregation, the joy of baptism, the solemnity of presiding at the eucharist can bring indescribable joy. Yet there is the other side of it all. The complaints and murmurs that are regularly heard no matter what is going on or where one serves can literally drop a pastor to his or her knees, not just in prayer. The loss of members who either have their head turned by a prettier church or simply leave because of a disagreement or some sort of discontent takes a heavy toll on any pastor, no matter how well defended that pastor may be. Being a pastor is extremely rewarding but often the reward is found only in the pastor’s heart or perhaps shared with a spouse. Those who sit and watch and listen have no idea how difficult it can be to handle the disappointment and not become disillusioned or defeated.

It does not have to be this way. Opening an email does not have to crush a pastor. Returning a phone call does not have to be full of dread. Complaints and murmurs do not have to be the regular fare of a congregation. A church culture can be life-giving even to pastors. But if a change is to take place, it much be sought after intentionally and it must be sought after by the leaders of the congregation.

Often leaders in a congregation look at the community they are serving as “broken.” Their job is to fix it. So they roll up their sleeves and start looking for anything that squeaks or is leaking oil or that does not work as well as it once did. Of course, this often begins with the pastor. Is it the sermon? Are they boring or too long or too short or not deep enough or too deep? How about the way the pastor leads the staff, or the board, or Bible study? The list is long and the task of fixing all of that which is broken impossible. All of this lands on the pastor’s desk. Sometimes the list gets smaller then something happens and it grows again. The very people that should make sure that the pastor feels as if he or she is appreciated and loved, are the very ones that make it nearly impossible to feel that way.

But there is hope. I do not advocate some sort of fake it until you make it culture in a congregation. Nor do I believe it can ever be perfect. I do believe that some families function at a higher level than others. I believe that to be true of congregations as well. Just like families, some congregations deal with conflict in an open and transparent way. These congregations don’t look around to find what is broken. Instead they look around to see what is working well. They do more celebrating than complaining. People may leave the church but when it happens it is not seen as a grade card to how the church is doing. In fact they may even celebrate when it happens since the departing person/family may just not be a good fit to who the congregation is.

A couple of weeks ago I sat and watched the pastor at church. I watched someone come to the microphone and speak about how much the pastor meant to him personally and to the congregation. I watched as several gift certificates were given to the pastor and his family. I saw the look on the pastor’s face that seemed to say “thank you for sharing the burden of leading in the church with me and for not asking me to fix everything.” I sat and watched and thought about how difficult being a pastor is but how that burden does not have to be carried alone.

Until next time,

DP