More Paradigm Shifts

I went to church this past Sunday at a church where nobody knew me. Just as a visitor…no responsibilities or others looking to me for an answer.

It was really nice.

You notice different things when you’re just one of the people in the congregation. I suppose I was like most folks in the fact that I wanted only a few things out of the service. I wanted to laugh one good time, find something in the sermon that meant something to me personally, and I wanted my children to have a good time. That was it. Yep, I was that guy – the guy ministers complain about all the time: the consumer. But I noticed something by the end of the service. The pastor was trying so hard. I felt bad for him. I’ve tried that hard before. It sucks.

I see arena-style church services everywhere I go. But never before have I been so disillusioned with them. These are the ones where the guy or girl gets up in front of everyone. They all face the same direction and watch Pro Presenter backgrounds. Everyone is trying so hard to engage a lethargic group of people.  I’m personally in a the midst of a radically changing paradigm.  Much of the professional church world is consumed with its own progress. And that progress is most often tied to “nickels and noses.” Money and attendance. In fact, the success touted by many churches over Easter weekend had to do with attendance rather than heart change.

As a minister, I think I’m pretty much done with that game. I have two new goals now. One has to with my job as a minister and on has to do with those to whom I am serving. My new job description is this: to partner with what God is already doing rather than “starting” something that others will find appealing. Honestly I’m just too tired to do that any longer. And for people, my goal is to help them realize what God thinks of them and assist them in doing the ”greater works” that Jesus talked about. It’s not to get them to sit down and listen to me. It’s to help them listen to God. I can’t help anyone anyway.

I’m not sure where that is going to lead me. But I plan to enjoy the journey.

Goodbye First Methodist

My time at First Methodist has come to an end. I packed up my office this week during off hours. I brought two highly skilled individuals to help the moving process.

The most difficult part of that process was finding a place to store 500 books. Fortunately, a good friend had a vacant room in their home and let me stack boxes of obscure monographs there. I learned a tremendous amount at First Methodist – much about leadership, people and their spiritual desires, and (above all) about myself. I was afforded opportunities there that I otherwise would never have been given. I had moments of success, failure, and everything in between…all in three and a half years.

Over the last two years, I encountered some specific struggles in ministry I had not experienced up until that point. Some I handled well. Others not so much. I learned a lot about myself in that process. I also learned a very important lesson: some situations have nothing to do with me whether I’m personally affected by them or not. I found my ability to correct those situations is limited. I’m sure I’ll reflect on my time there over the next several years. I am extremely thankful for that time. I’ll take the lessons I learned there into future ministry. I imagine some day I’ll be having coffee with a church staff member or another pastor and I’ll hear myself say the words, “When I was at First Methodist…”

Over the last three years, I began to collect sayings and tape them to my computer monitor…tacky, but necessary. Some days I followed them to the letter. Other days I failed to follow them at all. I thought I’d share them with you. You might find it interesting that there is not a single Bible verse listed. Nor is there a well-known theologian quoted. Maybe they will mean something to you, too. If so, why not tape them to your computer monitor?

Hereafter, if you should observe on occasion to give your officers and friends a little more praise than is their Due, and confess more fault than you can justly be charged with, you will only become the better for it. Criticising and censuring almost every one you have to do with, will diminish friends, encrease Enemies, and thereby hurt your affairs.                                                                                                 -  Benjamin Franklin to John Paul Jones, July 5, 1780

The greatest need of my congregation is my own personal holiness.                                                                                                             –  Robert Murray M’Cheyne

Most unsolicited feedback is for the sender.                                                                                                                                                 – Harvard Business Review Article

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.                                                                                                                                 – Plato of Athens (apocryphal)

In the end, everything will be okay. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.                                                                                                               – Playwright Carolyn Myers

Faith’s Missing Element

Following up on my last post…

I hate the word “missional.” I also hate the words “attractional, invitational, and incarnational.” Alright. I don’t hate them. I just think they are unnecessary. It’s like a bunch of Christians got in a room together and said “Ending words with ‘-ism’ is so passé. Let’s change it up a bit and use something that sounds more hip. How about we create buzzwords with “-al” at the end?” I apologize for being facetious. But I do find the jargon  bandwagon a little cramped these days. So, how about I don’t get on.

I had coffee with a friend last week and we were talking about Christians finding practical ways to serve their communities. Buzzwords ( ending in “-al”) make little impact. Sharing with and serving others is difficult for church people. We often lack the faith required to put action to our beliefs. So, we find convenient ways to serve or give or love. Because we are obsessed with materialism, we usually throw money at a problem…in the form of an offering or a purchased item that seems to be lacking in someone’s life. In our economy, giving money to a problem (whether it’s abroad or in our backyard) is not as easy as it used to be. But it is still fairly easy. So, when we raise money to build a building in another country we are honestly doing the least mount of work. And if we send a group to do international missions, we are still leaving behind the majority of people in our churches who feel they have done their work by dropping a small offering in the offering plate. Don’t get me wrong – I’m a fan of mission trips (we have some excellent missions work going on right now at our church)…but it only involves a few people.  It rarely involves the whole church. I place the blame for this at the feet of ministers just like me. We tell people what to support, what to publicize, and what ideas to champion. When we do, we create a bunch of bobble-heads with wallets…

I believe there’s a missing element to faith in our churches today. That element is creativity. When thinking of ways to impact the world around them, people no longer think for themselves. That’s why I believe creativity is the largest barrier to faith. Rather than being led by the Holy Spirit to find unique ways to further the kingdom of God, we fall back on conventional methods of programming that impact many but often involve few. The most creative ways Christians are living out their faith usually involve little money and are extremely simple ideas. But these ideas are their own. Things get complex when we create programs to do what people who love God do naturally: meet each other’s needs in simple, effective, and inexpensive ways.

The church doesn’t need more money or publicity. It needs to free people to be creative in how they express their faith to others. Creativity creates ownership and a sense of purpose. People are already “missional.” We need to spend less time convincing them of that and more time creating a culture where no idea is off limits regardless of how small, inexpensive, or insignificant it may seem. It’s in those small details that that church will continue to grow. Mustard seeds grow into something much larger.

I’m still thinking through all of this. What do you think about it?

Evangelism Is Dead

I was driving to speak at a men’s conference about two months ago when I saw a church marquee that caught my attention. It said:

What would you need to see on our sign to get you to come to church?

Hmmm. Now, granted, it was a more traditional church with no inkling of forward motion in a while. But the sign angered me. It essentially said to the unchurched in the area: “Come to us. We’re not coming to you.” Or maybe we could put it this way: “We have the truth. If you’re seeking it, you should probably show up here at our predetermined service times. This may inconvenience you. But the truth is worth your inconvenience.” What would someone need to see on that sign? Nothing. Because the message of that sign speaks to a bygone era. The cold hard fact is that the days of “propositional” evangelism are gone.

Let me explain what I mean. Propositional evangelism is the idea that sharing the gospel with someone involves  reciting a series of facts that others are supposed to believe simply because you have informed them. A couple of things are wrong with this. First, this type of evangelism assumes that information changes someone. And some information does change us and our perspective on life. But spiritual truths run deeper than a pamphlet or the “Roman road.” In the U.S., the idea that you can share the basics of Christianity with someone and they will smack their forehead and said, “Oh!  I had no idea!” really doesn’t exist anymore. The second issue revolves around truth. In our postmodern age, there are truth claims that compete against each other…and no longer is Christianity held as the highest pinnacle of truth attainment. In every area of society, we now live in the “marketplace” of ideas – a giant supermarket full of ideologies that are all marked half-price.This makes those who are into propositional evangelism extremely angry… because they have no leg of established credibility to stand on since their “market share” is the same as everyone else’s.

What does exist is relational or trust-based evangelism. Since no one has to “buy in” to the Christian paradigm anymore, people come to understand more about Jesus through their relationships with others and the slow and steady trust built through long-lasting friendships. People are certainly interested in ultimate truth – they always will be. But the doorway to speak to others about that truth has nothing to do with the accuracy of truth claims. Those with the relationships will ultimately be granted the opportunity to answer questions about truth. This is bad news for many of us in the evangelical camp… because we are lazy.  We’re not used to having to work at relating to others simply because we assume that everyone will be enamored with our wisdom. They’re not.

I heard a quote several months ago by a pastor named John Lynch. He said:

Truth is never received unless it is given in the context of trust.

That doesn’t mean the truth is up for grabs. But it does mean that the method by which it can be relayed as changed drastically. Only when I have earned someone’s trust based on friendship and service am I able to share with them what I believe about God. After all, that is  the message of the gospel. Jesus scrapped all his positions and titles to live amongst us (Philippians 2). And by living with us, he showed us how to live.

 

The Failure of Sgt. Pepper

I love music. And I love the Beatles. I believe it is my God-given mission in life to help my children learn how to play every Beatles song. The girls have heard Revolver and Rubber Soul. Yesterday on the way to school, I introduced my girls to the Sgt. Pepper album. Normally the girls talk and play as they listen to different music. I play them all sorts of things: Sam Cooke, the Jackson 5, praise and worship music, Miles Davis, Muse, Handel, Weezer, etc. But when I put this album on, they stopped talking. Completely stopped.  For them, it was like pouring a painter’s pallette of colored music in their brain. I thought their little brains were gonna explode. I told them, “Some people think this album is the greatest album ever made.” My oldest daughter said, “Yeah, I think it may be.” Pretty astute observation for a 6 year old.

But I love this album for another reason: it’s a half-baked idea that was successful. When the idea for Sgt. Pepper was originally conceived, it was supposed to be a concept album. A few songs are – obviously the opening songs and the reprise. But much in the middle has little to do with the Sgt. Pepper concept. “Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” were removed from the album for a double-sided single. Paul would later say that the album was “a complete thing that you could make what you liked of—just a little magical presentation.” Complete but a creation on its own.  It’s connected in its musicality if not in its inspiration.

To me, Sgt. Pepper represents a beautiful success that rises out of the failure of an idea. This is a great lesson for church leadership. The Beatles had no doubt that they could create a concept album. But what emerged was a collaborative effort that took on a life that was larger than Billy Shears. There’s a primal faith in that decision. Often times in church circles, we feel we must have everything ironed out before we put something into play. But if the Christian life is anything, it’s not neat and tidy. And in the same way, often times the most successful avenues of ministry are those that are concept-oriented but eventually take on a life of their own once handed over to individuals. Parts are successful while other parts fail. That’s really what relying on the Holy Spirit is all about. There’s something that seems right when you can release a project into the hands of a congregation and say, “This is where the Holy Spirit takes over.” At that point, we give God the freedom to weave his own revelation into the nuances of church life. And that’s when he creates “Sgt. Peppers” of his own.

 

Book Review: Sam Chand’s “Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code”

In an unconventional way to start a book review, I’d like to tell you a conversation I had recently.  I  got a call from a young minister in his twenties who had been doing some soul-searching earlier in the day. He’s already experienced highs and lows of church leadership and has walked away (to put it nicely) a “realist.” He asked me “What are the key components that make a person successful in ministry?” After telling him that’s an impossible question for me to answer, I gave him my best guess: the spiritual life of a leader and the health of the organization. He asked me if I had a book recommendation about organizational life. I told him, “I think my recommendation is the book I’m reading right now: Dr. Chand’s Cracking Your Chruch’s Culture Code.”

Sam Chand’s Cracking Your Church’s Culture Code: Seven Keys to Unleashing Vision and Inspiration (Leadership Network/Jossey-Bass, 2011) is different than every other church leadership book I’ve read. Granted, it’s the first one I’ve read by him. In the past, the best organizational advice I’ve read comes from “secular” sources: The Wisdom of Teams, Good to Great, or a Patrick Lencioni book. But Chand manages to keep the organizational advice flowing while also reminding the reader why he or she is in church leadership to begin with: to glorify God. Chand’s premise is this: change a church’s culture – its vocabulary, team dynamics, transparency, etc. - and you will change a church’s direction and effectiveness.  From chapter one forward, Chand emphatically states, “Culture trumps vision.” Change the culture and the vision will follow. Chand then systematically walks the reader through the seven keys to culture: 1) control, 2) understanding, 3) leadership, 4) trust, 5) unafraid, 6) response, and 7) execution. Throughout the book he covers all manner of organizational life – team dynamics, the process of change, the importance of capitalizing on momentum, dealing with mediocre staff members, and how to select volunteers from within the congregation. In other words, he basically covers everything.

Peppered within all this good “business” advice, Chand speaks from a pastoral heart as well. He interjects comments like, “We need to treat staff like volunteers, always appealing to their hearts and their desire for God to use them to change lives” (p. 66). Or “The number of ‘shoulds’ in a person’s mind and mouth is inversely proportional to his sense of peace, joy, and fulfillment” (p. 90). Then, Chand turns around and offers some of the most common-sense leadership advice you’ll read anywhere: “Trust grows in an environment that is HOT: honest, open, and transparent” (p. 52). Concerning strategic planning, a good framework is found in the acronym SMART: “specific, measurable, accountable, reasonable, and timely” (p. 150). And don’t miss the great illustration about the church as a restaurant.

So, back to my phone conversation. Why suggest this book over another? Here are my thoughts. Occasionally a book will come along that embodies all the research and data in a particular field. This book does that in the areas of church leadership. You can read Diffusions of Innovations and be better for it. But Chand takes those findings and many others, places them within the context of church life, and summarizes it in a page and a half. Every triumph and failure I have seen among church staff is addressed in this book. If any church leader reads this book and commits to using it as a guide for organizational life, I don’t see how they can go wrong.  It’s a gold mine for church leaders.

The Preachers

In two potentially narcissistic posts, I’d like to share some of the preachers/teachers and books that have really shaped my worldview, influenced my reading of the Bible, and transformed my preaching style.

Now, as I’ve said before, I’m a spiritual “mutt.” I have no problem with this. Mutts can be good dogs, too. And I think this becomes fairly clear when I start listing influences in my spiritual life. Though I’m Wesleyan through and through, there aren’t many Methodists in this list. It’s also interesting that I’ve met very few of those that have influenced me the most.

Malcolm Smith. Hands down, this guy is the most spiritually influential teacher in my life. Somewhere along the way, my grandmother pulled out a series of tapes (yes, tapes) by a Charismatic Episcopal Bible teacher named Malcolm Smith. He said more about theology, practical living, and pastoral guidance in one sermon than all the sermons I’d previously heard combined. I listened for hours. I’m still listening.

Martyn Ll0yd-Jones. Lloyd-Jones is an icon in Christian circles. Pastor of Westminster Chapel in later years, he is one of the most articulate and precise preachers I have ever heard. For years, Lloyd-Jones was a medical doctor and when he answered the call to preach, he brought that same “surgical” expository style to his sermons. Listening to ”the Doctor” is like watching someone peel back layers of an onion. For him, the gospel was only as good as it was practical.

Greg Boyd. Theology professor turned pastor, listening to Greg is like listening to a mad man. He’s all over the place. But his understanding of God and his ability to relay the importance of the cross is unmatched. Greg goes where many preachers do not go – he always has a fresh perspective. Rarely have I seen a male pastor give so much attention to soul care and the emotional, intuitive side of Christianity. He’s a joy to listen to.

John Lynch. This guy is a new find for me. Mix a dry wit and a message of radical grace and you’ll get John’s sermons. He’s the teaching pastor at Open Door Fellowship Church in Phoenix, Arizona. I love the fact that John never gets tired of his central message: the love and grace of God. But more than a conceptual model, John talks about how grace makes its way into our practical lives. Good stuff.

There are others I listen to: Andy Stanley, John Eldredge, Craig Groeschel, etc. But for many people, the guys above are off the radar. Give them a listen when you have time.

There’s one more preacher I should mention: my former boss, Leigh Ann Raynor. She’s the Senior Minister at Porterfield UMC in Albany, Georgia. The first time I heard Leigh Ann speak, I was fascinated. Previously, I had preached countless sermons in a more extemporaneous style…and all the pitfalls that came with it: lack of clarity, rambling, and flippant regard for the time of those listening to me. Somewhere along the way God began to convict me that if I couldn’t say what I needed to say within about 25 minutes, then I was being a bad steward of the time I was given to speak. Now, that’s not for everyone – it’s just what I felt God was saying to me. So, while attending her services and serving on her staff I took notes not only on what Leigh Ann said but how she said it. Every word was chosen carefully and delivered with an extemporaneous feel…but she was preaching from a transcript. After a slow marriage of the two, I now preach in a style that is similar to hers. The point? Don’t ever underestimate the influence of a local minister. If you are one, take heart –  people are listening more than you think.

Experimenting with “Abide”, Part 1

Sorry for the lack of posts lately – I have some things to blog about but haven’t really had the time to get my thoughts on (cyber)paper. Much of this has to do with the administration of something we are doing at TFUMC.  Back in Winter of last year, Methodist leader/pastor Maxie Dunnam sent some chapters of a new workbook called Abiding in Christ that Upper Room would be publishing in August to a mutual friend. I had the chance to review them.  Later, I was on the phone with Maxie one day and he asked if I thought the church might want to go through the workbook together. I told Maxie I thought it was a great idea. The staff agreed and we began the process of putting a Fall program into play that would use the book to deepen spirituality at the church. Eight months later, we are at the cusp of launching Abide for the entire church. Countless hours have gone into this project and so I thought I’d share with you what interests me about it.

The basic premise of Abide is simple: 1) take a piece of devotional literature and extract the common themes, 2) train a group of facilitators to look for and teach those themes in the literature, 3) and revolve all sermons, Sunday School lessons, small groups, and media around them. That sounds simplisitc but the administration of this program has been an absolute beast. And in many ways, we are keeping things flexible so that we can accomodate the church’s needs as we go. Most of the church and leadership have been focused on the content of Maxie’s workbook and how to get their Sunday School class to participate. I read the workbook months ago and so my interest has been in areas like: how far out do we have to use images in order for the congregation to pay attention when they see a logo or hear a catch phrase? If Sunday school and small groups are competing church models, how can I unify both systems around one workbook? Can I create a small core group who is passionate about Abide and use them as a “tipping point” for the rest of the congregation? That’s the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. I figure if I share some of the organizational decisions we made and how we assimilated all aspects of worship into a ten-week thematic undertaking, it may be beneficial to those who are crazy enough to try the same thing.

This is important to understand from the beginning - TFUMC has never done anything like this at any point in its existence. Ever. Founded before the Civil War, it has generally been a traditional Methodist church with a recent burst of growth within the last decade revolving around a new contemporary service . But there has never been a synthesis of all programming around a central theme. Other churches may have done this type of programming countless times, but TFUMC never has. Because of this, we have had to rethink everything about how we do church. In that way, Abide has been a chance to “experiment,” learn from others, and think outside the box. And it has challenged every staff member and leader at TFUMC. I’ll start by writing several posts on the behind the scenes decisions about Abide.  Then with its launch in September I hope to update as to what has gone well and what has failed miserably. This congregation always surprises me – they are so willing to try something different and really trust the staff. I hope you enjoy the “real-time” leadership/pastoral lessons that come from Abide.

Goats, Turbulence, and Community, Part 1

I’ve been pondering the importance of community recently. What draws people together? What invites their interaction with each other? A couple of personal examples come to mind – one several months ago and one from this past week. I’ll share one this post and the other next post.

I was driving down the highway a while back and saw about twenty goats jump a fence and bound into the median. Fortunately, none were hit by cars. There’s a dairy right off of the highway and evidently the goats desired more freedom than they were given (which leads me to believe that they would adopt some type of Liberation Theology if asked…).

Now, seeing random animals in the road is not too uncommon – after all, I live in the South. We dodge all manner of defiant vermin every week. However, the response of the other drivers is what intrigued me. There were about seven cars with me that pulled over and began to redirect traffic, corral the goats, and contact the dairy owner. Everyone immediately assessed the situation and weighed in with their own gifts. You may not see any Christian parallels there, but (as a self-proclaimed nerd) I do. I see a genuine example of Christian community fostered by common experience.

Christians interested in ecclesiology spend a whole lot of time attempting to show other Christians why they should get along with each other. As a charismatic, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve come across a well-meaning theologians warning that the quest to “feel” the Spirit focuses on individuality rather than community. Their answer is to tell everybody that Christians should automatically like each other and find common ground with one another. But as a minister, I have rarely seen this happen. Telling people they should “connect” with each other doesn’t make it a reality.

I believe that people (like those who stopped to help on the highway) are more than willing to unite upon the introduction of an individual experience that commonly unites them. No one had to tell me or any of the others to work together. Our common experience individually informed us that we should react in community. We experienced the “great goat escape” from slightly different angles and worldviews, but the basic experience was the same for all of us. So why doesn’t that happen more often? We see it in times of crisis like New Orleans or Haiti (see the next post). But rarely on a daily basis. Honestly, an opportunity rarely presents itself to us.

And that’s why spiritual gifts are so important. It’s not an issue of elitism or holiness. The gifts are meant to edify but also to provide a common spiritual experience that operates in every season of life. Many have had an experience in a worship service where the believe they have “felt” God in a personal way. And there’s nothing quite like finding someone who has had a similar experience to yours. It builds immediate kinship between you and that person. You know much about them intuitively without discussing specifics at all. Though the unity on the highway was external, internal experience can unite as well. When people discover that another person has had a similar experience, they open up to each other. “You’ve had that happen? I have too!” That’s when unity occurs – not around a specific doctrinal belief but around personal experiences that are shared in common.

Church leaders  interested in fostering community should never deny the validity of spiritual experience for Christians. Instead we should be begging Christians to seek experience. Experiences “connect” Christians to each other. It is a powerful unifying force.

Are You a Christian Rock Star?

I know I start off a lot of blogs this way, but I’ve been thinking about something. Sometimes I notice little trends in the language choices of Christians or during church meetings. And when you add them all up they point to something worth discussing. Lately, I’ve noticed lots of Christian language about the need to do something “special” for God. Christians say stuff like that pretty often. You know, the whole “do something great for God” language. Usually it’s couched in potential ministry or an opportunity that God has especially for “you.”  Do I think God has specific things that he wants us to achieve as his sons and daughters? Sure. But there’s a flip-side to that equation…

I came across a quote the other day that said something like this: “If you insist on behaving like a rock star, just make sure you actually are one.” Humorous, but true. I feel like sometimes we set up Christians and congregations to look for chances to become a Christian rock star.  Opportunities to serve morph into something larger and worthy of more recognition. This is reinforced by Horatio Alger type stories in the Christian world: where the simplest acts snowball into something far beyond the expected results. As if that’s the “payoff” for giving your life to God. This is easy to do with the Bible,too. Sometimes we forget that “rock star” events in the Bible occur with large spans of time in between. Or that each “rock star” experiences countless failures prior to his/her newly found status as flavor of the month. Yet we pull these passages out of thin air as if they have no work ethic supporting them and dangle them in front of people and call it inspiration and vision-casting.

But what I think God really wants from each of us is to live a life daily that reflects him. It doesn’t have to be super impressive. It doesn’t have to be amazing or conspicuous. The Christian walk needs to be only two things: consistent and true. The responsiblity of the Christian is to live life consistently in each of life’s scenarios. Here’s why. You only get the chance to do something for God that will be categorized as amazing our life-changing in life once. Maybe twice. And even then that doesn’t mean anyone will recognize what you’re doing. But if you live life consistently in regards to your family, finances, profession, and relational choices, then you will be in a position to risk something out of the ordinary because the rest of your life will be stable.

If you feel called to be a minister, don’t quit your secular job. Start by memorizing a Bible verse or two. If you desperately want to raise funds for missions, try paying off your credit card first. If you want to be the world’s greatest dad, start by simply leaving the office earlier each night. And if that goes well, then empty the dishwasher without any fanfare. Want to do something amazing for God? Do the basics. Draw your sword, raise your battle cry, and charge up the hill to conquer the obvious and the insignificant.

Are you a Christian rock star? Don’t be.