Jeff and I get asked to speak once in awhile to groups of pastors and church leaders, and there is a question that we are always, inevitably asked:
What's the number 1 issue facing small church pastors? After 4 years of doing this podcast and talking to pastors from all over the world, we've heard about nearly every issue a pastor could face. Financial struggle. Disgruntled members. Sexual temptation. The list goes on. But there is one constant issue that we hear time and time again, and that is that small church pastors feel lonely and isolated. It's one thing to know the problem and another thing completely to offer a solution, and our guests today understand both. Tim and Barb Claxton are coaches who work with pastors across the country. The main issue they say they see? Loneliness. On today's podcast, they talk about that issue among others and offer some hope to struggling pastors. In fact, Tim and Barb were so excited to work with pastors that they've offered up a special coaching package specifically for our 200churches listeners. They have five openings for a 3-month coaching package - and if you email them during this month of January, 2017, they will offer you a 3-month coaching package for $300, where you will have two 45-minute coaching calls each month. Email them at info@fulfillyourdestinycoaching.com. If you are mired in loneliness and/or isolation, we want you to know that there is hope. We would encourage you to connect with a coach or other pastors or even shoot us here at 200churches an email. Because what you're doing is important, and you deserve all the support in the world. Two resources we would point you toward is one of our blog posts titled 5 Ways To Tell If You're An Isolated Pastor, and a conversation Carey Nieuwhof had with us on his podcast, The Carey Nieuwhof Leadership Podcast titled, What Smaller Church Pastors Need And Why. Again, email Tim and Barb at info@fulfillyourdestinycoaching.com or visit their website at www.fulfillyourdestinycoaching.com. God bless you Pastors! See you next Wednesday! Jonny (and Jeff)
John and Dianne Finkelde pastored in their church in Australia for 30 years! To say they have seen it all would be an understatement. When John transitioned out of his church three years ago, he began GrowAHealthyChurch.com.
John and Di consult with and coach pastors and pastors' wives, as well as church leadership at every level. They do onsite consults, online consults, Skype pastoral coaching, etc. You can check out their site at www.growahealthychurch.com, where you can find some free resources and everything else they offer. Jonny and Jeff caught up with John early this week and talked to him about life and ministry. With his Aussie accent, he is a delight to listen to, but a blast to learn from! He gives some very practical and important content that any pastor at any level can put into practice this week! In this episode John talks with the guys at some length, giving very practical coaching on four issues : visitors to your church, how to handle the issue of finances/giving, how to evaluate your ministry at every level, and managing yourself as pastor for long term sustainability. DOUG'S BACK TO COLLEGE, AND JEFF & JONNY ARE BACK IN THE STUDIO! With Jeff's son Douglas back at college, (which was a miracle of God and thank you for praying!) Jeff and Jonny are back in the luxurious and opulent 200churches Podcast Studio this week - recording three episodes in this first week of the year. They are moving and grooving with plans already in motion to upgrade the studio and expand what they offer to pastors of small churches this year. They wrote last Friday that their two main goals are to reach more small church pastors, and serve and encourage them even better this year. Let this first episode of the year be an indication of the quality you can expect every single week, Lord willing of course, in 2015! Enjoy this episode, as our gift of encouragement to you! As you pastor your church, we salute you as a man or woman of God, called to love and serve him by shepherding, feeding, and leading his Flock. Jesus died for them, and you live to love and serve them. May God bless you, your walk with him, your family, and your church ministry this year!
Today is the first time I have recorded without Jonny on the podcast... anywhere! This is a sad day, but Dave Jacobs and I rally to make it to the end of the episode. I sat on the overstuffed sofa in the 200churches Podcast studio and the picture below is what I saw. An empty chair. No Jonny. Very sad. Seriously, it was fairly terrible doing the podcast alone. Jonny was literally too sick to record. But, he will likely be back next week, and I can't wait.
Have you ever seriously considered using a pastoral coach? Maybe you should, if you:
Dave Jacobs specializes in coaching pastors of small churches at SmallChurchPastor.com. Perhaps you should check him out. He is extremely affordable and very successful in helping those he coaches in all of the above areas.
This episode is a special one! It features a pastor of a 200church, and two of his Deacons - the first Deacons to speak on the 200churches Podcast! We are honored!
Pastor Mark Meyers is the pastor of Grace Bible Church in Warrenton, MO. The ministry leaders with him on this episode are Tory and Steve. These guys, with their families, are part of the Grace Bible congregation, and they are also part of the leadership team at Grace. You will hear some very cool stuff from all three of these guys that will encourage you and challenge you as you lead in your 200church. Jonny and I had a blast talking with these guys, and when we were done recording, we spent some time just talking about our own church here in Iowa, and how we could integrate some of what we learned from Mark, Steve, and Tory. Rather than writing a bunch of blather (is that what our blog posts are?!) we're just going to let you listen to episode #70 yourself. Plus, here are a number of pictures of the guys in their natural habitat, doing family and doing ministry. Together. When we started 200churches, this is exactly what we envisioned - thousands of pastors being encouraged and challenged by other pastors doing ministry in the trenches just like they are. Enjoy the pictures, and thank you to Mark, Steve, and Tory! Slideshow disclaimer: some captions may have been written tongue-in-cheek!Jonny and I were talking this week about how different mentorship is today from thirty years ago. I had listened to a podcast episode on Entrepreneur On Fire, episode 467. John Lee Dumas talks with Norm Bour about how the generations interact. It’s a fascinating conversation that you could listen to here. As I listened to it, I thought of Jonny and me. I am a baby boomer, and he is a millennial. We have forged a wonderful partnership. We both have strengths and weaknesses. Hopefully we complement each other, at least generationally. He has an understanding of his culture and a desire to change the world. I have experience and wisdom, and a desire to change the oil every 3K miles. Okay, and the world!
But seriously now folks… there are some very obvious differences between mentorship today and mentorship thirty years ago. Here are three: The first of the obvious differences in mentorship between today and thirty years ago is the ability for mentoring to go both ways. When I was twenty, my mentor would tell me what was up. He would tell me how things were, what I should think, do, say, and how I should act. He told me what to believe and, if I was lucky, why. I was the mentee, the newbie, the greenhorn, the Mr. Wet-Behind-The-Ears. I was just supposed to listen, and learn. Today, millennials can mentor up. We allow that. We let them. The boomers know that they don’t know everything, and they allow the millennials to mentor them in areas where they themselves are sharp. This humility on the part of the mentor is a very good thing. It allows both parties to go, as Andy Stanley says, further faster. A second difference is that we don’t expect millennials to be perfect. We want them to make mistakes. Doggone it, we expect them to! We know they will, and when they do, it’s okay. And they don’t expect us as mentors to be perfect either. It’s all good here – we learn from each other’s successes and failures. It’s okay, we don’t even have to take a chill pill! Thirty years ago weakness and failure was a bad thing. You wanted, and needed, to get it right. That kind of pressure is much less today. A third difference is that the Internet has leveled the playing field. We both have enormous access to unlimited information. We don’t have all the special tapes, workbooks, and handouts in our office waiting to let them out piecemeal to our mentees. Nope. They have it all already. It’s all online. So the playing field is quite level in terms of information access and appropriation. So, mentoring goes both ways, neither of us has to be perfect, and we both have unlimited access to information and growth. How about your mentoring relationships? Maybe you don’t even use the “mentor” vocabulary, and that’s okay. How are you doing training and raising up the next generation of leaders? Can I encourage you to engage the millennials? Get to know them, work with them, and learn from them. It’s truly a great partnership – one that will keep your 200church from stagnancy and complacency, and if you're like Jonny and me, it will provide a few fireworks as well!
In 2014 we are partnering with three ministry leaders who are going to join us once a month on the podcast. One year ago this week, when we recorded our first podcast episode (which by the way, never actually got recorded, since we did not have a memory card in the mp3 recorder! LOL) we had no idea how many fantastic people we would get to know, let alone have the pleasure of partnering with!
One of those partners is with us on this week's podcast - Dave Jacobs, from SmallChurchPastor.com. Dave coaches pastors and church boards toward optimal ministry health. He is not just a pastor's coach, but a huge cheerleader of pastors. The biggest problem with Dave Jacobs is that there is only one of him - other than that, he is a great guy and huge builder of pastors. On this, Episode 53, we talk about what we think is the absolute #1 priority of every small church pastor on the planet. This priority is essential if we are going to both survive ministry and be effective at it. We believe that the health of our souls is the #1 priority for us in ministry. The soul health of a pastor is his or her single greatest source of ministry passion, power, and energy. If your soul is sick or weak, you will not be able to shepherd, feed, and lead in a manner that your people need you to. How's your soul Pastor? Really? We are calling Dave's segment "In the Locker Room" because Dave, for a living, coaches small church pastors. We are the players, he is the coach, and he wants all of us 200church pastors to WIN! So, when you listen to this episode, think of yourself as being "in the Locker Room" with Coach Jacobs. Then take his coaching out onto the court - and put the ball through the hoop! We are also excited that Dave is writing a book. It's not finished yet. The title will be something along the lines of: A Mile Wide and an Inch Deep - Soul Care for Busy Pastors. We think that this book is so needed by all of us pastors. As we always say, pastors can never get too much encouragement. That's why we started 200churches. We want to encourage and support - build up and inspire, pastors of small churches... 200churches. While his book is in process, Dave has a number of very moderately priced resources for pastors and church boards. Check them out here. Maybe it's time to focus on one of these areas and resources in your church ministry in 2014? So enjoy this episode with Coach Jacobs! Find Dave at SmallChurchPastor.com and at his blog, DaveJacobs.net. God bless you as you love and lead your people. Never forget: your ministry in your 200church, no matter the size, is impacting the Kingdom of God!
We are one week away from Christmas, so... Merry Christmas to all!! In today's podcast we listen to a short, three minute, leftover clip from our conversation with Dave Jackson, from SchoolofPodcasting.com. Jonny tells Dave how 200churches started almost one year ago. We began in January, and in December we are going strong - and that is a rockin' feelin!! In this podcast, and in light of starting a new year, we talk about things we should start, and things we should stop...
We talk about two things in this podcast that we want to link to:
A blog post from January that talks about the Lone Ranger... well, after looking, it actually does not mention the Lone Ranger, but it does talk about getting others involved through delegation! A YouTube video with Bob Newhart called: Stop It!! Here is an outline of today's episode, but as usual, there is so much more in the actual audio! What to START, and what to STOP! 1. What do you need to STOP in the New Year? so that you can ask the second question... 2. What do you need to START in the New Year? Let's think about the FIRST question, What do you need to STOP in 2014? How will you stop it? (You need to define "it")
UPCOMING PODCAST EPISODES: Christmas Day - Part 5 of our conversation with Dan Reiland on the message of his book Amplified Leadership. Dan will be joining us every last Wednesday of the month throughout 2014. Dan brings very practical leadership teaching for pastors of small churches. Dan is the "Pastor's Coach" and writes a newsletter by that name for Injoy and John Maxwell. Read a recent Pastor's Coach article called "Big Ministry In Small Churches" Here is how Injoy.com describes the Pastor's Coach Newsletter: Pastor's Coach is designed to refresh, encourage, and equip pastors as they rise to the challenges in the church. Written by executive pastor and leadership development specialist Dan Reiland, Pastor's Coach addresses the thorny issues facing ministry leaders, and offers valuable advice to help pastor's lead effectively. Pastor's Coach puts pastoring in perspective, and offers a much needed reminder as to why ministering in the church is such an admirable calling. At INJOY, we have a deep respect for pastors and an appreciation for the care they provide. Pastor's Coach is one small way we can say thank you! You can sign up to receive Dan's Pastor's Coach digital articles for free here! New Year's Day - On the first Wednesday of every month we will be joined by Pastor Karl Vaters from NewSmallChurch.com, and Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, CA. On January 1, 2014 the topic of the podcast will be on chapter one of his book, The Grasshopper Myth - Big Churches, Small Churches, and the Small Thinking that Divides us. We will talk about the importance of how we view ourselves as pastors of small churches. Hey, are we really okay with that??
Our gratitude goes to Dave Jackson, from the School of Podcasting, who took the time to talk with two podcasting newbies and offered encouragement, support, and affirmation. We only include a third of our conversation with Dave, which lasted almost an hour and a half. Dave spent the time to get to know us, coach us by giving us some podcasting tips, and just generally converse on small church ministry, life, and all things podcasting.
This is a very fun conversation that we think will encourage you in your life and ministry. He offers a critical analysis of the difference between his large church and small church experiences - so we say - "let's learn from what he says and seek to be better pastors, period." His evaluations really apply to churches of all sizes as we seek to love people, connect them to God, and graft them into Kingdom community. Thanks Dave, for being a real friend to so many in the podcasting and Christian communities. You can also find Dave at www.feedingmyfaith.org as he shares his spiritual journey with his listeners on the Feeding My Faith Podcast. Here is the latest episode of Feeding My Faith at the time of this posting. And... you can find him as the co-host, with Ray Ortega, on The Podcaster's Roundtable, a video and audio podcast where Ray and Dave are normally joined by Daniel J. Lewis from The Audacity to Podcast, as well as one or two other Roundtable podcasters they invite to talk with them. Here is their Podcaster's Roundtable YouTube Channel with all of their video shows. Episode Note: Jonny was late joining Dave and I in our conversation, so I, as usual, mock him just a bit when he shows up. The real story is that he was being a good husband and father while Dave and I were shirking our responsibilities! :) This week on the podcast, we talked with Dave Jacobs who has dedicated his life to coaching pastors, and especially pastors of 200churches. If you haven't listened yet, quit reading this right now and listen. Seriously. Have you listened yet? Good. How awesome was that?! Dave gets right to the heart of the issue and with so much compassion and understanding, tells us what we already know: being a pastor is tough. It's tough emotionally, spiritually, and physically. Because of the difficult nature of the job, it's important that pastors take care of themselves. Not just for their own sake, but also for the sake of their families, congregations, and communities. We pastors need to be healthy. One of the craziest moments on the podcast came when Dave suggested that pastors schedule themselves around 35 hour work weeks. Say what?! His reasoning makes sense though: we already know that as pastors, we'll have at least 5 hours of unscheduled time come up here and there throughout the week. That's the nature of being "on-call" and, for many pastors, that's the part of the job that we enjoy the most.
Because of that unscheduled time, Dave encourages all the pastors he coaches to schedule themselves 35 hours in a week. Why? Because being a pastor can really take it out of you! We take "work" home with us, send emails on the go, talk to our spouses about the latest goings on at the church, and generally carry the spiritual burden of the church 24/7. If we're not careful, we can start to work 50, 60, or even 70+ hours a week! That's bad for our health and definitely bad for the health of those around us. This is something that we at 200churches have to work on too, and begin to practice what we preach. Our schedules can get away from us and soon we can't even separate "ministry" time from "free" time. But even in our own weakness, we've found some practices that help: 1. Set a routine and refuse to break it! - Maybe your routine is to head to the office at 7 AM and leave no later than 4. Maybe it's insisting that you won't be out of the house more than two nights a week. Maybe it's that you take every Friday off. We're all different and our schedules and routines will look different. The goal isn't to fit yourself into a pre-made schedule box, but rather to refuse to jump out of the box you've created for yourself. 2. Limit the hours you work every week - Maybe this means you turn off your iPhone when you get home at night. Or maybe it means going in later to work if you know you're going to be there late. Dave talked about the 35 hour week and we think you should take that advice to heart. Quit working so many hours. The ministry will be there when you get back. 3. Ask your spouse/kids what they think your schedule should be - Is this a scary thought? If you're worried about what your spouse or kids might tell you, you're probably already working too hard. Dave listed off the priorities of a pastor like this: 1. God 2. Spouse 3. Kids 4. Ministry. What does your list look like? If you're not sure, ask your family, they'll know. While this list can't be lived literally, the priorities of life should be reflected in that order. Once you've developed a healthy schedule, you can actually start to schedule yourself some health. Take a monthly retreat. Seriously, do it. As small church pastors and leaders, we have a responsibility to take care of ourselves and our relationship with Christ. A better work schedule should lead to a better sleep schedule. A better meal schedule. A better exercise schedule. We're not telling you to become health nuts, but we are encouraging you to at least be healthy leaders. So what did you think of the podcast this week? Were you inspired to call Dave and get some coaching for yourself? Lets us know what you think in the comments. We always love to hear from you!
This, is a no-holds barred, very honest, tête-à-tête between three, not two, pastors! We talk about the things that rattle a pastor's personal cage. These are things that we wish we had a handle on, and they all revolve around self-care and soul-care. How do we take care of ourselves? Better, do we?
Dave Jacobs from SmallChurchPastor has spent almost 30 years in ministry and today, from his home in Oregon, works full time coaching pastors and boards, mostly from small churches. Dave works with pastors of all size churches, but he specializes in small churches.
When we found Dave, we quickly invited him to join us on the podcast, because we knew he would share a ton of encouragement with all of you, our 200church pastor friends! So this "post" is very short, because we want you to enjoy this, our longest episode yet. Listen to it in two or three segments, but listen to it - because we know you are going to be both challenged and encouraged! Finally, be sure to check out SmallChurchPastor.com, because Dave has a ton of resources, some free, and some too good to give away! I especially like the resources he uses as he works with church boards to help you as a pastor in your leadership. This website is a treasure trove of help for pastors of small churches - take a look! We are not affiliate marketers for Dave, we're just smart - we know a good thing when we see it! Links that are all about Dave! www.davejacobs.net www.smallchurchpastor.com Dave's Church Board Training Modules My Best Leadership Training Curriculum dave@smallchurchpastor.com Twitter: @thinkmonk Books by Eugene Peterson that Dave references: The Contemplative Pastor - Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness Working The Angles - The Shape of Pastoral Integrity Five Smooth Stones for Pastoral Work |
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