I have been the pastor of the Lebanon Christian Reformed Church for 5.5 years. Now I'm serving as the pastor of the Forest Grove CRC in rural Hudsonville, MI. I am married with two children. We have an outdoor dog and a rabbit.
Going back to the top, about pastors' reports to elders, I'll just share what I do for comparison. I give a one-page bullet-point outlined report. I fill in the points by going through my "brain book" (journal) putting in dates etc. of my various activities. I don't organize it all that much yet (how many sermons I preached and classes I taught and visits I made top the list). I go through it quickly and hand the written copy to my clerk. My council right now seems happy with that procedure.
We struggle in this area too. It's hard to get "no"s. One thing that might help, indeed is helping, is improving the meetings so that word gets out that they are much better than they perhaps used to be. If meetings are reputed to be enjoyable and get out on time, that has to help things out. Classis Georgetown, of which we are a part, has greatly imporved their meeting format and my elders really like the Classis meetings whereas before they dreaded them. Of course, this is a longer-term solution and won't help for this year or even next, but it's one positive change.
Thanks for posting, Chelsey! I agree with you that Synod would be well served by including some times of silence. The Bible has a few things to say about speaking too quickly and too often :-)
I like the idea in many ways. Ecclesiastical piracy is a problem in the United States (Canada too?). However, I suppose that every pastor that splits a congregation in order to plant a "better" church will say "I'm just like Martin Luther! Those curmudgeons and lagards in the old church were harming the gospel by insisting on their own way and threw me and others out! Etc." I can't imagine one saying "Well, the truth is, I'm an egomaniac and I can't stand dissent and I really, really, wanted to see a church bring the gospel the right way--MY WAY". Can we discern the Martin Luthers from the Jim Jones'? Maybe, but even if we could, what are our options? I like your suggestion at the end, about prayer. I would ad "warning" as well. Even if we can't judge the pastors present in every church split, one day the Chief Shepherd will judge. And woe to any of us pastors who have been "shepherding" out of our own needs and desires rather than those of Christ!
Another thing we can do is with the help of the Candidacy Committee encourage the righteousness of candidates for ministry (and screen out those who how obvious tendencies to break up and dominate groups) and we could possibly help search committees develop some criteria to avoid calling "that kind of pastor".
Thankfully, Christ still governs His church and those who lead from unholy motives will only get so far! Thanks for the article!
I tend to agree with the Crown folks. However, I have no idea how I will be able to stick to 10% of my take-home pay for tithe and still send my kids to Christian school. I guess I'll find out next year and the following. Maybe I will see how The LORD provides.
Lived through it. Have the T-shirt. It seems to me like there is an absence of the Spirit. I don't know how else to explain why it is that the local congregation most often acts like a service organization and the congregants act like consumers.
When I entered Calvin Seminary, the great majority of candidates accepted calls by August (many had multiple calls).
After I graduated Calvin Seminary four years later (2005), the majority of candidates accepted calls by January of the following year.
Today my impression is that candidates wait at least a year, more likely two to receive a call.
Yeah, we need to revisit that two year "shelf life". Our system was designed in the days of short vacancies, short pastorates and a lot of moving around. As a pastor's kid, I can appreciate the benefit of slowing things down (at least let the kids graduate high school where they started!), but we need to adapt our culture of calling accordingly. It may be the case that someone is called to preach for a season, but then another season comes. If we can help our ministers in that discernment (and maybe networking/job placement), it will be a great help in reducing a pastor's anxiety (and that of clergy families too).
I loved the video too! As a traditional kind of guy, it scratched a particular itch that I have. Something has always bugged me about contemporary worship but I have been hard-pressed to put it into words exactly what bothers me about it. This video gets at a lot of it (the anthropocentric tendencies mirroring our consumerist culture). Presentation is part of the content. I recommend David Wells' book "The courage to be Protestant".
Now in fairness, I would like to work on a video that shows where my side goes wrong. You could have some fun there too (some lumbering tune with words praising tradition for tradition's sake etc.) Looking out for eachother's specks and logs.
We have dabbled in the Sunday afternoon service a time or two as we are a rural congregation and folks drive a ways to come, but we have stuck with evening service. One thing I would like to share is that a year or two ago we tried doing a teaching service in the evening. It bombed big time. I went back to preaching. Since that time we have had vistors who come to Lebanon specifically for the evening service, if you can imagine that! It's a great encouragement to the congregation. Several people have told me that they get more out of an evening service than a morning one. Even though the attendance is small, the effect on those who attend is substantial!
I appreciate your thoughts on the second service, Jim. The second service (I'll say "evening") is important for a person's development, particularly in matters of doctrine. I'll be preaching this Sunday morning on the importance of Sunday evening worship. By the way, in my research, I came accross a good word on evening services written some time ago by Paul H. Alexander. Could I post/copy the link? To find it, I simply typed "evening service" into a search engine.
We all seem to be blessedly in agreement that our mission is to see Christ formed in people and the question is how that is best done today or any day. I would think that the Word of God is the best tool to shape people into Christ and that preaching in the context of a worship service is God's preferred means of changing lives. Therefore what the church and the world needs is more preaching and not less. I can see the trends, but my question is this: "Will I lose confidence in the preached Word of God because of the behavior of people?”
I’m not going to pretend to be so sanctified as to always answer “no”. Sometimes I do lose confidence in the preached Word. It’s hard not to! I’m like Peter who took his eyes off of Jesus and started looking at the waves. A good remedy was Steve Lawson’s book “Famine in the Land” which a fellow pastor loaned to me.
When the church exists as an institution for itself, it is a curse; but when it exists for the Kingdom of God starting with Word and then moving on to application of that Word, it is one of the greatest blessings.
Appreciating the discussion and they many thoughtful points raised,
I don't tweet either. I am human and not a bird :)
To me it's both the case of time management (pastors blogs can be an exception) and the fact that whatever I put out there on facebook is there for the congregation to see and judge. A careless word posted can be damaging to my ministry, even if I never intend it to be such. My gut feeling is that more people want to be heard than to hear others. From what I understand of Twitter, it encourages people to be quick to speak...the Bible has words of caution for that behavior. Proverbs 10:19 "When words are many sin is not absent but he who holds his tongue is wise".
But forums and discussion threads such as this one can be helpful for gaining wisdom if one's goal is to listen to others at least as much as it is to speak (overcoming the great temptation of preachers :)
Posted in: What are best practices for doing the monthly Pastors' reports to the Elders?
Going back to the top, about pastors' reports to elders, I'll just share what I do for comparison. I give a one-page bullet-point outlined report. I fill in the points by going through my "brain book" (journal) putting in dates etc. of my various activities. I don't organize it all that much yet (how many sermons I preached and classes I taught and visits I made top the list). I go through it quickly and hand the written copy to my clerk. My council right now seems happy with that procedure.
Posted in: Elder/Deacon Nominees?
We struggle in this area too. It's hard to get "no"s. One thing that might help, indeed is helping, is improving the meetings so that word gets out that they are much better than they perhaps used to be. If meetings are reputed to be enjoyable and get out on time, that has to help things out. Classis Georgetown, of which we are a part, has greatly imporved their meeting format and my elders really like the Classis meetings whereas before they dreaded them. Of course, this is a longer-term solution and won't help for this year or even next, but it's one positive change.
Posted in: When a Contemplative Goes to Synod
Thanks for posting, Chelsey! I agree with you that Synod would be well served by including some times of silence. The Bible has a few things to say about speaking too quickly and too often :-)
Posted in: Time for Non-Compete Clauses for Clergy?
I like the idea in many ways. Ecclesiastical piracy is a problem in the United States (Canada too?). However, I suppose that every pastor that splits a congregation in order to plant a "better" church will say "I'm just like Martin Luther! Those curmudgeons and lagards in the old church were harming the gospel by insisting on their own way and threw me and others out! Etc." I can't imagine one saying "Well, the truth is, I'm an egomaniac and I can't stand dissent and I really, really, wanted to see a church bring the gospel the right way--MY WAY". Can we discern the Martin Luthers from the Jim Jones'? Maybe, but even if we could, what are our options? I like your suggestion at the end, about prayer. I would ad "warning" as well. Even if we can't judge the pastors present in every church split, one day the Chief Shepherd will judge. And woe to any of us pastors who have been "shepherding" out of our own needs and desires rather than those of Christ!
Another thing we can do is with the help of the Candidacy Committee encourage the righteousness of candidates for ministry (and screen out those who how obvious tendencies to break up and dominate groups) and we could possibly help search committees develop some criteria to avoid calling "that kind of pastor".
Thankfully, Christ still governs His church and those who lead from unholy motives will only get so far! Thanks for the article!
Posted in: OK to Use Tithe for Christian School Tuition?
That's a very good question, Mike.
I tend to agree with the Crown folks. However, I have no idea how I will be able to stick to 10% of my take-home pay for tithe and still send my kids to Christian school. I guess I'll find out next year and the following. Maybe I will see how The LORD provides.
Posted in: Mom and Pop vs. Big Box Church
Lived through it. Have the T-shirt. It seems to me like there is an absence of the Spirit. I don't know how else to explain why it is that the local congregation most often acts like a service organization and the congregants act like consumers.
Posted in: Best Before
When I entered Calvin Seminary, the great majority of candidates accepted calls by August (many had multiple calls).
After I graduated Calvin Seminary four years later (2005), the majority of candidates accepted calls by January of the following year.
Today my impression is that candidates wait at least a year, more likely two to receive a call.
Yeah, we need to revisit that two year "shelf life". Our system was designed in the days of short vacancies, short pastorates and a lot of moving around. As a pastor's kid, I can appreciate the benefit of slowing things down (at least let the kids graduate high school where they started!), but we need to adapt our culture of calling accordingly. It may be the case that someone is called to preach for a season, but then another season comes. If we can help our ministers in that discernment (and maybe networking/job placement), it will be a great help in reducing a pastor's anxiety (and that of clergy families too).
Posted in: "Contemporvant" Worship Video--Funny? Offensive? Satirical? Mean?
I loved the video too! As a traditional kind of guy, it scratched a particular itch that I have. Something has always bugged me about contemporary worship but I have been hard-pressed to put it into words exactly what bothers me about it. This video gets at a lot of it (the anthropocentric tendencies mirroring our consumerist culture). Presentation is part of the content. I recommend David Wells' book "The courage to be Protestant".
Now in fairness, I would like to work on a video that shows where my side goes wrong. You could have some fun there too (some lumbering tune with words praising tradition for tradition's sake etc.) Looking out for eachother's specks and logs.
Posted in: Let's Keep Thinking about the "Second Service"
I like your idea, Gary,
We have dabbled in the Sunday afternoon service a time or two as we are a rural congregation and folks drive a ways to come, but we have stuck with evening service. One thing I would like to share is that a year or two ago we tried doing a teaching service in the evening. It bombed big time. I went back to preaching. Since that time we have had vistors who come to Lebanon specifically for the evening service, if you can imagine that! It's a great encouragement to the congregation. Several people have told me that they get more out of an evening service than a morning one. Even though the attendance is small, the effect on those who attend is substantial!
I appreciate your thoughts on the second service, Jim. The second service (I'll say "evening") is important for a person's development, particularly in matters of doctrine. I'll be preaching this Sunday morning on the importance of Sunday evening worship. By the way, in my research, I came accross a good word on evening services written some time ago by Paul H. Alexander. Could I post/copy the link? To find it, I simply typed "evening service" into a search engine.
Jeff
Posted in: Let's Keep Thinking about the "Second Service"
Amen Paul!
We all seem to be blessedly in agreement that our mission is to see Christ formed in people and the question is how that is best done today or any day. I would think that the Word of God is the best tool to shape people into Christ and that preaching in the context of a worship service is God's preferred means of changing lives. Therefore what the church and the world needs is more preaching and not less. I can see the trends, but my question is this: "Will I lose confidence in the preached Word of God because of the behavior of people?”
I’m not going to pretend to be so sanctified as to always answer “no”. Sometimes I do lose confidence in the preached Word. It’s hard not to! I’m like Peter who took his eyes off of Jesus and started looking at the waves. A good remedy was Steve Lawson’s book “Famine in the Land” which a fellow pastor loaned to me.
When the church exists as an institution for itself, it is a curse; but when it exists for the Kingdom of God starting with Word and then moving on to application of that Word, it is one of the greatest blessings.
Appreciating the discussion and they many thoughtful points raised,
Jeff
Posted in: "Why I Don't Tweet"
I don't tweet either. I am human and not a bird :)
To me it's both the case of time management (pastors blogs can be an exception) and the fact that whatever I put out there on facebook is there for the congregation to see and judge. A careless word posted can be damaging to my ministry, even if I never intend it to be such. My gut feeling is that more people want to be heard than to hear others. From what I understand of Twitter, it encourages people to be quick to speak...the Bible has words of caution for that behavior. Proverbs 10:19 "When words are many sin is not absent but he who holds his tongue is wise".
But forums and discussion threads such as this one can be helpful for gaining wisdom if one's goal is to listen to others at least as much as it is to speak (overcoming the great temptation of preachers :)