So many times us pastors end up doing ministry alone. We don’t mean to, we’ve just gotten really good at it.
Here are five reasons why we think you should not do ministry alone:
You are facing a new church/school year. You are planning for the fall. You are ramping up for a new ministry year. For the sake of your people and your community, and for the glory of God, don’t do ministry alone! Enjoy the company of the Savior who loves you and wants to live his grace through you – into the lives of your people. Paul said, “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me” (Gal. 2:20) You are a pastor, a servant of the Living and Almighty God – an ambassador of the Savior of the world. Whoever you have to minister to this weekend, do so with all of your heart. And do it with Jesus. Pastor, our prayer for you is “Father, would you use us this weekend, and would you allow each of us to love our people with the love that you have for us? Please encourage each pastor in the way that he or she needs to be encouraged and built up. May they know the confidence that comes from doing ministry with YOU. Amen!” This post is coming out, very uncharacteristically, on a Tuesday. Family needs precluded us from posting on Monday. We try to NEVER miss a post or podcast on 200churches.com, because we want you as our readers and listeners to trust that you will consistently receive encouragement from 200churches. But we have missed a post just a few times in the past eighteen months. Because, well, you know – life happens, right? We have never missed a Wednesday podcast, and tomorrow will be no exception – we’re excited to bring you a conversation we are having with Dave Jacobs, and also our analysis of his content, and some specific words of encouragement to you as a small church pastor.
We never miss a podcast because we absolutely LOVE providing each episode for you – and with all our hearts we want to BUILD YOU UP as a pastor to your people, your sheep. We know that the episodes we produce contain guests and content that not only equip you, but also entertain and encourage you. So, we never want to miss a Wednesday – we are too excited to share this gift with you. By the way, when we finish an episode, produce it, and upload it to the pipeline, fresh and ready for delivery to you – we think of it as a special gift to you – our small church pastor friends – men and women all over the country and the world (well, at least twelve other countries!). We have labored over it, prayed over it, sometimes we’ve even argued over it – and it is our best work for that week to offer to you. We want to affirm you, cheerlead you, and inspire you for the work and service you give to your church family. In fact, there are more guests and more topics than we have time to get to – we don’t think we’ll ever run out of people to talk with or topics to cover. We have 15-20 guests in the bullpen right now, and we are anxious to get to each one of them. A couple of them have been “on hold” for longer than we are comfortable with – and if you are one of them, thank you! Please be patient with us while we keep our day jobs! So, here we are – small church pastors all! We’re living it with you, every single day. We ride the highs and lows of small church ministry. We remember to pray and forget to pray. We love our people and get frustrated with our people. We offend and seek forgiveness, and sometimes are offended and need to forgive. We run out of time, patience, energy, and often wisdom. We see a ball get dropped, in a painfully predictable way, look at each other, laugh so we don’t cry, and just say, “classic.” No one is in the video booth to provide lyrics for the last song after the message. That important announcement doesn’t get in the bulletin, and then – we forget to make the verbal announcement too! A member is in the hospital… “they were?!” Oops. Yup. Here we all are – small church pastors! We love it. We love God and people. We try, fail, try, succeed, and just keep trying. Don’t give up folks – be men and women who serve out of the fullness of Christ in you! Walk in the Spirit – live in the Love. Be. A. Small. Church. Pastor. Later, J&J Tonight I’m thinking about the podcast episode that comes out this week on Wednesday. It’s another good one! It will be titled “Lessons From Two Laymen – What Every Pastor Needs To Hear.” On episode #70 we talk with Mark Meyers, a 200church pastor from Warrenton, MO. Mark is joined by two of his guys, Steve and Tory. Mark has done a masterful job of leading his church according to a principle I have long believed in: The ministries of a church should reflect the gifting of the people. Mark’s guys talk about how he approached them as a pastor, looking for what made them tick, and what types of activities would make their eyes light up. It seems that he’s tailored his ministry around the gifting of the people in his church.
What Steve and Tory share is invaluable for a small church pastor to hear. Steve and Tory are part of Mark’s leadership team and integral to their sports outreach ministry. I found myself reviewing in my mind how I interact with the folks in our town and the people in our church. I was challenged by their perspectives. One of my mantras has been that phrase, the ministries of a church should reflect the gifting of the people – is that true in your church? Or do you find yourself trying to recruit people to prop up ministries that should have been discontinued long ago. Henry Cloud would call them “Necessary Endings.” And, he would smile as he said it! I was also thinking about something John Maxwell has long said, which he calls the Law of the Inner Circle: Those closest to you determine the level of your success. Well, I would adjust that a little for this conversation and say, Those in your church determine the ministries of your church. They not only determine the ministries of your church, but they determine the level of success of those ministries! I am also thinking about Rick Warren’s S.H.A.P.E. philosophy. He says that a helpful way for a person to figure out what ministry God has designed them for is to assess their S.H.A.P.E. – Spiritual gifts, Heart, Abilities, Personality, and Experiences. When we assess those five areas of our life, we get a good picture of both how God has designed us intrinsically, and how he has shaped us by our experiences in life. I’ve never considered this before, but I think you could assess the S.H.A.P.E. of an entire church. On a whole, what types of spiritual gifting does the church have? What do the people in your church really get passionate about? What are the skillsets of the people in your church? What kind of a personality does your church possess? Finally, what experiences has your church body gone through, as a group? Let me finish with this analogy Let’s say you bought a five-acre plot of land just covered with trees, thick trees. When I was a kid, we’d call them, “the woods”. We would say we were going to play in “the woods.” So you bought a chunk of land just covered with “woods.” Let’s say you wanted to know what was in those woods. Would you google “What is in the woods?” Would you do a search on environmental sites to try to determine what is generally in the woods? What you ask people in your town what they think is usually in “the woods” around them? No to all of the above, if you really want to know. Here’s what you would do – take a walk in the woods! Look! Figure it out for yourself! So, if you want to decide what kinds of ministries you should have in your church, would you google, “important church ministries”? Maybe you’d do a search for “ministries in a small church”? No, and no. Take a walk! Talk to the people in your church. Get to know them. Why, you could even order Rick’s Purpose Driven S.H.A.P.E. class materials and run people through them if you wanted to. These were just some random thoughts as I consider the wonderful talk Jonny and I had with Mark, Tory, and Steve. You’re going to enjoy episode #70. And you’ll be challenged and encouraged too. I promise. Have a great week leading, feeding, and LOVING your people!
Watch this video first - it's short, and it's John talking about two roads, from the book, The Cure. It will give you a glimpse into John's personality and caring nature - then you'll hear him on today's Episode 61 of the 200churches Podcast!
May we introduce to you, for the first of what we hope will be many appearances on the 200churches Podcast, John Lynch! John is from Phoenix, AZ where he is one of the pastors at Open Door Fellowship Church. John has been there for thirty years. John, along with his friends Bill Thrall and Bruce McNicol, have written the book, The Cure - What if God isn't who you think he is, and neither are you
TODAY'S PODCAST EPISODE
This book, The Cure, has made a significant impact on many people in our church, and we were able to hoodwink John into joining us live in the opulent and luxurious 200churches Podcast Studio to record this episode for you! John was speaking in the area, and we sent a car, and spirited him away in the dark of night to join us in the studio. One of our church members, Steve Mason, who read the book, and whose life was changed by it, drove out and picked John up. Steve has been a HUGE blessing to our church, as we have seen the transformation Jesus has made in his life, and as we have been blessed by his love for us. The truth is, Steve’s wife Pam has also been changed by the message of the Cure, that God’s grace is so much stronger than our efforts – and Pam made two mouth watering pies that we consumed upon completion of the recording. Consumed like wild, ravenous wolves! Steve, John Lynch, Jonny, and I basically had a party in the 200churches Studio, and recorded some of it for you! We had a blast! John is one of Steve’s heroes, and one of our heroes now too, and it was so enjoyable to just sit and have fellowship together that only happens because Jesus loves us and makes us brothers.
Today’s podcast is only the tip of the iceberg. We will have another episode, much longer, next month, where John expands on the message of The Cure. In the coming months we will have John back, as well as Bill Thrall, to encourage all of us as pastors of small churches in our personal walk with Jesus.
In today’s episode John introduces and explains the foundational message of the book – replete with his Scottish accent and Irish brogue, mixed wonderfully with the voice of a drunken pirate! You’ll just have to hear it. Below are two short videos by Bill Thrall and Bruce McNicol, as well as links to the TrueFaced website and The Cure book. We do get a kickback if you buy the book – and that would be the joy of knowing your heart will be changed and you just may never understand your relationship with God the same again – really! Next week – Small Church Pastor Coach Dave Jacobs! Our topic with Dave is one of the small church pastor’s toughest struggles – Fighting Fear. That’s next week on Episode 62.
Here is Bill Thrall sharing what we think is a phenomenal perspective on the Gospel and the Christian life. Bill will join us in the future on the podcast.
This week we are talking about a pastor’s church board. I’ll never forget how hard I laughed at a Saddleback conference when Rick Warren asked us if our church was “Deacon-possessed?!” Yeah, some of you were there and heard it too! All in good fun… On Wednesday Dave Jacobs joins Jonny and me to talk about what to do if you have a dysfunctional church board. However… before we think about the dysfunctionality of our church board – I have three thoughts for you about the men and/or women on your board:
Board members are people too. The men and women on your board are real people with real lives and real relationships. Sometimes we only see our board members in the board room. We might see them as questioning us (as well they should), poking holes in our ideas, not getting right on board with our programs and initiatives, and generally making our leadership tougher. What we don’t see are the people they left behind to attend the meeting, or the frustrations they experienced at work, at home, or with the in-laws or neighbors. We don’t see their fears and failures that haunt them more often than they care to admit. We don’t see their past experiences with pastors, who ran an end run around them, failed to consult them when they should have, or simply disappointed the heck out of them when they resigned and left – with the board member left behind thinking they actually had a relationship. Bob was increasingly irritable and obstinate in our board meetings for the previous few months. I was frustrated with him and wished he were not on the board. He had not been this way, and I assumed that my recent decisions must be angering him. I assumed, until I found out that he and his wife were divorcing. After 24 years of marriage, he just could not stand the thought of another 24 years, and he pulled the plug. He did not want to, but her incessant behavior forced his hand. Oh, that’s why he’s been this way… Board members overwhelmingly don’t set out to make a pastor’s day harder, meeting tougher, or life more miserable. They are real people who have stepped forward, or been appointed forward – to fill a role for God and his church. Board members are people too. Board members are often in over their head. Pastor, do you ever feel overwhelmed, unduly burdened, or stressed out? So do your board members. Ever feel frustrated and perplexed as to how to move the church forward with this board? The board may feel the same way “with this pastor.” (ouch) Do you ever feel like you just don’t know how to move the ball down the field at this church? Your board members may often be in the same place, and feel like they are in over their head. George was named chairman of the board he served on, and assumed the role without objection. His performance was lackluster at best, but he never let on how confused and lost he was. He made decisions he knew would trouble others, trying to find a reason to be asked off the board. Finally, he objected to a routine decision by the pastor and resigned, leaving the church. He could not find it in himself to be honest and admit weakness, and boardroom ignorance. It would have been okay. Really. It might not hurt to admit your fears and weaknesses Pastor, and ask if anyone in the room can identify with you. Once you knock down the first domino of admission and authenticity, others will fall. The sheer relief people feel when they’re able to admit weakness and struggle is liberating if not exhilarating. After most of you share honestly, you’ll find yourselves on a level playing field and hopefully realize you’re all on the same team. Sometimes board members feel like they are in over their heads. Board members are looking to you as not just a leader, but also a shepherd. Your board members want to know that someone is steering the ship, yes. They also want to know that someone cares for their soul. They should have confidence that if they share their honest assessment of an issue with you that you will still love them and shepherd them, and not nurse a grudge or hold them at arm’s length. If they had to choose between your leading them or your shepherding them, it would only take one life crisis to prove which one is most valuable. I had been in bed for forty minutes and asleep for twenty when the phone rang and caught me fuzzy headed. Someone asked in a panic if I would come right away. Less than five minutes later I knocked on their front door. Dave, a board member, opened the door and said, “Pastor, what is going on?! This is not supposed to happen. She’s only 51 years old.” She was his wife, and lay dead right there on the living room floor, her eyes open but vacant. I did not ask him at the time, but I’m very certain that what Dave needed right then was not a leader, but a shepherd. Those next weeks and months with Dave were a shepherd’s task, not a leader’s. We didn’t get called by God and go to seminary to be a leader, but a pastor – a shepherd. Several years later I got to be Dave’s best man as he remarried. He needed me more as a best man that day than the minister performing the wedding. So cool. Watch your heart and your attitude toward your board members. They’re people too, with real hurts and real feelings. They may be in over their heads and afraid to admit it, or they may not be willing to be honest, for fear they will forfeit their relationship with you, and they’ll be a sheep without a shepherd. As one of my board members often says – “We’re all dysfunctional, and everyone’s a study…” See you on Wednesday for Episode 58 – What To Do If You Have A Dysfunctional Board. It's going to be a good one!
Again, welcome to 2014 and the second year of the 200churches Podcast. Can we say it?? We've learned so much from sharing this podcast with you! We have grown in our appreciation and understanding of what it means to be pastors of a 200church.
We had no idea the people we would get to know - YOU! You all have enriched our lives and grown us as pastors, friends, and leaders. We hope to continue building you up as pastors and shepherds of small churches, pastors who are often forgotten and undervalued as you serve in smaller ministries loving and shepherding God's people. In today's Episode 52, we share with you three lessons we are learning as we enter the new year. These three lessons are basic, so basic that we often overlook or forget them. If you lean into these lessons with us, your leadership in your 200church will grow and your church's health will improve. We are going to give you the outline to this episode, and then provide you the links to the resources we reference at the bottom of this post. TODAY'S EPISODE OUTLINE: We are focusing on three lessons to lean into as we start 2014. They are - 1. Getting over our fear of failure. Most people are unwilling to experience the number of failures necessary for success. If we do not try, we will never fail, and for some of us, that's our strategy for success - to never fail. Unfortunately, if we never try, and never fail, we will also never succeed. Is your church small because it has simply reached its Kingdom potential, or, is your church small because you're afraid to fail. Just a thought... -Moses failed -Peter failed -from a human perspective, even Jesus' projects failed - Judas betrayed him, the disciples forsook him, and he was killed on a cross. Perhaps we need a different perspective on failure. Sometimes a failure can accomplish God's will - you think? 2. Prayer. We need God. Our dependence on God is revealed through our time of prayer and communion with Him. How are you doing spending time with your Father, your Savior, and your Comforter? 3. FOCUS on the people you have. This point is, as they say, worth the admission price! You just have to hear what we say about this... LINKS: Two great books about handling failure: Failing Forward by John C Maxwell **Phenomenal Kindle price of $2.99 at the time of this post!! Sometimes You Win, Sometimes You Lo... Learn! by John C. Maxwell Pictures of the books at the bottom of this post are also links to purchase them on Amazon - we are not affiliates and get no kick-back. They are simply GREAT books! Please give us your input: Please email either Jeff or Jonny and share with them a topic you think would be good for us to discuss. Also, feel free to share a person you think we should have on as a guest. Our goal is to provide guests and content that encourage and equip you as small church pastors. We have some exciting guests lined up in the coming months. Jeff and Jonny have a little friendly competition going as for who will receive the most emails. You can email either one of them with your suggestions, their email links are below: jeff@200churches.com jonny@200churches.com :) Happy Friday from Jeff and Jonny at 200churches! We have spent the week talking about the bigness of small church ministry, and we will end the week talking about it. Do you think that the smaller sites of a multi-site megachurch have inferiority complexes because they are smaller? Ever consider if the staff in the larger venues struggle with pride because their site has more people? Ever wonder if the leaders of the smaller worship venues in a church with multiple services ever stew because another venue with a different worship style or service time is attracting more people? Yeah, us neither. We’re too worried about how many people are in our small church, or how many are in the church across town. We may be wondering why our church is not growing as fast as Mark’s or Susan’s or Bill’s. Do we spend the same amount of time concerning ourselves with our walk with God? Or, the spiritual growth of our people? Or, the poor, orphan, or widow in our community? Wow, talk about a guilt trip! Let’s change direction before this plane hits a mountain…
Are you ever glad for the small church you pastor? In the part of our conversation this week with Karl Vaters that did not get recorded, we talked about the following dynamics in larger churches: Karl told us about his friend’s church of 3,000 people that had multiple sites, multiple venues, and multiple services. He said that in that church of 3,000 no group ever met for worship with more than about 350 people. Some of the services had 50 people in them! Listen, in a church of 3,000, some services have 50 people! Now, how do you feel about your church of 50? Pretty good, we hope. What if the ten churches in your community that total 3,000 people pretend you are just one big church in your town and that each of the buildings are just another “site”. Yeah, so there, what if?! Now how do you feel about your church of 100? Do you see how it’s all so relative – size of congregation? Finally, what do the big churches have to do – break themselves down into smaller groups so that they can do ministry effectively. Yes, it’s called, multi-site, multiple venues, multiple services, etc. In fact, so many churches have what we call “small groups” so that they can do life together. Something they can’t do on a Sunday morning in the bigger crowd, whether that’s 40 or 40,000. So you see, having a small church simply means you can do ministry with people and cut out the part about breaking everyone into smaller groups. Get to know the other pastors in your town, all of them, and just make pretend they are all on your staff and pastoring the other sites in your multi-site church! Enjoy your small church ministry. It’s the only kind of ministry Jesus ever did. Your leadership and shepherding matter HUGE in your 200church. Comment below on just one thing you like about pastoring a small church... This Friday video contains two points regarding moving people toward ministry... 1. Some people just need to be asked - MAKE THE ASK! 2. Some people are eager to get involved - GET THEM INVOLVED! Have a great weekend!
Today's podcast features the Founder of NewSmallChurch.com, Pastor Karl Vaters. Karl is the pastor of Cornerstone Christian Fellowship in Fountain Valley, California - a 200church! Karl lives and pastors in the shadow of the giants in Orange County, CA. He and his church prove that you don't have to be a megachurch to impact your community for the Kingdom of God!
Like us, Karl appreciates the megachurches and we are grateful for the awesome ministries they provide both locally, around the country, and globally. And, we also believe that smaller churches, what Karl calls a New Small Church, and we call a 200church, are also absolutely essential in God's Kingdom plan.
Karl is going to be a regular guest on the 200churches Podcast, bringing some West Coast small church perspective. Jeff is from New York and Jonny is from Iowa - so we bring different perspectives on life and ministry to the mix. We're excited to have Karl dropping in from time to time, knowing that he has great content to contribute to our lives and yours.
Karl is providing five signed copies of his book, The Grasshopper Myth - Big Churches, Small Churches, and the Small Thinking that Divides Us, for us to give away! If you would like to vie for a copy, simply go to www.200churches.com/grasshopper, and complete the three steps listed. We would love for you to click on the links to subscribe to the 200churches Podcast on iTunes, rate us on iTunes, and send out a tweet about Karl's book. That's it! We also want to recommend The Grasshopper Myth to you as well. This is no lightweight e-book, it's over 200 pages with a short discussion guide at the end. If you pastor in a 200church, this would be a great book for you. Here are some chapter titles:
You can buy a Kindle copy here, if you aren't interested in a paper copy. Next week's podcast is about why we need to explore creative communication methods in our 200churches. We talk about why creativity is essential, and we share some real life examples of some of the things we've worked on recently... and not so recently! We know you'll be challenged to think outside the box, but completely within your ability to innovate in every communication area in your church. Don't forget to go to www.200churches.com/grasshopper to enter to receive one of the five copies of Karl's book! God bless you this week and weekend as you serve Jesus. Remember your leadership and shepherding of the people in your 200church matters HUGE in the Kingdom of God!
In this episode we explore the whole issue of strengths and weaknesses, with just a smattering of humor, of course. We have a feeling that too many of us 200church pastors feel badly about our weaknesses, and spend too much time worrying about them.
Too many pastors are beaten down by mostly honest and innocent church members who constantly try to “help” their pastor by reminding him or her to get better in their weakest areas. In reality, our weak areas will always be weaker. We cannot be great at everything. And in some areas we will just never be that good. Honestly, you didn't really think you’d be good at everything, did you?
Focusing on our weaknesses and trying to make them stronger will only frustrate and discourage us, and others. We can simply acknowledge our weaknesses, allow for them, involve others in our lives who are strong in those areas, and move on! In fact, pastors can be just as hampered in their ministry by their strengths, maybe even more hampered! By viewing their strengths as “free money” pastors can hurt themselves by 1) reducing preparation time because they over-rely on their gift, or 2) becoming prideful in their good work, and 3) not including others in the ministry because they themselves do the job just fine. Below are eighteen reasons (aren't you glad this isn't a sermon?!) why you should view both your strengths AND your weaknesses as equally valuable, because they reflect who God made you to be as a pastor, shepherd, leader, and servant. First, your weaknesses:
Second, your strengths:
We hope you are encouraged and challenged by this podcast. Remember, your pastoral leadership is a huge deal in the Kingdom of God! |
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