Archive for the ‘Church’ Category
What Does the Book of Revelation Say to the Church Today?
I’m almost half way through the book of Revelation. And in my 21 years at Harvest Bible Chapel, I have never taught through this book before. I have to tell you, I am deeply impacted by this study.
What does this book written by John almost 2,000 years ago have to say to the church today? Take a look.
Is Your Church Compelling? Part 1
There is a deafening, non-stop discussion in evangelicalism about what the church needs to be (many of the most vocal are those who pastor no one and win very few to our Lord). On and on they pontificate about how church needs to be personally relevant and interesting and meet felt needs. About how it needs to be entertaining for people without making them uncomfortable. About how it needs to be cool and compassionate and connected and cultural and . . . Here’s a “C” word for you, CHURCH NEEDS TO BE COMPELLING.
I believe with all my heart, that much of what the church has become in our day is measly, milk-toast, and malnourished. It’s about as compelling as a ‘walk in the mall.’ I believe the New Testament church needs to be compelling. By that I mean, window-rattling, life-altering, Almighty God unveiling, COMPELLING! (I was yelling when I thought/wrote that).
Here are five things that make church compelling:
1) “Thus Saith the Lord,” Preaching
The most common observation about Jesus’ teaching was “he teaches as one who has authority.” Yet even Jesus used the Word of God for his teaching. “Did not our hearts burn within us as he walked with us on the road and taught us from the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32). A preacher who has been gripped by the Word of God and who is overflowing with Holy Spirit conviction will make a more compelling impact and draw a bigger crowd that all the cheesy substitutes currently popular. Nothing is more compelling than people coming to church and hearing from God through the word preached. Everything else is just pathetic by comparison. “And my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:4).
2) “Spirit, to Spirit” Worship
“God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24). God is seeking worshipers and we can be confident that when sincere adoration of God’s Son is flowing from the hearts of God’s people, those who attend will report that “God is truly among them.” Again the question we should be asking is not, What do worldlings see as their greatest need? But actually, what is their greatest need? It’s not to be impressed with Jesus or to find out the church isn’t as ‘bad’ as they thought. They need their world rocked by God Himself and He has promised to show up in power when his Son is unashamedly adored from the heart by His people. “The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you” (1 Corinthians 14:25).
3) Stories of God at Work
The best use of the powerful medium of video is not in showing dopey movie clips that parallel some spiritual reality in some vague unnecessary attempt at relevance. Real stories of God at work in the life of the church are always compelling. The number one source of these stories is of course baptismal testimonies, but other stories of God in the life of His people are also extremely impacting. We are currently building a whole team of media-skilled people to capture the stories of God at work in our church. These stories creatively told in the mist of a worship service, make dramas and movie clips look like a Model T Ford at the Indy 500. Skip what’s cool and go for what’s compelling. If we rattle people’s windows through an eyewitness encounter with God’s power at work in the lives of people today, the issue of ‘relevance’ will see irrelevant. “For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16).
4) Loving People Doing Life Together
I often say there are ‘no enduring relationships without forgiveness.’ But where those relationships do exist and endure they are a compelling testimony to the power of the gospel. People who are diverse in every way except their love for Christ — living in community and loving one another unconditionally are incredibly attractive and compelling to those who don’t have that. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
5) Miraculous Answers to Prayer
News Flash: God does answer prayer, and where there is a group of believers fervently calling out to God in faith, there will be answers. All around us are people who don’t know how to climb the mountains they are facing. When we take them to the throne of grace, and help them find the help God offers in time of need (Hebrews 4:15) we are giving them something very compelling.
Here’s a word of advice — skip the clever and cultural and cool church gig completely. Be authentically and biblically compelling and you’ll need to order more chairs soon.
Do you agree? Leave a comment here . . .
Starving Saints
It’s all true. Everywhere I go I hear it. Like a tragedy as visual as the starving peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the saints in North America are starving. Most followers of Jesus Christ attend churches where the content of the message is geared toward wooing worldlings with watered down content that won’t offend. “Keep them comfortable,” “give them time,” “don’t upset or alienate,” these are the watchwords of watered down churches. Much more could be said about the unbiblical foundation for that kind of evangelism or how it mitigates against discipleship in the ones it does win, but the purpose of this post is to consider how it starves the saints.
“Feed My Sheep!” Thrice repeated in John 21, it was the strongly emphasized and nearly final command of Jesus to Peter and the rest of the apostles. It was not a suggestion, it was not a point worthy of consideration, it was a clear and simple command from our master Jesus Christ. “Whatever else you do, feed the sheep.”
Large Churches vs. Small Churches
Hey, I know that sometimes the size of your church can be a source of encouragement or discouragement to you. I want to encourage you with what I think about the size of a church. Here is a recent teaching about Jesus comments to the faithful church in Philadelphia from Revelation 3:8. Do you agree or no?
Be faithful to God’s Word—no matter what size your church is. Agree? Share your comments.
Things I Would Change If I Could
Here’s the final video from the Q and A sessions from the Preach the Word Conference. I trust that you’ll find this content as helpful and hilarious as I did. J
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I hope you make it a priority to be in a church where God’s Word is taught without apology this weekend. I am heading into the final hours of sermon prep for our services right now. Talk to you next week.
It’s Hardest at Home
Over the past week, I have given you nuggets of truth for your sermon prep. Here’s one more from the Preach the Word Conference. This is where the rubber meets the road, my friends–how do you live out what you teach at home? Check it out.
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Sermon Prep Methods from Some of the Best
Here’s some “gold” for all of you pastors—find out how some of the best expositors in the country prepare to teach God’s Word. You will hear from John MacArthur (a preaching mentor to me for sure!), Chuck Swindoll, Jack Graham, as well as Greg Laurie and me. Get ready to take notes, my friends!
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Sermon Prep and Devotional Life with Bob Coy and Greg Laurie
Hey, I am thinking about my sermon for this weekend today—a lot. It’s one of those messages that I cannot wait to preach—I’ve been thinking about it for quite a while. I am often asked about how I prepare a message.
That’s why I want you to see the Q & A session from the Preach the Word Conference at Greg Laurie’s church last fall. I am with Greg who is one of my best friends in ministry and the Senior Pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in California and Bob Coy who serves as Senior Pastor at a Calvary Chapel in Florida. We were asked about how we approach our devotional time and sermon prep time in God’s Word.
My prayer is that this is helpful and challenging to you as you head into this Christmas season.
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Multi-Campus Is not For Everyone
OK – that’s a whole week on the current phenomenon of multi-site churches. For those of you who really like to cut to the chase, here is a video summary of what I was trying to say in the last two posts. Feel free to leave a comment or even a difference of opinion. Let me know what you are thinking and let others be edified by your perspective. 
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Do Small Churches Provide Better Pastoral Care than Large Churches?
Carl Trueman thinks so. Trueman, whom I always enjoy reading, has an interesting article in the latest edition of Themelios (the free on-line journal of the Gospel Coalition) that touches upon the ideal size of a local church. My friend and fellow SAET board member Owen Strachen noted the article on his blog and I interacted with it a bit on his site. But in as much as I had more to say than should be said on someone else’s blog, I’ve combined my comments, revised them, added another layer, and have transferred them here.
In advocating the small church model, Trumeman writes,
Second, church involvement brings with it a natural accountability at a very practical level. Here I guess I show my strong preference for smaller churches. I cannot prove from Scripture that a church should never consist of more than three hundred or so people, but I would argue that a church which is so big that the pastor who preaches cannot know every member by name, and something about their daily lives, needs, and struggles, is a church where the pastor cannot easily fulfill the obligations of a biblical shepherd of God’s flock. Put bluntly, I want to be in a church where my absence on Sunday will soon be noticed and where the pastor or elders can draw alongside me and ask the pertinent questions.
I want to be in a church where the eldership takes note if my behavior towards my wife or children is sub-par on a Sunday (hinting at much worse in private). I want to be in a church where I pray for the leadership and where they pray for me—not just in a generic sense of being part of the membership, but informed prayer based on real relationships. In other words, I want to be in a church where my pastor is, well, my pastor and not just that guy who is preaching over there in the distance on a Sunday morning. Put yourself in a small, faithful church, and the pastor is more than likely to hold you accountable to the basics of Christian belief and practice.
I’ve pastored in both a small, rural church (250) and now in a large, urban church (12,000). Both have advantages and disadvantages. I feel a bit of what Trueman is talking about, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the extent to which true community and pastoral shepherding is possible in a large church context. Of course, not everyone in our congregation knows our senior pastor. But we have a robust ministry staff, and once you include the elders and volunteer shepherds (e.g., small group leaders, small group coaches), the shepherding gap isn’t as problematic as one might think.
In many respects, this whole discussion hinges on one’s understanding of discipleship and its relationship to pastoral ministry. Trueman’s critique of the large church (i.e., any church over 300 adults) strongly suggests that the pastor (or elders) of a local congregation must serve as the primary, direct pastoral care-giver for each member of the congregation. But I’m not certain this is either self-evident or biblical. Clearly the eldership of a local congregation must assume final responsibility for the health of the church it oversees. (The manner of this oversight would vary in relation to a church’s polity—particularly as one moves toward an Episcopal structure, etc.). But must the discipleship of each congregant be directly overseen by the eldership? I’m inclined to think the New Testament model of discipleship suggests otherwise. The burden of pastoral care isn’t only for pastors; every member is called to mutual ministry.
Second Timothy 2:2 is a helpful proof-text here. We are to be disciples who make disciple who make disciples, etc. The expectation and example of both Paul and Christ is that every true disciple will be engaged in the process of making disciples. In other words, the mandate of a true disciple is not simply to get one’s own house in order, but to help one’s neighbor get his house in order as well. And indeed, this is not a small part of discipleship. A primary means by which a Christian grows in grace is by being a channel of grace in the lives of others. At the end of the day, we can’t separate personal piety from Great Commission ministry. If I’m to grow as a disciple, I must be about making disciples. In fact, the “filling of the Spirit” in the New Testament is almost always tied to Great Commission ministry. If the people in our churches are not realizing the full sanctifying power of the Spirit, it may be because we’ve not asked them to embrace the Great Commission’s mandate of making disciples. “Bearing each others burdens” is a necessary part of what each member of a local congregation needs to be about—not only for the sake of the other members, but for their own sake as well.
Thus the New Testament vision of pastoral leadership is one in which the pastor equips others who equip others who equip others, etc., on down the line. In short, the job of a pastor is to reproduce himself. If our congregants are to engage in the discipleship making process, we as pastors must carve out room for them to do so. But if the eldership of a church insists on being the only real force for pastoral care and discipleship in its church, then at some point the biblical mandate given to all Christians to make disciples is stifled.
This isn’t, of course, to say a church must keep growing and growing numerically with no end in sight. Maybe a spin-off is the best option in some circumstances (though logistically tricky when a church is sub 500 people). I’m certainly not anti-small church. (In fact I miss it sometimes.) And there is no reason why a small church can’t live out the vision of discipleship I’ve mentioned above. But I do think we need to be careful about intentionally settling for smaller, as though smaller is always better. There are, I’ve found, less benign reasons for choosing small over big.
When I think back to my own time in a small church context, I recall using logic identical to Trueman’s to explain our smallness. We wanted to be small, we said. It’s the best way to do ministry, we said. But in hindsight, I think something else was at work. As long as we considered big church to be an ineffective way to do church, we never needed to feel overly burdened about why we weren’t reaching more people for Christ. I’m in no way imputing such motives to Trueman (or others who pastor small churches). No doubt he and others who share his view have a more mature perspective. (I say this sincerely.) But I do think this is something every pastor should give a moment of reflection to. Those committed to the small church model must be very careful not to adopt the small church model as a subtle way of justifying a lack of vision and intentionality in reaching the most people possible for Christ. The large church, for all of its hang-ups (both potential and actual) became large (at least in part) because it possessed a grand vision to reach as many people for Christ as possible. Of course, this doesn’t mean every church needs to be large. God blesses in differing measures, and some soils are not as easily tilled as others. But the small church pastor who contents himself in his smallness and has no thought of reaching people beyond those already in his congregation…well, something about that doesn’t square well with our Lord’s directive.
From what I have seen, as far as the capacity to shepherd is concerned, in the end it doesn’t really matter if a church is big or small. What matters is whether the leadership of a local church intentionally calls upon, equips, and enables its congregants to shepherd one other.
Thoughts, anyone?
(This article was originally posted on the SAET blog, but I moved it here with the thought that Straight Up readers may find it helpful as well.)
Baggage Check…
So often I seem to hear church leaders explain their methodology by appealing to how wrong things are/were done at the church they grew up in, at mega-churches, southern baptist churches, charismatic churches, or or or… It is easy to find something to poke fun at or have legitimate concern about in almost any tradition. Now I am not talking about I would burn-at-the-stake type differences. I am talking about methodology or smaller issues.
BUT>>>
If my dad was a pastor that worked way too many hours (which incidentally he was not) at the church and made me feel like crap does that mean I should subtly suggest that having a great family is the New Great Commission?
If when I was in college I went to a charismatic church where there was a lot of excess emotion and a lack Word-centeredness, should I make the people in my church feel as though emotion shouldn’t be trusted and the mind is what is important?
If I hear about a church across town that ‘believes’ all the right things but some of the leaders in the church’s lives are shown not to match up, does that mean that orthodox theology is unimportant and whatever works is what is right?
I think the point is self-evident. Although it is inevitable and can be positive for congregations and organizations to take on the personality and views of the leader, it is VITAL that we not allow our baggage to overly influence the ministry and view of Christianity we propagate on our people.
Quiz: Is Your Church Vertical?
I am really starting to enjoy this blog. I am learning so much about people and what is on their hearts. Several have asked what I mean by the subtitle for this blog, “first vertical and then missional.” If I ever get to that book about the church, that book about what we have been trying to be about for the past 21 years, I think I will call it Vertical Church. That’s what we have been going for, and from the very beginning it has been an experiment that asked these important questions:
• What if there was a church that believed God actually wrote a book called the Bible and that human souls were profoundly altered in hearing its truths proclaimed with passion and practicality, as the very words of God?
• What if there was a church that believed God was actually listening when we prayed, that He considered the pleas of His people when they cried out to Him from their hearts in faith and powerfully moved in people’s lives in response?
• What if there was a church that believed the fields are truly “ripe to harvest,” and that authentically being the hands and feet of Jesus to people in pain was far superior to seeing the gospel as a horizontal transaction of human persuasion and cultural savvy?
• What if there was a church where the people had as their first and most fervent focus, the adoration of God’s Son? Where worship was not part of the service or part of the week, but the consuming passion of the congregation and its leaders—not for themselves or even for the good feeling it brings, but truly for blessing the heart of God and inviting His presence in the midst of every ministry involvement?
Harvest Bible Chapel is not all of those things, not perfectly, but it helps from time to time to remember what we are shooting for. We want to be a vertical church. Just that. If we get the vertical right, the horizontal takes care of itself. People who are truly intimate with God the Father will have a genuine heart to transfer that love relationship to those around them. People who have God’s heart must have a heart for lost people. People who love the Word of God and seek to obey it will always have a powerful impact on the lost around them. Yes, YES! I believe it with all my heart and I am seeing it before my eyes. Make the focus and consuming passion of your church a vertical one, and the missional elements of ministry will happen as naturally as breathing.
“Yes, when I, even I, the Son of Man am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all peoples to myself” (John 12:32).
10 Question Verticality Quiz: (Give 5 for the strongest yes and 0 for the weakest yes.)
1. Are the songs we sing about God or about what God has done for us?
2. Do the people on the platform come across as ministers or as entertainers?
3. Is the sermon coming clearly/continually from what the Bible actually says and does it cover the hard parts of Scripture, not just the popular ones?
4. Does the sermon challenge me to change and grow, versus just something to know?
5. Am I pressured over time to join a smaller group where I can express and experience biblical community?
6. Do I find the people I meet to be humble and overt in their love for Christ, or more guarded and private about their faith?
7. Am I challenged to find a place of ministry where I can use my gifts and shoulder weekly kingdom responsibility in working for God?
8. Do the leaders of my church find ways to draw the focus away from themselves and onto Christ and what He is doing?
9. Does my church invite me into sacrificial work for Christ that does not benefit our church at all: feeding the poor, church planting/missions, etc.?
10. Does my church seek to follow the biblical pattern for church governance and elevate the Word of God in all it does, including church discipline?
SCORE:
Vertical Church: 40+
60-Degree Church: 30-40
Horizontal Church: 20-30
Find a New Church : 0-20
Letter to a Dying Church
In April, we will celebrate the 5th anniversary of a noble act by a dying church known as Crossway Baptist Church in Niles, Illinois.
Formerly known as Belden Avenue Baptist Church, they had been, in their glory years, a fruitful, thriving centerpiece of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. During the 80’s and 90’s they experienced much division and reduction in membership, as well as frequent turnover in pastoral leadership. Left with only a handful of members and unable to meet the budget even for facility upkeep and utilities, they sought the Lord for wisdom and came to Harvest Bible Chapel for help. Five years ago in April they voted “to never vote again” and became an extension campus of Harvest. We provided staffing, leadership development, building renovation, live worship, and teaching by video.
By God’s grace, their weekly attendance is now over 1400, with more than 200 hundred baptisms to date. Many others who had stumbled or lost their way have discovered a dynamic community of believers where they can worship, serve, and have fellowship in Christ. It is the most racially diverse of our campuses and they are bursting at the seams. Currently they are planning both a building program and a church plant further into Chicago and are making a huge impact in their community. It has become a very exciting center of kingdom activity.
Sadly, many churches in the position they were in do not make the courageous decision they made. Imagine a letter that might be written from someone at our Niles campus to a local church facing a similar choice…
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The tests have been taken, the analysis is complete. You have fought valiantly and faithfully, but your church is going to die, soon . . . if you don’t do something.
We know how you feel and remember the pain when we were forced to embrace our prognosis. We took great comfort in Jesus’ words, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). At the time we could not have imagined how the death of our church, as we knew it, was God’s way of giving us a ministry in our community beyond what we had even hoped or imagined . . . but our death was God’s way to new life!
It was hard to see people we did not know come in and begin to plan our services. The music was different, the service order kept changing, the bulletin, the ushers—everything changed so quickly, and for a few weeks coming to worship seemed actually painful.
It hurt to see some who even voted for the changes leave because of the discomfort it brought. It was hard to see workers we did not know in our Children’s Ministry. It was difficult to watch the building we had so jealously protected filling up with ’strangers.’ But gradually, our feelings began to change.
I think my heart turned around with finality that first time Pastor James gave the Gospel and invited those who had prayed to receive Christ to come forward for baptism. He was on the video screen and I remember watching the people responding on the ‘main campus’ and wishing that could happen right here in Niles. Then, from the corner of my eye, I saw people walking down the aisle at our church . . . and then I couldn’t see at all as my eyes filled with tears. How long, how very long it had been. Sadly, I couldn’t even remember the last time the front of our church was filled with people kneeling in humility, bowing their hearts to Christ as Savior and Lord. And the diversity . . . as kids we had sung of Jesus’ love for all the little children, “red and yellow, black and white,” but now we were seeing it.
Well, the painful first few weeks are long forgotten now. I remember being so mad at “Jim” for bringing ‘these people’ into our church. Looking back, I am so ashamed of the way I punished him for having the courage to what was best, even though it was frightening. In fact, I rarely think of our past now . . . or all the bickering, and the critical spirit that had ensnared my soul. All that has been washed away in the abundant fruitfulness of serving and seeing God work so powerfully. Our church is full-to-overflowing in four services, and we are so far from our inward/survival focus that it’s hard to even remember.
We have our own pastors, Mohan, Brian, and Andrzej, and we have wonderful, dynamic worship and a challenging biblical message, and a place to belong and serve. And young people are everywhere—college students, young families, single parents, a youth ministry with over 75 teens and, best of all, babies. In the past an occasional former attender might show up to have their baby dedicated, but now our own nursery is spilling over with new life. How I love to sit and rock them, and sing to them, and pray that they will follow the Savior who has been so much to me.
Our service is translated into Polish and Spanish, and we have Hispanic and African-American, as well as many Romanian and Indian members—not just on the fringes, but entering in. Yes, Sunday is now the best day of my week, and coming to “our Harvest” is the great joy of my life.
Don’t fear, dying church; do something courageous. Find the most biblical, fruitful, prayerful, evangelizing church you know and ask them to come and help. If the Lord pricks their heart toward an unselfish act of sharing their resources, you have A LOT to look forward to. I don’t know how many more years the Lord will give me, but I have learned an important thing about death: It’s not the end, it’s the beginning of something even greater the Lord has in store.
Much love and prayers for your courageous faith,
A very elderly and delighted member of Harvest Bible Chapel in Niles.
Why I Don’t Hate “Big Church” Anymore
All right—truth be told, I never really hated big church. But I was always a little suspicious. I mean, after all, could a big church really “do community”? Not likely, I thought.
Prior to my time at Harvest, I served on staff at a smaller church in Fremont, Nebraska.A great church in so many ways. We had an average attendance of around 250 people, and I still think back with fondness to the fellowship and relationships I had there. In many respects, it felt like one big rocking-chair-on-the-front-porch-after-church-pot-luck sort of thing. It probably wasn’t that idealistic, but that’s how I remember it anyway. Regardless, great memories to be sure.
So when my wife and I moved back to Chicago, we were skeptical about attending a large church like Harvest. We tried a smaller church in the area, but for a variety of reasons we decided to give Harvest a try. Early on we joined a home group, got connected with a great group of friends, and immediately felt like we belonged.
Now I can’t speak for every large church in America. Nor can I even speak for every person whose tried to plug in at Harvest. But having been at Harvest as a lay person, and now as a staff member, I can say that community is one of the things we do pretty well. In fact, the depth of relational interaction my wife and I encountered through Harvest’s small group ministry matched—perhaps even exceeded—that of our smaller church in Nebraska.
On the surface, one might think that a smaller church would more naturally lead to relational connectedness. But I’ve since come to realize that intentionality—more than anything else—is the key to robust community. At Harvest we don’t just hope a sense of community develops—we plan for it. And our small group ministry is the backbone of that plan. Small groups aren’t just another ministry at Harvest. Everything Harvest does is some form of a small group. Our Men’s Ministry, Women’s Ministry, Student Ministry, Recovery Ministry, Sports Ministry, etc., etc., are all built around the small group model. To participate in a ministry at Harvest is ultimately to participate in a small group. And to participate in a small group is to participate in the lives of fellow believers. As James has remarked on more than one occasion, “Everything at Harvest is a trick to get you into a small group.” Indeed.
Our small groups at Harvest begin with a time of study, which is followed by a “break-out” time where the men and women separate for accountability and prayer. Let me tell you, a lot of really serious business gets taken care of during these break-out times. Nothing brings people together like walking alongside one another in the midst of our common struggle to live in a way that honors our Lord. And community care also takes place via our small group ministry. Just yesterday I learned of a young couple in our church (not in a small group) going through a very difficult time. The wife lost her baby (would have been their first) on Monday due to a viral infection, and she is now in critical condition herself. I sent an e-mail to four of my small groups that live in their area and within hours we had a team of people mobilized to pray, bring meals, send cards and visit as needed.
In some ways, I think a smaller church can be lulled into a false sense of security when it comes to community. Just because you know everyone’s name doesn’t mean you know what’s really going on in their lives. Biblical community doesn’t just happen on its own, regardless of size. It takes intentionality, and a gracious “pressing into” of those around you. To be sure, this can happen outside the context of a formal small group ministry. I’m not saying Harvest’s way is the only way. But I do know that a church can’t just go with the flow in this area. As with all things vital to the Christian life, the flow of our world isn’t going the right direction.
I’m neutral on whether a church should be big or small; it should be no more or less than what God is blessing. But I do believe that every church, regardless of size, needs to be intentional about creating a context for meaningful connectedness. And I’ve experienced the reality that a big church—just as much as a smaller church—is capable of providing such a context.
How About If You Learn from My Mistakes As An Employer :)
I learned many wonderful things in Seminary but my ministry has certainly been impacted by the things I knew nothing about as I began in pastoral ministry and planted a church. For example I knew absolutely nothing about being an employer. I don’t want to make you overly negative but a little bit of sanctified cynicism will make you a better leader of your staff large or small. We now have well over 300 employees and I suppose almost a hundred more that have come and gone over a 20 year period. I am happier with our church staff and leadership structure than I have ever been and so I guess this is the safest possible time to share some things about church staffing I have had to learn the hard way.
1) People will be as they have been not as they say they want to be.
I should have spent a lot more time chasing down references prior to hiring. Most pastors are pretty relational and can quickly become attached to a warm person during the interview process. Looking back I often got caught up in who the person promised to be and what I hoped they would become. When I have made a hiring decision I regretted I must sadly admit that the warning signs were all there in the context of where they used to work. I am a lot more reluctant to blame a persons previous employment frustrations on their boss and much less likely to believe they will be different here than they have been elsewhere. That’s not cynicism, it’s just experience. Check as many references as possible and believe the people who say the hard things, not the references that smooth over whatever problems there were.
2) People who are resistant to management are mainly just resistant to work.
I wish I could count the number of times I got talked out of a measurable goal structure through an articulate argument from a specific staff member who claimed they could do far more work with far less structure. Not one time did that ever work out. People who resent goals resist work. People who don’t want to account for what they are doing, don’t do very much. People who believe that accountability stifles creativity eventually prove that lack of accountability stifles effort. I am sure there have been some exceptions to this rule in my experience but I don’t remember them.
3) People with personal agendas will eventually betray the common mission.
The youth pastor who claims to love youth but insists on release time to train other youth leaders around the country has already had his best days of local church ministry to students. Worship leaders that want to be recording artists need to go do that or at least admit that local church ministry is just a temporary necessity until their real passion becomes a full time gig. People who say they want to be on a staff forever and have no desire to pastor their own church will not feel like that forever. There is nothing wrong with people who want to do other things I just wish I had understood a lot earlier that competing agendas will always compete. If you choose to live with that fine; but I have had better success working with staff that had the mission of the church as their only agenda.
4) If it’s not working, it’s not going to work and needs to end.
I must confess that I have often over estimated my ability to change the behavior of others. When we have occasionally made a ‘bad hire’ we have never been able to turn it into a good one. If it’s bad now it will be worse in six months no matter what you do to change it. Better to execute on the hard decision once it becomes clear than to press for change in a way that causes the relationship to end badly instead of simply ending. Be clear and concise and generous in your terms of separation, but when the decision is clear don’t delay in making it.
5) Never Stop Believing in Your Staff.
Richard Strauss, the great bible teacher from Escondido, California, said this at a conference I attended as a young man; “Your staff are your greatest joy and your greatest heart ache.” I could not agree more. The pain of the few hires that don’t go well can easily eclipse the joy of the majority that do! I have had to work hard at continuing to trust and make myself vulnerable to new staff when the disappointment of past employees is echoing in the hall way. I have found that Senior Pastors feel this more acutely than the rest of the staff who seem a lot more resilient and able to move on after a painful transition. After 20 years in one church, the highest highs and the lowest lows have involved staff people. I am blessed to work with some of the most fruitful and tireless servants of Christ on this planet. Keeping that blessing in view brings healing from the past and hope for the future in serving Christ together.
In summary:
Hire slower, fire faster, manage more consistently, encourage more frequently, share your burdens more openly and trust your best people more completely. Listen to what references tell you and not as much to what people say about themselves. Hire the smarter person, hire the more passionate person, hire the more teachable person. Don’t hire the person with the reluctant spouse or the person with the personal agenda. People who over promise under deliver and people who are easily enamored will be just as easily disillusioned. As with all relationships in the body of Christ, keep your eyes on the Lord and your heart filled with faith; God is working on all of us.
Baptisms at Harvest Bible Chapel, December 2008
Most of the preaching that takes place at Harvest Bible Chapel is of the exegetical variety. James is currently in the middle of a series on 1 John, and a few weeks ago he came to chapter 4 where John talks about confessing Jesus as the Son of God. This text served as a great springboard into the subject of baptism, and James issued a call for baptism right in the middle of the service. If you’ve never been around for one of Harvest’s spontaneous baptism, it’s an amazing thing. What a great testimony of God’s grace. Between all four of our campuses, we had 347 people come forward to publicly confess Christ as their Lord and Savior. Below is a video clip our production team pulled together; hope it encourages your heart as much as it does ours!
The Same Elder Board for Twenty Years?
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Pastor? Scholar? Why Choose?
Athanasius, Augustine, Calvin, Luther, Wesley, Edwards—men whose enduring legacies have shaped the landscape of contemporary theological thought. Their reflection was deep, their intellect profound, their passion remarkable, and their influence vast. And these great thinkers not only impacted the intellectuals of their day, but were followed and admired by the laity as well. What was it about these men that established them as such significant theologians? What made them so effective in sparking revival, bolstering faith, and reforming the Church?
Though diverse in their theologies, all of these men shared a common and significant mark of distinction—they were churchmen. They were bishops and preachers, pastors and founders of denominations, shepherd of souls. Though not all of them were formally pastors in the sense we understand today, their social, theological, and intellectual life was inseparably woven into the fabric of parish ministry. They were practitioners as much as theologians. Living among the people for whom they wrote and thought, the press and weight of parish life drove the questions that their theology sought to answer. And they were loved by their people because they resided among them, and because the questions that panged the heart of their parishioners, panged also their own. They were churchmen first, and theologians second, and the former gave birth to the latter.
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When God Goes to Church
I’m getting ready to write a book on the church. It’s gone through countless edits in my head and has now escalated into an almost non-stop conversation between me and . . . well, I’m not sure who I’m talking to… hopefully you and not just myself.
I’m thinking of calling the book, When God Goes to Church! I don’t have a subtitle yet–maybe I don’t need one. I think at the end of the day, my message is this: we have to get back to vertical church. Somewhere along the line, well meaning people have hijacked the church. Some in the name of organizational excellence, some because they want to see more people coming to Christ, some because they feel the church has become too stale to actually reach this so-called postmodern audience, and some because of countless other motivations, good and bad, that I can’t think of right now.
Bottom line: at Harvest Bible Chapel we now have almost 20 years invested in the notion that church should not, better, must not be an audience-centered effort. NO MORE AUDIENCE-CENTERED CHURCH, unless of course we return to the biblical priority of God Himself being the audience. My thesis is that God simply does not attend most churches in America. He won’t work or manifest His presence in places where His Word is apologized for, His Son is polished and marketed, and His power is not sought in prayer or even anticipated. God does not attend churches where the gospel is watered down to a self-help pep talk about felt needs. God does not attend churches where Jesus’ crucified life is not proclaimed as the only hope for a fallen humanity. God does not attend churches where Bibles are not brought, and the gospel is reduced to a formula that a person can recite in 60 seconds. God does not attend churches where words, biblical words, like holiness, repentance, and Lordship are scrubbed from the vocabulary in an effort to . . . ? You may be able to get people to attend churches like that but God doesn’t show up much at all.
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