Accountability ends up being a pretty negative way of looking at any ministry, including pastors. If the report dealt more primarily with looking at the impact of the work with regard to the goals of the church, perhaps it wouldn't seem so business oriented. Perhaps yes there could be a brief record of the number of visits, hours counseling, times spent on sermons, but maybe the majority of the report could be on activities and progress related to major church goals in which the preacher plays a pivotal role. For example, if one goal is that children learn the heidelberg catechism, then how is that going? Are they excited? Are they confused? Do they get support from parents? Is theire relationship with the Lord growing? etc.
Or if a major church goal is prison ministry, then is that coasing along? Are there spiritual rewards? Are there needs for more help? Does it take too much time? Is God providing encouragements? etc.
If a major goal is ministring to the elderly, then how is that going? Where is there room for improvement? Could they experience more contact with the church? Do they need different facilities? a companion program? Someone to write to? Someone to mentor? Can they find those who want mentors? Can they find penpals, etc.
It's not an evaluation about whether a pastor is making eight home visits per week, and putting in 3.2678 hours of educational updating, or visiting 5 people in the hospital 2.3 times. But its an evaluation about whether the pastor has purpose, direction, passion, success, and hope. About whether the blessing of the spirit shines thru. And whether the word of God flows and accomplishes its purpose. Its an evaluation of whethere the pastor is spending too much time on "business", and not enough time fulfilling the calling of pastor, or preacher, or evangelist.
In the interests of not making this quite so easy, I would like to point out that a license to exhort was originally so-named in order to distinguish it from preaching. It was thought that those qualified to exhort, were not really qualified to preach, so we would call them exhorters who exhorted, but did not preach. We distinguished three types of service/sermon leaders; those who preach, those who exhort, and those who "read". Of course, in some rare cases, we have preachers and exhorters who mostly read their sermons..... And it is hard sometimes to distinguish between an exhorter who seems to be preaching, and a preacher who seems to be reading, or exhorting.
The church order including the supplements, itself does not specify the origin of the sermons that the council may approve. The reason for council approving the sermons was to prevent heresy or personal attacks, mostly, but the church order does not say that. Nor does the church order indicate how it is to approve sermons or by what method. The thought is that a crc committee approving reading sermons should be good enough, but the church order does not say that. There is no direct indication in the church order as to the possibility of the range of the origin of a sermon that it might approve.
Article 43 seems to deal with a student fund, and the license to exhort (strange that they are put in the same article). There does not seem to be an indication in the article itself that 43b only applies to those who have no intention of entering the ministry.
Article 53 indicates that others (non-preachers and non-exhorters) may be asked by consistory to lead a service. They should refrain from official acts of ministry, including preaching, but may read a sermon approved by consistory. There is no indication as to the method of approval of the sermon. The acts of ministry are "entrusted to the church and its ordained leaders and not to a specific office..."(supplement). Therefore it would seem that consistory could approve someone (presumably an elder) to lead a service, and read a sermon. It would also seem that consistory could approve a sermon. If the "sermon" is written by an ordained elder, there does not seem to be any direct prohibition for approval. The reader cannot preach nor exhort by virtue of not being a preacher or exhorter; therefore he must only "read", thus fulfilling the requirements of the church order as read. Do you have a reference for a decision on this issue?
I have a question for Dr. Henry DeMoor. In an earlier discussion, you indicated that elders could lift their hands for the blessing and benediction when leading a service, even though the church order did not so indicate. I was not able to find a reference for that. Could you refresh us as to when and where that was decided? It's also interesting that your commentary seems to have no difficulty with ordained elders ordaining new elders("laying on of hands"), even though that is indicated to be an "official act of ministry" as well(page 119).
I think this is sometimes a touchy issue for a whole bunch of reasons (I have read your entire church order commentary). Just wondering if it is permissable to sometimes disagree with some of the comments in your commentary?
Henry, I would by no means call what you say in the commentary a bunch of hokey; I think you are expressing some very common understandings. Nor do I hold you responsible for the way the church order is written, or for what it says or doesn't say, nor for what people think it says (when it doesn't). And in this your comment, I would agree with you in any case. But in the issue of whether an ordained elder could write a (pre-approved) sermon, the church order itself does not directly seem to forbid it, if the consistory gives permission. You seem to agree that ordained elders could raise their hands in the blessing, or conduct ordination of elders, which are considered to be official acts of ministry (sort of). Therefore official acts of ministry are permissable for ordained elders, though not often done. The church order does not specify chair of elders for these tasks, so it would seem not restricted to that, although that would be a reasonable way of doing it without restricting another elder if the circumstances seem to advise it under the approval of the consistory.
I agree we should attempt to guide ourselves by the church order, but I suspect you are also aware of the sometimes arbitrary selection of church order articles to live by. The range of options within the parameters of the church order are also larger than many people realize, do you agree? I would also suggest that it is permissable to express some disagreement with the church order and the way it is written, even while respecting the intents of it, and living with it in the meantime.
Could you tell me when synod decided that it was okay for ordained elders to raise their hands and pronounce the blessing/benediction?
Two comments Paul: First, to your comment that the same few people might end up serving... remember that the same single pastor ends up serving, if this is not bad by itself, then why is it bad for other officebearers? Second, scripture encourages us to eagerly desire the greater gifts of service... it is an honor to serve in this way. If it is merely a duty or task that "must" be done or that we beg people to do, then we are giving the wrong impression of this God honoring task. (this also applies to other roles and tasks, each of which are important, but office bearers, ie., elders and deacons, are significantly singled out). Third, training ought to occur before they are asked. This training ought to be part of our training as christians. The task of elder is not to be a placeholder, or a name on a sheet, or to merely attend meetings. The qualities of pastoral leadership, teachership, and spiritual nearness to Jesus, will grow in these official roles, but ought to be there already well before. In order for someone to be nominated for such an office/role, they probably should fulfill a prerequisite of teaching a bible study class, catechism class, sunday school, cadets, young people, etc. How else will you know if they have the gift of teaching which scripture suggests? These are just some thoughts for consideration, as I do fully understand the dilemna.
Randy, you have mentioned some good stuff, but it might be useful if you discussed it as a council, rather than simply adopting someone else's policy. It will help you to focus on what is important and what is not, depending on the type of volunteer position or activity, of which there are many types. Some churches adopt a rule/guideline that to be a deacon, you may not drink alcohol or smoke. Many other churches do not. Some would say that divorced people and remarried ought not to serve as preachers or elders. Some would evaluate the inconsistency between behaviour and leading a bible study. In some cases the line of inconsistency is a bit gray, since how do we distinguish weakness from deliberate carelessness?
From a spiritual perspective, discussing this in instances where it may be a concern, will lead to confronting issues and perhaps a better context for spiritual admonition than a simple: "well that person doesn't qualify" type of environment. Hope this helps a bit.
Well, sorry. I didn't mean to imply that your council would not be involved. And of course your council should do whatever it thinks best in this regard; if it wants to look at what others have done, so be it. Only my suggestion to perhaps consider starting from scratch, might help to change the tenor of the discussion in a surprising way. They might take more ownership and might also give more thought to it. All the best.
Randy, I think your document shows promise. I hope you had a discussion with your council before you presented it to them, in order to encourage them to be pro-active, rather than just re-active to your document. Just a couple things perhaps missing: you did not mention homosexual activity, which might slip thru the wording of the document. Also not included are theft and dishonesty.
You might want to consider the impact on other ministries such as church maintenance, cleaning, serving meals and coffee, clerical, bulletin editor/typist, foreign mission trips, etc.
Keith, perhaps we think of it incorrectly to think of a pastor's report to elders vs an elder's report to pastors. Each must report to all the rest, whether there is a pastor present or not. But the report and evaluation is primarily for the purpose of making sure the outcomes and goals are being met with regard to the purpose and vision and objectives of the church as a whole. It should not been seen as primarily a way to assess or grade an individual's performance.
George, interesting question. I would say that it does not equate to paying tithes since it is involuntary (taxes), and it is paying for services as much as helping the poor. In otherwords, old age security is available to most people, and unemployment benefits are paid from wages, based on the assumption that if you are unemployed, then you can access it. It is more insurance than donation. While it is true that some of the church's tasks of helping the poor have been reduced or made easier by the fact that the state has put in place methods for assisting the poor, you could argue that simply providing for your family from your wages also prevents poverty in your wife and children, and thus does the same thing. When the church helps the poor it comes with the message that we do this because Jesus loves us. When the state does it, it is usually to prevent disgrace or food riots.
Covenant CRC church in west Edmonton has had a community garden for several years. I have seen it a couple of times, and it looks nice. But I have no idea how they run it.
In future, it would be avisable to give all or part of such a gift in a later year, if the person is retiring, in order to reduce the impact on income taxes payable.
Posted in: What are best practices for doing the monthly Pastors' reports to the Elders?
Accountability ends up being a pretty negative way of looking at any ministry, including pastors. If the report dealt more primarily with looking at the impact of the work with regard to the goals of the church, perhaps it wouldn't seem so business oriented. Perhaps yes there could be a brief record of the number of visits, hours counseling, times spent on sermons, but maybe the majority of the report could be on activities and progress related to major church goals in which the preacher plays a pivotal role. For example, if one goal is that children learn the heidelberg catechism, then how is that going? Are they excited? Are they confused? Do they get support from parents? Is theire relationship with the Lord growing? etc.
Or if a major church goal is prison ministry, then is that coasing along? Are there spiritual rewards? Are there needs for more help? Does it take too much time? Is God providing encouragements? etc.
If a major goal is ministring to the elderly, then how is that going? Where is there room for improvement? Could they experience more contact with the church? Do they need different facilities? a companion program? Someone to write to? Someone to mentor? Can they find those who want mentors? Can they find penpals, etc.
It's not an evaluation about whether a pastor is making eight home visits per week, and putting in 3.2678 hours of educational updating, or visiting 5 people in the hospital 2.3 times. But its an evaluation about whether the pastor has purpose, direction, passion, success, and hope. About whether the blessing of the spirit shines thru. And whether the word of God flows and accomplishes its purpose. Its an evaluation of whethere the pastor is spending too much time on "business", and not enough time fulfilling the calling of pastor, or preacher, or evangelist.
Posted in: License to Exhort -- May a council use an approved lay person lead in worship, including preaching?
In the interests of not making this quite so easy, I would like to point out that a license to exhort was originally so-named in order to distinguish it from preaching. It was thought that those qualified to exhort, were not really qualified to preach, so we would call them exhorters who exhorted, but did not preach. We distinguished three types of service/sermon leaders; those who preach, those who exhort, and those who "read". Of course, in some rare cases, we have preachers and exhorters who mostly read their sermons..... And it is hard sometimes to distinguish between an exhorter who seems to be preaching, and a preacher who seems to be reading, or exhorting.
The church order including the supplements, itself does not specify the origin of the sermons that the council may approve. The reason for council approving the sermons was to prevent heresy or personal attacks, mostly, but the church order does not say that. Nor does the church order indicate how it is to approve sermons or by what method. The thought is that a crc committee approving reading sermons should be good enough, but the church order does not say that. There is no direct indication in the church order as to the possibility of the range of the origin of a sermon that it might approve.
Article 43 seems to deal with a student fund, and the license to exhort (strange that they are put in the same article). There does not seem to be an indication in the article itself that 43b only applies to those who have no intention of entering the ministry.
Article 53 indicates that others (non-preachers and non-exhorters) may be asked by consistory to lead a service. They should refrain from official acts of ministry, including preaching, but may read a sermon approved by consistory. There is no indication as to the method of approval of the sermon. The acts of ministry are "entrusted to the church and its ordained leaders and not to a specific office..."(supplement). Therefore it would seem that consistory could approve someone (presumably an elder) to lead a service, and read a sermon. It would also seem that consistory could approve a sermon. If the "sermon" is written by an ordained elder, there does not seem to be any direct prohibition for approval. The reader cannot preach nor exhort by virtue of not being a preacher or exhorter; therefore he must only "read", thus fulfilling the requirements of the church order as read. Do you have a reference for a decision on this issue?
I have a question for Dr. Henry DeMoor. In an earlier discussion, you indicated that elders could lift their hands for the blessing and benediction when leading a service, even though the church order did not so indicate. I was not able to find a reference for that. Could you refresh us as to when and where that was decided? It's also interesting that your commentary seems to have no difficulty with ordained elders ordaining new elders("laying on of hands"), even though that is indicated to be an "official act of ministry" as well(page 119).
I think this is sometimes a touchy issue for a whole bunch of reasons (I have read your entire church order commentary). Just wondering if it is permissable to sometimes disagree with some of the comments in your commentary?
Posted in: License to Exhort -- May a council use an approved lay person lead in worship, including preaching?
Henry, I would by no means call what you say in the commentary a bunch of hokey; I think you are expressing some very common understandings. Nor do I hold you responsible for the way the church order is written, or for what it says or doesn't say, nor for what people think it says (when it doesn't). And in this your comment, I would agree with you in any case. But in the issue of whether an ordained elder could write a (pre-approved) sermon, the church order itself does not directly seem to forbid it, if the consistory gives permission. You seem to agree that ordained elders could raise their hands in the blessing, or conduct ordination of elders, which are considered to be official acts of ministry (sort of). Therefore official acts of ministry are permissable for ordained elders, though not often done. The church order does not specify chair of elders for these tasks, so it would seem not restricted to that, although that would be a reasonable way of doing it without restricting another elder if the circumstances seem to advise it under the approval of the consistory.
I agree we should attempt to guide ourselves by the church order, but I suspect you are also aware of the sometimes arbitrary selection of church order articles to live by. The range of options within the parameters of the church order are also larger than many people realize, do you agree? I would also suggest that it is permissable to express some disagreement with the church order and the way it is written, even while respecting the intents of it, and living with it in the meantime.
Could you tell me when synod decided that it was okay for ordained elders to raise their hands and pronounce the blessing/benediction?
Posted in: Elder/Deacon Nominees?
Two comments Paul: First, to your comment that the same few people might end up serving... remember that the same single pastor ends up serving, if this is not bad by itself, then why is it bad for other officebearers? Second, scripture encourages us to eagerly desire the greater gifts of service... it is an honor to serve in this way. If it is merely a duty or task that "must" be done or that we beg people to do, then we are giving the wrong impression of this God honoring task. (this also applies to other roles and tasks, each of which are important, but office bearers, ie., elders and deacons, are significantly singled out). Third, training ought to occur before they are asked. This training ought to be part of our training as christians. The task of elder is not to be a placeholder, or a name on a sheet, or to merely attend meetings. The qualities of pastoral leadership, teachership, and spiritual nearness to Jesus, will grow in these official roles, but ought to be there already well before. In order for someone to be nominated for such an office/role, they probably should fulfill a prerequisite of teaching a bible study class, catechism class, sunday school, cadets, young people, etc. How else will you know if they have the gift of teaching which scripture suggests? These are just some thoughts for consideration, as I do fully understand the dilemna.
Posted in: Where can I find a sample policy regarding ministry standards and expectations for volunteers?
Randy, you have mentioned some good stuff, but it might be useful if you discussed it as a council, rather than simply adopting someone else's policy. It will help you to focus on what is important and what is not, depending on the type of volunteer position or activity, of which there are many types. Some churches adopt a rule/guideline that to be a deacon, you may not drink alcohol or smoke. Many other churches do not. Some would say that divorced people and remarried ought not to serve as preachers or elders. Some would evaluate the inconsistency between behaviour and leading a bible study. In some cases the line of inconsistency is a bit gray, since how do we distinguish weakness from deliberate carelessness?
From a spiritual perspective, discussing this in instances where it may be a concern, will lead to confronting issues and perhaps a better context for spiritual admonition than a simple: "well that person doesn't qualify" type of environment. Hope this helps a bit.
Posted in: Where can I find a sample policy regarding ministry standards and expectations for volunteers?
Well, sorry. I didn't mean to imply that your council would not be involved. And of course your council should do whatever it thinks best in this regard; if it wants to look at what others have done, so be it. Only my suggestion to perhaps consider starting from scratch, might help to change the tenor of the discussion in a surprising way. They might take more ownership and might also give more thought to it. All the best.
Posted in: How do we train Sunday School teachers for the long-term health of our Sunday School programs?
I am curious if there are any churches that keep sunday school going all year round?
Posted in: Where can I find a sample policy regarding ministry standards and expectations for volunteers?
Randy, I think your document shows promise. I hope you had a discussion with your council before you presented it to them, in order to encourage them to be pro-active, rather than just re-active to your document. Just a couple things perhaps missing: you did not mention homosexual activity, which might slip thru the wording of the document. Also not included are theft and dishonesty.
You might want to consider the impact on other ministries such as church maintenance, cleaning, serving meals and coffee, clerical, bulletin editor/typist, foreign mission trips, etc.
Posted in: What are best practices for doing the monthly Pastors' reports to the Elders?
Keith, perhaps we think of it incorrectly to think of a pastor's report to elders vs an elder's report to pastors. Each must report to all the rest, whether there is a pastor present or not. But the report and evaluation is primarily for the purpose of making sure the outcomes and goals are being met with regard to the purpose and vision and objectives of the church as a whole. It should not been seen as primarily a way to assess or grade an individual's performance.
Other than that, I agree with all your comments.
Posted in: Does our taxes paid to the government used for entitlements qualify as part of our tithing?
George, interesting question. I would say that it does not equate to paying tithes since it is involuntary (taxes), and it is paying for services as much as helping the poor. In otherwords, old age security is available to most people, and unemployment benefits are paid from wages, based on the assumption that if you are unemployed, then you can access it. It is more insurance than donation. While it is true that some of the church's tasks of helping the poor have been reduced or made easier by the fact that the state has put in place methods for assisting the poor, you could argue that simply providing for your family from your wages also prevents poverty in your wife and children, and thus does the same thing. When the church helps the poor it comes with the message that we do this because Jesus loves us. When the state does it, it is usually to prevent disgrace or food riots.
Posted in: How does a church successfully implement a Community Garden?
Covenant CRC church in west Edmonton has had a community garden for several years. I have seen it a couple of times, and it looks nice. But I have no idea how they run it.
Posted in: Is a Pastor's Retirement Gift Taxable?
In future, it would be avisable to give all or part of such a gift in a later year, if the person is retiring, in order to reduce the impact on income taxes payable.