Category: Church Leadership

  • Conspicuous Thrift in Ministry

    You’ve probably heard of the economic theory of conspicuous consumption. Where people go $350,000 into debt to buy a house in the right neighborhood. It’s ultimately a lie because they just went into debt to prove how much they were worth.

    And the left-leaning Prius crowd has now lead to the study of a new theory called conspicuous conservation. People buy a Prius to look green. It’s ultimately a lie because just drinking less milk would be better for the environment than buying a hybrid vehicle. (Did you know that plenty of people install solar panels on the wrong side of their house just to be seen as green? Insane.)

    The general concept of both is that we are motivated to spend money on things that represent the person we’d like to be seen as being. Even if that’s not truly who we are. Trillions of dollars per year are spent (or indebted upon) because of these theories.

    Both of those got me thinking about the church and parachurch ministry world I live in. And, while very few of us have Bentley… or even Prius kind of money… many of us practice an economic theory I’d like to call, conspicuous thrift.

    We fall over ourselves to show how little money we’re making. And while many of us struggled at the beginning of our careers we are doing OK now. Sure, compared to a peer who owns a car dealership or is an accountant we can’t keep up.

    But we will do everything in our power to keep up the appearance of thrift.

    • I don’t go on a nice vacation unless someone from my church hooked me up with a timeshare in the Keys.
    • Vacation? Yeah, we can’t really afford that because we are so involved in short-term missions.
    • Yes, this is a nice grill. Thanks for saying that Tim. A guy from my church installed it for me as a gift.
    • I love golf but I only get to play when someone from church invites me. Plus, I’m super busy leading Bible studies.
    • Yes, our kids do attend a private Christian school. But I get a discount because I’m a pastor.
    • Yes, it is a new couch. I mean new to us. I got it off Craigslist.
    • We have student loans because I went to a private Christian college. But it was for ministry training.
    • I keep a very casual look, mostly from Kohl’s. Or the Salvation Army.

    You get the idea. But the reality is that the prevailing concept is that ministry people don’t ever want to be seen as high on the hog. And they’ll got to great effort to make sure they are seen as thrifty.

    I suppose we all have Jim & Tammy Faye to thank for this.

    [And certainly, most of my peers in youth ministry will roll their eyes because they actually do make so little money that those are aspirations and not conspicuous thrift.]

  • Christian Refugees

    Photo by Takver via Flickr (Creative Commons)

    Mid-City, the area of San Diego I live in, has long been a place where refugees start their new lives. Families have relocated here from war-torn African nations, fled the Khmer Rouge of Cambodia in the 1980s, or even escaped to here from extreme poverty in Central America.

    People from all over the world end up here to start over.

    Traumatized. Homesick. Hopeful. Confused. Off-balance. Grateful.

    Assimilation is both one of their greatest fears and one of their great hopes.

    Their lives are conflicted. Emotionally bouncing back and forth between hope and despair. They are here to seek a better life. But their hearts burn to go home and start a better life there.

    You Find Christian Refugees Everywhere

    There are lots of Christian refugees out there, too. People who grew up in church but fled somewhere along the way.

    You find them involved in local politics. Or coaching your kids soccer teams. Or living next door.

    They’ve fled the church. They’ve fled church culture and church life to seek a place where they could live out what they believed more than the church was comfortable with. All they wanted was to love God with everything they had and love their neighbors as themselves… but the church was hostile towards them. (Perceived or real) They didn’t fit the program. Or the mission. Or the pastor’s agenda.

    So they fled. They left quietly, found community elsewhere, and settled into a new life.

    They’ve rejected the abuse of the church but not Jesus. Disenfranchised but not disassociated.

    But they miss it. A piece of their life is empty. Just like the refugees who play soccer at the park down the street from me, they always hold out the simplest hope that they can one day return home. Reunited with the people they love without the fear of danger.

    When there is peace, they say– When there is something to return home to– they dream of returning.

    Church leadership is at fault

    Just like you can’t blame refugees leaving a country on the people fleeing, church leaders need to own the fact that they have caused a massive exodus from the church. Jesus tells us, his disciples, to call people to Himself. We need to quickly rectify our internal squabbles, give every person in our congregation a voice again, and go out to seek reconciliation with those who have fled.

    “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

    Matthew 5:9

    To make peace. We need to go out and make peace.

  • Homeless Teenagers Among Us

    [Video enclosed]

    The poverty rate for those under 18 will soon hit 25% in America.

    This video from 60 Minutes broke my heart yesterday. While riding the trolley to work I listened to the audio and wept.

    16 million kids in our country are currently living below the poverty line. That’s an increase of 2 million in just 2 years as families slip from “middle class” into poverty.

    It’s where you live. In your city, town, suburb, gated community, or rural area. And it’s people who never thought they’d struggle. And certainly never thought they’d become homeless.

    As the video shows, millions of kids are now homeless. We hear about foreclosures and we think of the housing market. We forget that those are also displaced people. Families who lost everything.

    5 Ways You and Your Church Can Respond

    As I listened to this story, I thought about how can the church NOT respond?

    I thought about how churches and youth ministries could easily do a few things that could make a big difference. Ministry life just can’t go on as normal with a quarter of the families in our community unsure where their next meal might come from, or unsure if they can stay in their apartment another month, or unsure if they can even keep their families together.

    It’s one thing to preach Good News. It’s another thing to actually be Good News.

    What are some things you can actually do?

  • Start a food closet. There isn’t a church door in America that doesn’t get knocked on every week asking for food. If your church doesn’t have a food closet, start one. If the church doesn’t want one, just start bringing non-perishable food items to church every time you visit. They’ll figure it out when it starts to pile up.
  • Get out of your car and look around. In your routine where you drive everywhere, you won’t ever see the problem among us. Stop driving everywhere! Commit to start walking or riding a bike, and you’ll see things you never thought existing in your community. It’ll do your heart good.
  • Take a family in. There’s a part in the 60 Minutes piece above where they say that most families foreclosed on move into a neighbor or family members house. I know it’s easier to pretend you don’t see what’s happening. But a lot of people in a lot of churches have more bedrooms than people in their homes. Maybe you’ve got a big crib for a reason?
  • Convert some classrooms into temporary housing. It’s sickening how many churches have so much space that goes unused for 6.5 out of 7 days. Spend a tiny amount of money to convert under-utilized space into temporary housing for families so they don’t get split up. Convert a bathroom stall to a shower, buy some used basic furniture, and allow families a place to regroup for 60-90 days.
  • Open your youth room 5 days per week after school. There are some things that are so simple to do, yet we don’t do it because we get hung up by thinking too small. It would cost you nothing to have a volunteer staff your youth room after school every day from 2:30 – 5:00 PM. Hang some signs up at the middle and high schools. You already have space, just make it available to kids who need a safe and quiet place to study overseen by a caring adult.

    • How about you? What are some things you can do, as an individual or as a church, in the next 30 days?

  • Baptism Video

    I love the joy on folks faces as they come out of the water! What’s not to celebrate about such a big step of faith?

    One of the cool parts about being close to the ocean is that churches don’t need a baptismal. You can just tell everyone to meet you at the beach. 

    Speaking of baptism… I guess I’m kind of famous for one I made about 4 years ago. It was one of those things that was a funny concept but I don’t think I’d do again.

    I like the one from Journey this weekend a whole lot better.

    How does your church celebrate baptism?

  • Competitive Advantage

    This clip from Tin Cup highlights the differences between an amateur and a tour professional. 

    Whether you are a casual golfer or a week-to-week preacher in a church. You and the guy on tour are fundamentally different in how you approach your craft.

    What you do is similar! But how you approach it and how it’s carried out are completely different.

    As the movie shows, the tour pro takes calculated risks, repeating the same simple winning swing over and over again, week-to-week, tour stop to tour stop.

    Whereas the casual golfer, even the aspiring professional, has to take greater risks to see lesser rewards, often swinging wildly and taking big risks in hopes that it’ll pay off.

    Having been around PGA and Champions Tour players as a tour volunteer I know that there are a lot of differences between their game and your game. 

    • They will hit +/- 1000 practice balls per day. (Driving range, sand, putting green, chipping)
    • They are surrounded by people who advise them on their game all the time. (People who know what they’re talking about, too.)
    • They only play on courses at the top of their condition. The greenskeeper at a Tour stop builds his whole growth cycle around that week.
    • They have a caddy with them who does all of the math and can tell them exact distances and best approaches to every shot on the golf course.
    • The TV cameras only show the best players on shots that have been edited. Each minute during a tournament 40-50 players take a swing, you only see the best of the best.

    I’m a 12 handicapper on my own. But I guarantee you that if you put me on that stage, in those conditions, with that practice… I’d look a whole lot better than I do normally. Give me a week with those set of circumstances and I’d break 80.

    It’s not that they don’t have skill or talent. It’s that their skill has been put on display in the best possible conditions for them to look good. (They would argue that they rose to this spot just like everyone else. Sure, they take advantage today. But they got to that point with nothing but hard work and rising through the amateur, college, and mini-tour ranks. Fair enough.)

    It’s that the game they play is similar, but completely different from the game I play with my friends. It’s set up for them to look good.

    What’s my point?

    A lot of times we go to a conference, camp, retreat, or a convention and we see a tour pro on their best day, in the best conditions, absolutely NAIL a talk. And we walk away thinking… “Why do I even bother?!? I’ll never be that good. Why not just buy that dude’s DVDs and play them at my church each week?”

    But before you get upset or lament realize this: The talk you’ve just heard has likely been delivered dozens of times. It’s been critically reviewed by an inner circle. It’s been refined, they know when to drop what line, they know how to adapt it to your setting. They have only booked themselves at events they know they’ll play well to. The lighting, sound, and environmental conditions are tailored to their strengths and weaknesses. A professional band set them up. Someone else introduced them. At best, their talk has 1-2 calculated moments of risk.

    It’s not that they are better than you. It’s that given the conditions their talents are amplified and you’re able to see them at their absolute best.

    In the end… the act of speaking at a conference is similar to what you do on a week-to-week basis, but completely different at the same time. They are only thinking about that talk. They didn’t drive the van to the retreat. They don’t have to give a new talk each week. On and on. It’s completely different from what you or I do on a week-to-week basis in our ministry.

    Here’s the fun part: Just like in the movie– you could tell that the tour pros got a kick out of the caddy hitting the big shot on the big stage. There’s a little glimmer in their eye when you take a big risk. They kind of wish they could do it, too. 

  • Hire where you want to grow

    One of my many roles at Youth Specialties is to oversee the YS job bank. While it isn’t the fanciest job hunting service in the world countless people have found their ministry jobs through the site.

    The hiring process, for many churches, reveals the pendulum problem. They aren’t looking for the best candidate for their church. They are looking for someone who isn’t like the last person.

    I’ve read thousands of descriptions over the years. And I can quickly translate a position description into a description of their previous youth pastor. Churches use a code language that they think is clever but is easily translated.

    A fictional example of a position description:

    First Presbyterian Church – Youth Director

    FPC is a family-friendly congregation serious about the raising the next generation of believers in Anywhere, US. We are seeking an individual to oversee and direct our thriving youth ministry program of 7-12 grade students. Duties will include teaching Sunday school, overseeing midweek Bible studies, planning regular activities with the emphasis on developing the ministries effectiveness. Qualified candidates will possess at least 5 years experience in working on a multiple staff team in a youth ministry role, a Masters degree from a denominationally approved college or university, and a desire to seek ordination within the Fictional Presbyterian Church.

    What we know about the previous youth director from this position description:

    First Presbyterian Church – former youth director, Cindy Johnson

    Cindy was single. (e.g. Not family-friendly) As a former YoungLife staff person she was passionate about students… just not the ones whose parents give a lot of money to the church. (e.g. Serious about raising the next generation at FPC’s kids) She probably did a good job teaching Sunday school, (e.g. The new person can still do that) wasn’t that involved in midweek teaching, (e.g. overseeing is code for “will be there and run it”) and Cindy’s cardinal sin was that she planned activities that were fun and easy to run… but weren’t tied together so that parents could tell what she was trying to do. (e.g. emphasis on developing the ministries effectiveness.) Cindy was focused on youth ministry and never really had her heart in staff meetings for things that weren’t about her job. And the pastor’s wife was highly offended that Cindy RSVP’d “No” to her Christmas Tea, choosing to fly home to spend the holidays with her family instead. (e.g. at least 5 years experience on a multi-staff team.) Cindy got the job right after graduating from her undergrad and left to pursue an MDiv at a non-denominational seminary. (e.g. People were always suspicious of her Baptist roots, anyway. They knew she wasn’t really Presbyterian all along because she didn’t like the bag pipes.)

    That’s how the pendulum swings. And it carries right into the interview process with candidates walking away scratching their heads. “Why did they ask me so many questions about my personal finances?” Um, because the last person sucked with money. “Why did they ask me questions about my musical preferences?” Um, because they want to know if you’ll help lead the worship team. “Why did they ask me about my philosophy of parent ministry?” Um, because the parents hated the previous person and got them fired.

    They aren’t interviewing you, per se. They are interviewing to make sure you aren’t anything like the previous person.

    For untrained people often left to do the hiring… it’s human nature. Want something different? Bam. We’ll give you different. We had Cindy, now we have Tom and Janet and their six kids. Tom’s been a youth pastor for 15-years at various churches, is ordained in the denomination, and has an MDiv from the Presbyterian seminary as well as a Masters in Non-Profit Business Administration.

    I give Tom 2 years until that pendulum turns into a wrecking ball.

    What’s a better strategy?

    Simple. Hire where you want to see growth. The leader a ministry hires should reflect and be prepared to take you where you can’t, don’t know how, or won’t go without them.

  • Inhibitions to the spread of the Gospel in your community

    The church is decreasing in America while our population continues to expand. One major factor contributing to this decline is how Christians think about themselves and their community of faith in the greater community in which they interact. This “self-talk” internally acts as a mental inhibition towards the innovation and creativity we need to reach lost people with the good news of Jesus Christ.

    Here’s some examples of inhibitions:

    • There’s nothing new under the sun. Really? I hear this dismissive tone nearly every time a new idea is floated. While there are certainly many, many who just redress the same pig and expect a different award at the fair– there are also tons of brand new ideas out there. In fact, the rate at which new information about our world is gathered, disseminated, and implemented continues to accelerate. There are actually new things discovered under the sun every second of every day.
    • People aren’t interested in Jesus. To the contrary every study reveals a wide gap between those claiming Christ and those actively involved in fellowship with other believers. While the gap changes based on the studies you read, let’s ballpark it at 20% of the United States population. That’s 61.4 million people in America who are walking around identifying themselves with Christ but are disconnected from the Christian community. When Jesus said the fields are white for the harvest he wasn’t kidding. Literally, 1:5 people you will meet today already call themselves a Christian but just need to get connected. (John 4:35)
    • I am not an evangelist. Good! People desperately need community. And people with microphones selling Jesus scare almost everyone. The good news is that the Holy Spirit is the best evangelist ever. Your job isn’t to tell every person about Jesus and ask them to receive Christ. Jesus said the two most important things you can do are to love your neighbor as yourself and love God with all your heart, soul, and mind. (Matthew 22:33-35) Anyone can do that, right?
    • I’m not a pastor. Cool, neither was Jesus. He was a carpenter and a lay teacher– A blue collar regular guy like you or I who went to work every day. He didn’t have a church to invite people to. If the last 50 years of church decline have taught us anything it’s that the “If you build it, they will come” strategy can’t reach an additional 20% of a growing population. We can’t build fast enough.
    • People don’t want to come to church with me. Who said they need to go to church? Giving your heart to Jesus and finding community with other believers doesn’t mean people have to join a church. You can form a community of believers who hate church right in your house. Who knows? As they discover that you aren’t a tool, maybe they’ll want to be a part of church later? And maybe that group of church haters in your house will grow… and become a church?

    What are other inhibitions, mental blocks, that are impacting the spread of the Gospel in your community?

  • Committee Meetings – A Cartoon

    Click image to see full-sized version

  • Leaders Take You Where You Would Otherwise Not Go Alone

    This is the story of Corporal Sidney Manning of Butler County, Alabama

    July 28th, 1918 – Near Breuvannes, France

    When his platoon commander and platoon sergeant had both become casualties soon after the beginning of an assault on strongly fortified heights overlooking the Ourcq River, Cpl. Manning took command of his platoon, which was near the center of the attacking line. Though himself severely wounded he led forward the 35 men remaining in the platoon and finally succeeded in gaining a foothold on the enemy’s position, during which time he had received more wounds and all but 7 of his men had fallen. Directing the consolidation of the position, he held off a large body of the enemy only 50 yards away by fire from his automatic rifle. He declined to take cover until his line had been entirely consolidated with the line of the platoon on the front when he dragged himself to shelter, suffering from 9 wounds in all parts of the body.

    Source

    You aren’t a leader because of your rank, Corporal Manning had none.

    You aren’t a leader because you went to school, he only went to basic training. You aren’t a leader because you write a book on leadership. Or because an organization calls you its leader. Or because your daddy was a leader. Or because you aspire to be a leader.

    You are a leader when you take people where they would otherwise not go alone.

    When the plan falls apart. When the bad news comes. When fear takes hold. When the enemy is advancing. When there is no where to go but the scary, dangerous place. When what needs to get done is dangerous.

    Only then will you find out who the leader is. He or she looks you in the eye and says, “I will take you where we need to go.”

    That’s a leader.

    Accept no imitation.

  • What the Fall of Jim Tressel Has to do with Pastors

    Jim Tressel went from hero to zero in 12 months.

    Winning had bought Tressel respect in the state of Ohio. First at Youngstown State and then on the national stage at Ohio State.

    As the success increased so did Tresell’s insulation from everyday scrutiny. In the eyes of fans and the administration he could do no wrong. Certainly there were warning signs everywhere. Most notably was Maurice Clarett. As a freshmen, Clarett help the Buckeyes win the 2002 National Championship. But was soon overcome by scandal, eventually being dismissed from the university. There would be others. But none were as vocal or with the national voice that Clarett garnered.

    All the while Tressel’s name stayed out of the spotlight. Clarett was a bad kid from the wrong part of town while Tressel was the misunderstood golden child. This would be the response to every allegation to come. Tressel was unaware of the problem and offenders were dishonest, bad kids.

    Off and on Ohio State players were punished for infractions of NCAA rules. But Columbus is a one-horse town and no journalist dared to take on what everyone was seeing– lots and lots of NCAA infractions. With all of the success in the football program there was lots and lots of money flowing. No one inside of Columbus was going to blow the whistle and risk their livelihood. Everyone claimed Tressel knew nothing.

    The wheels began to fall off nationally during the 2010 season as allegations surfaced that some players had sold or traded some memorabilia in exchange for tattoos. Suddenly, the spotlight was on the program to discover what was really going on. 5 players were suspended for 5 games in the 2011 season by Tressel. This was quickly followed up by a self-imposed 5 game suspension that Tressel took. The spin was that he chose to do it this way so that the players would see that he was the kind of leader who took it on the chin when he got in trouble.

    Fans of Ohio State bought it. (And even revered him more for his valiant leadership.) But the national media and non-OSU fans smelled the rotting corpse of a cover-up in the trunk of Tressel’s trophy room.

    It all crashed down a few weeks ago as Tressel stepped down when tipped off that Sports Illustrated was about to publish their investigation which revealed systemic violations over and 8 year period. The article documents that Tressel wasn’t ignorant of all of the violations. Instead, he was often involved in the cover-up, and in some instances actually orchestrated inappropriate benefits for players and their families.

    Even in his resignation Tressel maintain his arrogant posture. He pretended to fall on his sword and say his resignation was not an admission of guilt but to protect the reputation of the university he loved.

    It won’t work. While Ohio State fans are living in denial. The NCAA will act and the punishments will be severe. There’s a good chance that the NCAA may actually shut the program down for 1-2 years as a result of the systemic problems. In all likelihood, since he’ll have to serve suspensions earned while at OSU at any future NCAA job, Tressel is out of college football for life.

    It is a sad ending to anyone’s career. But was also entirely of his own doing.

    Preventing Tresselgate as a Church Leader

    We live in a time where church leaders are put on pedestals similar to that of Jim Tressel. (At least in Evangelical circles) People identify with their pastor so strongly that it’s not uncommon to associate the name of the church with the name of the pastor. People go to Rick Warren’s church, Bill Hybel’s church, Andy Stanley’s church, Rob Bell’s church, Joel Osteen’s church, Mark Driscoll’s church, John Piper’s church, etc. It’s completely ridiculous that we do that, but we do.

    A dangerous double-edged sword. On the one hand the church benefits from the notoriety of their pastor. On the other the notoriety of the pastor is the largest threat the organization faces to its present reality and future success of large organizations. The net result is that the pastor lives in a protected bubble. That doesn’t mean he can do no wrong. It just means that if he does wrong everyone in his life is going to do whatever they can to keep that from the public since his failure impacts their financial security.

    Practically speaking, how do we prevent Tresselgate?

    1. Leadership Transparency- I’m all about elder rule in a church. And I’m all about staff teams largely governing their day-to-day operations. But elder meetings should not meet behind closed doors with no ability for anyone in the church to intimately know what’s going on, ask questions when appropriate, and foster a sense of transparency. Likewise, the elders should be congregationally selected and scrutinized as overseers of the congregation and the staff. (The staff can’t pick elders– That’s illogical for their role as overseers.) And their meetings should be open to the general public. Just like municipal boards they should have open and closed sessions. But reserve closed sessions exclusively for personnel and legal matters.
    2. Whistle blowers protected- In most secular work environments there is some level of protection for staff who blow the whistle on inappropriate behavior. The #1 reason this got so big at Ohio State was that no one in the athletic department blew the whistle on Tressel’s years of stuff going on. (The SI article documents this well.) There is no protection for church staff. If little things get dealt with without fear of reprisal they don’t escalate to big things later. A little bit of money miss-spent, a little bit of power abused… that’s just life and can be dealt with. But not dealing with it creates a snowball effect that will one day destroy the entire mission.
    3. Time off from the platform- Early in my leadership development a mentor taught me that leadership prowess wasn’t determined by what happened when I was there. She measured my performance as a leader by what happened with my team when I wasn’t there. We need to create that environment in the church today. It’s great to have figurehead leaders who are amazing communicators. But if those people are truly leaders of a movement of God, they will be measured by their ability to put others in their place. Andy Stanley had a nice-sounding sermon a few years ago built on the premise, “What do you do when you are the most powerful person in the room?” The answer to that question is to be like Jesus and disperse the power to your disciples… and then step away. The power of Jesus’ church isn’t central leadership. It’s that it’s empowered every person to be a priest with direct access to the Father! We need to affirm the priesthood of all believers and get our leaders off the platform.
    4. Don’t believe the hype about yourself- I don’t believe any church leader wants to be on a pedestal. Any “powerful” church leader I’ve ever met is wholly uncomfortable with the reverence they receive. It seems to me that gross failures happen when the person starts to believe the hype about themselves. Fundamental to the problem is that many of these people are the most successful people they know. God blessed them and it just happened. If you find yourself on a pedestal do whatever it takes to find some friends where you are an absolute nobody. It’ll do your soul good.
    5. Cheaters never prosper- Eventually, whatever it is that you are hiding will be public. Plausible deniability never works for long. The best thing you can do is to operate a clean program… even if that means you win less.

    What are other ways you think church leaders can prevent Tresselgate from destroying their ministry?