March 25, 2009

Ministry Confessions and Lessons

It is amazing what you can read on Facebook. Alex Kirk had an insightful post last Saturday. Alex was one of the promising young leaders in our church's youth group fifteen years ago and has developed into a very effective campus minister with Intervaristy, first here in Richmond and now in North Carolina.

As I read Alex's humble and honest confession of ministry struggles, I thought how closely his experience has been that of mine, and maybe yours. With his permission I've edited his post and share it with you.

"As I was looking back during this sabbatical over the start of my time in ministry, I noticed an interesting process. When I first started in ministry, my mindset was, "it's about serving students." I was full of optimism, idealism, and grand visions. Then I hit some serious bumps. And what I discovered as I hit conflicts with students and as the community I was "leading" went from 50 to 15, was that it was really about me. As the work fell apart all around me, I struggled deeply to believe that I was gifted, valued, helpful, called or loved by God. In other words, I needed validation. And I wanted it to come from successful ministry and students liking me. And when that didn't happen, I realized that I wasn't nearly so pure-hearted as I had initially imagined. I was actually in this for me, all about me, to make me feel good and important and like I was doing something important in the world.

So what happened in the aftermath was interesting: the Lord began to make it about me.

He took my broken confidence, my questions, and my shaken identity and he began to re-make me. My identity and sense of who I am was never supposed to come from my work. It was always supposed to come from him. And he spent many, many months drilling this lesson into my very, very thick skull.

And what happened as a result was interesting: as the Lord made it about re-making me, I began to actually be able to serve students. I was no longer looking to them or my ministry to validate me. I was already validated, loved, cared for, accepted. So I could freely love them--I wasn't using them to make me feel good about myself.

It is impossible be a true blessing to others in ministry if you are serving out of a secret fear of failure. It is only possible to truly serve others from a place of confident freedom and security. Jesus offers us that place, offered me that place. And from that place, he invites us to serve. It's the only place where we can genuinely do so.

And every so often, he gives me four months off to re-teach it to me all over again."

April 8, 2009

Racism and Holy Week

It's not often that I have a mountain-top spiritual experience and then plunge into the depths of reality the next day, but it happend this week. Nancy and I attended the Unity service in Powhatan Palm Sunday evening and, like everyone there, we were blessed beyond words. We worshipped with young and old, black and white and the place was filled with joy, hope and unity.

Then Monday came. I came to the office and was still on a spiritual high from the tremendous service the night before but reality was about to strike. I met with an African American couple concerning them starting a Middle District church that is ethnically diverse. They moved here last summer for the very purpose of starting such a congregation. As we talked about their adjustment to moving to Chesterfield, she told me of needing to transfer from her current job location because of the treatment she is receiving as an African American at her work place. I couldn't believe the stories she was telling me but when she admited that she can only sleep three or four hours at night, I could sense she was not exaggerating the intensity of situations. She left the table to keep her tears from flowing. I was shocked, mortified, and angered by what I heard. I offered to explore how I could help and that is what I am working on this Holy Week.

As I reflect on the racial tensions in our Middle District region at this time of year, I think of Jesus' words in Luke 19:41-42:

As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city,
he wept over it and said,
'If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace -- but now it is hidden from your eyes."

Think about it!! Scripture records only twice that Jesus wept and one of them was the result of his broken heart when he looked at people who desperately wanted peace but looked for it in the wrong places.

The people in Powhatan opennly acknowledged that they have a long way to go but at least the service of prayer and unity was a good beginning toward restoring peace. I agree.

This Holy Week, as I think about the future of race relations throughout our region, I am a realist. But I also have hope because of the overwhelming power of the Gospel that we all experienced Sunday. I am reminded of the old preacher who stirred his people with resurrection hope when he told them:

"It may be Friday but Sunday's Coming"

Sunday's coming my dear people. Let's celebrate it this week.

May 20, 2009

Burdened by the Enormous Challenge

Last week I continually mulled over what to say to Josh Cranor at his ordination service at Bethlehem.  Pastor Steve Lalk invited me to give the “charge to the candidate and charge to the church.”  What made this speaking assignment different is the growing realization that reaching this generation of young adults and their families will challenge us to develop approaches and models of doing church that are radically different from what we do now. 

At this time in American Christianity, the main approaches we have are a “traditional” church or a “contemporary” church.  However you define those terms makes no difference.  These two styles of reaching the culture are actually the same –one is an updated version of the other. While they are both valid, they are also limited.  Both are primarily based on the concept – come to church and we will provide a worship service that you will cause you to connect with God, want to come back, and, in time, become a Jesus follower. Author Alan Hirsch rightly points out the sad fact that many of our current approaches to doing church do not appeal nor reach large portions of our population.  In Australia only 10-15% of the population responds to an “attractional” approach to church, which includes “contemporary”.  In the US this approach is effective with approximately 35%.  As Hirsch vividly asks: “So how do you reach a culture that says: “God? Yes! Church? No.”       

In recent weeks the media headlines have reported the fact that American Christianity is losing ground at a rate beyond our comprehension.  (Unfortunately the success of some highly visible churches blinds us to this reality).  The time has come to discover new ways of reaching a lost world.  Ways that we have not yet discovered.  Ways that take into consideration these depressing and indicting facts about today’s young adults:

• 4% attend church
• 67 -71% say that the God of the Bible is no different from the gods or spiritual beings depicted by other world religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.
• 88 – 90 % believe they can have a good relationship with God without being involved in a church
• 77 – 83% think Christianity today is more about organized religion than about loving God and loving other people

(Click this link to see more of Ed Stetzer’s fascinating

and startling research findings)

These statistics are only a small part of the challenging picture of today’s American spiritual landscape, and what Josh will face in the coming years cannot be imagined!  All week I pondered what to say to a young minister entering the uncharted waters of a new church world where denominational identity is all but dead; when the general public no longer looks to the organized church for spiritual answers; and neither the “contemporary church” nor the “traditional church” appeal to more than 60% of the population.

So what did I tell Josh?  It was the same thing the Holy Spirit has been saying to me.  (Maybe I was preaching to Jim more than Josh.)  “Be willing to follow the Spirit away from the familiar and see what God will open up.  That’s what Phillip did in Acts.  He left the successful activity of God in Jerusalem and traveled to an unspecified place in the desert where he met the Ethiopian eunuch who was searching for God but needed someone to guide him.  Because of Phillip’s willingness to leave the comfort of what he knew and follow the Spirit into an uncharted future – God opened up the gospel to the unreached content of Africa.”

Why do I write you about my struggle with this ordination sermon?  Simple.  Maybe God has been tugging at your heart and you have been thinking “we have to do something radically different to reach the people of this generation.”  If these types of things have been on your mind and heart – give me a call.  We need to talk and pray together to see what God might be up to in Middle District.

June 4, 2009

How Do You Measure Success

A seismic change is going on in some of America’s most highly visible churches.  Many of the mega churches are taking a serious look at the spiritual development of their people.  After a year of self-study, Willow Creek admitted to themselves, and the world, that they are not measuring up to their own goal of “developing fully devoted followers of Christ” of the 17,000+ people who attend their weekend services.

Craig Groeschel, pastor LifeChurch.com admitted in a recent blog-

“God longs for the “lost to be found.” But for years I found the greatest joy in more people coming to church.  Today, I’m redefining success to not just more people, but different people.  A few years ago, our church was experiencing record crowds of people. We seemed to be effective at getting people into Church, but were we truly getting people into Christ?  I’ve been set free from being totally driven by attendance. Instead I’m asking God to take those we have into a deeper place of intimacy and knowledge of Christ. I’d rather have fewer and totally committed believers than a large number of lazy, apathetic, carnally minded and unproductive cultural Christians.”

Preceding this awakening of some of today’s mega churches has been the prophetic and professorial voice of Dallas Willard who has challenged the mainline denominations, as well as the evangelical world, to consider “Christian formation” i.e. “forming Christ in us” as Paul talks about in Galatians 4:19, as the primary discipling measure of the church.

The resurgence of reformed theology in Baptist life has also caught some of this call to redesign our church scorecard.  A good example of this is Mark Dever, popular pastor in Washington DC’s Capital Hill Baptist Church, who has received much visibility for his book, “Nine Marks of a Healthy Church.”

So what’s the point? I think God is calling us all back to reconsider what we measure. We have often measured success by the three “B’s”: Baptisms, Budgets, and Buildings.  Certainly these areas of church life are important and provide insights into the life of a church.  But we all know they are not the only things to measure. 

After reading a lot of others, here are a few items I am thinking about adding to the old three “B’s” on our Baptist scorecard:

1. What is the evidence that the members are as excited about their relationship with Jesus as they are about the accomplishments of the church?
2. What is the evidence that the small groups and / or Sunday School groups facilitate behavioral change as much as they do fellowship and Bible study?
3. Do the church leaders model healthy conflict resolution? 
4. How many people did the church send out to the community to serve?
5. How many people did the church send out to start new churches?
6. How many people did we send beyond our community to help evangelize?

These last three come from Craig Groeschel who wrote: “ I got excited about a new measurement of success. Instead of “defining the win” by how many people we brought in, what if success was measured by how many people we sent out?  Rather than just celebrating those we bring in, let’s celebrate those we send out!”

As we all wrestle with being faithful in ministry, this is a great time to reconsider what God is calling us to do and be.

June 17, 2009

The Church as God Meant It to Be

Tom Billings, is the Executive Director of the Union Association which is in Houston, TX.  I asked him if I could share his column with you and he was glad for you to read this neat story.

"I (Tom Billings) want to tell you a story, but I can’t share with you all the details. (The pastor gave me permission to tell the story in general terms, but not to use his name or the name of his church. I’ll honor that.) What I can share is a story you’ll want to read and share with others.

Over ten years ago a church was born in Katy. Under the leadership of her pastor, the church grew, established some outstanding ministries to the community and looked forward to a day when they would be able to move out of a school into their own facilities. They prayed; they planned; they gave and saved. Eventually they bought land, built their new facilities and moved into their wonderful new church home.

Everything was great for a season, but we all know what has happened to the economy over the last twelve months. Church members began losing their jobs. Some of the church’s biggest givers -- who had been faithful in meeting their pledges -- suddenly saw their business income decline sharply. Giving dropped.  Last fall the pastor renegotiated the church’s debt with the bank to lower the interest rate. He and his wife took a cut in pay and increased their giving. Still, it was not enough.

The church began to fall behind on their monthly mortgage payments. At first a week, then two or three, then five or six. They always paid their debt, but not always on time.  A few days ago the bankers called the pastor and told him they needed to meet with him in 45 minutes. During the meeting the bankers told the pastor the church must catch up immediately or the bank would raise their interest to 18% “as an encouragement” for the church to catch up on its debt. The pastor and his wife were distraught. They knew there was no way the church could make their payments if the bank did that. They were in danger of losing their property and their church facilities.

An important part of this story is that, for ten years the pastor has meet with other pastors in the Katy area weekly to pray for community transformation. They come from various denominational streams. We refer to them as The Church in Katy (like the church in Philippi or Thessalonica). They are the broader body of Christ working together, praying together, to transform their community and the world.

On the way home from the bank the pastor felt an overwhelming need for someone to pray for him.  He said, “In ten years we took care of our responsibilities. We gave to others and never received anything from anyone other than our church members. I just wanted them to put us on the church’s prayer list. I didn’t expect to see the pastor, but they told me he was in. I told him our situation and just asked him to pray for us. That’s all. Then a week later he called me and said five churches had come together. They wanted to give us the money we needed to come current with our debt and put a month’s payment in a savings account so this won’t happen again.” The pastor was overwhelmed by their action. “I can’t believe it,” he said.

There’s much more to the story than I can share in a brief article. The churches that gave to help their sister church had to sacrifice some of their own ministry in order to help. But they wanted to help. They are all part of the body of Christ. When one hurts, they all hurt. When one is in need, they all respond to help.

The Bible says we are blessed in order to be a blessing to others (2 Cor. 1:4). Certainly, the Church in Katy is living proof of that verse. To all those who are part of the Church in Katy, well done!"

July 1, 2009

A Friend and Leader Is Gone

If you have been around Middle District for any amount of time, you have your own special memories of our friend Clay Thornton.  All of us do!  This edition of Ministry Matters! is dedicated to Clay, who cared deeply about the ministry of Middle District and served on almost every committee over these past 34 years of pastoring Tomahawk. 

All of us who knew Clay felt he was our good friend.  He had a knack of making everyone feel special.  Nevertheless, in selecting a few pastors to write on Clay’s ministry, I felt it wise to ask those whom most of you who read this column already know and who have served with Clay for many years. Each friend was asked to write a few sentences and you will find their memories below.  (Typical of preachers – some have turned a couple of sentences into a couple of paragraphs – but that is understandable and acceptable, given Clay’s impact and the nature of preachers to go on and on.)

Personally when I think of Clay a few things stand out.

1.  He had a Kingdom vision and cared deeply about missions.  More than most pastors, the ministry of other churches never threatened Clay.  For instance, when Jim Pritchett talked to Clay about starting Swift Creek Community across the street from Tomahawk in the theater, Clay had absolutely no problems and encouraged the new work.  More recently Doug Paul was looking for a place to meet with his new church, Eikon, and Clay invited them to use Tomahawk and they worship there to this very day. 

2.  Theologically Clay was a strong moderate yet he was glad that Middle District welcomed Baptists who differed from his point of view.  Middle District is blessed with a great spirit of unity and a wonderful fellowship because of his willingness, and others, to unite around basic Baptist beliefs and not worry about the non-essentials.

3.  Clay’s greatest impact on me personally was his gift of affirmation.  Through the many changes in Middle District the last couple of years, Clay was always supportive and encouraging and sometimes would provide a valuable perspective to how I could accomplish change. Earlier this year we met to discuss more changes that would significantly impact his Missions and Ministry Team.  Not only was he not defensive but he took the occasion to say some of the most affirming things anyone has told me since becoming the Executive Director.  I told him I was taken back by his candor and humbled by his affirming words.  He said he meant every word of it.

4.  Keeping up with the times and passing on the leadership baton was important to Clay.  This was evident in his ministry at Tomahawk.   He also wanted to make sure Middle District was looking to the future and engaging young leaders.  I’ll never forget his comments at the end of the annual meeting last October – the meeting was full of technology and music of the younger generation.  That night Clay saddled up to me and said, “This was the best annual meeting I’ve attended in my career, bar none.  I also liked the fact that you weren’t up front very much so that the younger generation could be on stage most of the time.”  I got the point as well as the compliment.

Clay was one of a kind.  A man who loved sports, loved people, and loved God.  We will all miss him.

July 30, 2009

Doing the Math: Looking at Lostness

Read It and Weep

Richmond-Petersburg Metro Corridor

For more than three years, your Middle District New Work Team has been committed to diversifying our approach to starting churches. By themselves our traditional approaches to church starting are not reaching a wide sector of our population and are very, very expensive. We must be open to new forms of churches which include the effective “multi-site” approach and the “house church movement” that was reported in Time magazine.

You may not be into “boring” statistics – nevertheless – I challenge you to wade through the highlights below from the report from Glenn Akins of the Virginia Baptist Board and prepared by Jim Slack of the International Mission Board, research department of Global Research Department.

Population in 1990 = 865,640 (Secured by Source from U.S. Census)

Population in 2000 = 996,512 (Secured by Source from U.S. Census)

Population Gain from 1990 to 2000 = 130,872 = 15.12% gain

Affiliates in “All Religions’” Congregations in 1990 = 456,519

Affiliates in “All Religions’” Congregations in 2000 = 434,385

Numerical Affiliation Gains/Losses in Congregations = -22,134 = - 4.85% loss

Percent of Affiliation Gain/Loss when Compared to Population Gain = -16.91% loss

            “Affiliates” are those who say they are a part of a religious group—whether Muslim, Christian, or whatever.

Total Congregations in All Religions in 1990 = 736

Total Congregations in All Religions in 2000 = 792

Congregational Gain/Loss Percent in “All Religions” = 56 new cong. = 7.61% gain

Average Numerical Congregational Gain/Loss per year within decade = 5.6 Year

Average Affiliations Size per Congregation in 2000 = 548 avg. per congregation

Unclaimed Population in 2000 based upon “All Religions” comparison = 562,127

Unclaimed Percent Total Population in 2000 by “All Religions” = 56.4% of total pop

                The unclaimed population are those who said they had no affiliation with any religion.

Congregations Needed (based on All Religions) based on avg. members per congregation = 1,025 new congregations needed

Years it will take based upon growth in all religions from 1990-2000 = 183 Years

Evangelical Church Members (Affiliation) in 2000 = 195,798

Percent of Metro Richmond-Petersburg Population in 2000 = 19.6%

Unclaimed Church Population in 2000 based on “Evangelicals” Totals: 800,714 Unclaimed

Evangelical Congregations Needed based on 100 members per new Congregation = 8,007 new congregations if congregations are started by traditional means of starting churches with land, church buildings and fulltime pastoral staff.

Cost of Evangelical Congregations Needed @ $2 Million per New Congregations (Churches) = $16,014,000,000 if buying land, building church buildings and hiring professional ministerial staff is the standard for new church formation and recognition.

Implications of Doing the Math is that Richmond-Petersburg evangelicals cannot reach the lost if traditional church planting methods continue to be used to win & church 800,714 lost persons.

Now you have a hint why your MDBA New Work Team continues to work behind the scenes to explore new church planting to reach the lost in our area.